Abstract
On 31 January 1968, Christiaan Barnard arrived in Britain to participate in a BBC 1 Tomorrow’s World special, ‘Barnard Faces His Critics’ — an unprecedented medical-media event of numerous identifiable doctors appearing alongside patients in a television studio debate. Here I analyse the production, content and reception of this programme, explaining why it was described by a journalist the following day as ‘in many ways… the most extraordinary programme ever shown on television’.1 I use the Tomorrow’s World special to explore the shaping of the heart-transplant controversy, but also argue that the programme was a key contributor to the changing mechanisms, forums and content of medical debate.
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© 2009 Ayesha Nathoo
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Nathoo, A. (2009). ‘The Most Extraordinary Programme Ever Shown on Television’: A New Medium for Debating Medicine. In: Hearts Exposed. Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234703_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230234703_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-54135-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-23470-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)