TV Reviews : ‘Doctor Finlay’ Transports Viewers to Postwar Scotland

“Masterpiece Theatre’s” six-part “Doctor Finlay” transports viewers to a small town in Scotland immediately after World War II, where two young doctors minister to the medical and emotional problems of the surrounding countryside.

Shot in Scotland and produced by Scottish TV, the production is the antithesis of most TV dramas. What propels the stories are ordinary events such as smallpox vaccinations, minor conflicts like broken engagements and the infectious, scenic atmosphere--the narrow streets and little shops, the spires in the town square, the gorgeous, wet countryside.

Also enlisting attention is Ian Bannen in the delectable role of a retired physician who teaches English poetry to a bunch of German POWs forced to sweep the streets and work the farms until repatriation back to Germany. It’s 1946, the great war is over and life in the village of Tannochbrae will never be the same.

Dr. Finlay (David Rintoul), fresh from the Royal Army Medical Corps, returns to his village practice trumpeting radical ideas about a new National Health Service, which outrages his fellow physicians. His young, likably arrogant medical partner (Jason Flemyng), their mother hen of a housekeeper (the endearing Annette Crosbie) and the ever-beaming Bannen, delightfully puttering about in retirement, are all based on characters created by Scottish author A.J. Cronin (“The Citadel”).

Utilizing a different writer for each episode and dividing the six shows between two directors (Patrick Lau and Aisling Walsh), the production is deceptively unified, gathering steam as it moves along. From the comparatively uninvolving return from the front of Dr. Finlay in Part 1, plots on ensuing Sundays (through June 13) accelerate in complexity and even feature one dark melodrama (subtitled “The Bitter Pill” on May 30).

What is essentially a weekly anthology loaded with subplots includes tales of a deranged wife and her suicidal trainmaster/husband, an AWOL soldier hiding out on his parents’ farm and a love-smitten GI (Sam Douglas) dumped by a Scottish nurse (Brenda Maitland)--the same nurse who in the first episode jilts the good doctor Finlay, breaking the news on a lyrical hillside.

The episodes air Sundays at 8 p.m. on KVCR Channel 24 and 9 p.m. on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15, and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on KOCE Channel 50.