Australian
Screen

Clip description

Joan Walker (Judi Farr) asks Dr Steve Harrison (Michael O’Neill) if it is OK for her granddaughter Zoe Walker (Liberty Lee) to go back to school when she has tested positive for HIV. Do they need to inform the school? Meanwhile, Dr William Sharp (Michael Craig) reads to Zoe, who is unaware of her diagnosis and oblivious to the drama unfolding around her. Later, the doctors discuss the ethics of the situation with the other staff – Dr Robert Sharp (John McTernan), Dr Steve Harrison and Julie Winters (Denise Roberts).

Curator’s notes

This clip showcases a moving guest performance from Judi Farr as the grandmother. She gives a human face to the moral quandary that the surgery’s staff debate later in the clip. Her tear-stricken but firm cry for help puts us right into her shoes. O’Neill is fine as the normally confident Steve; the scene cutting before his reply briskly conveys his inability to give a satisfactory answer. Liberty Lee is suitably angelic as the placid Zoe, unaware of her diagnosis and offering a strong contrast to the bratty teenager in clip one.

It’s not surprising that Christine McCourt’s script helped win the episode a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Award. The brief exchange at the start – ‘Do I have to tell them?’, ‘Should I?’ – succinctly encapsulates the episode’s central dilemma. When this episode screened in 1989, medical awareness of AIDS was in its first decade and HIV had only had a name for three years. This episode, in which the doctors seem almost as confused as their patients over how to handle the virus and the ethics around it, represents this moment in time. G.P. often uses its characters to take on different points of view around a social issue; this kitchen table discussion is an example.

The kitchen scene also demonstrates the old-school studio-based look of the series at this time in its history, visible in static camera set-ups and uniform lighting. It’s the forthright exchange of views, rooted in the temperaments of characters we have come to know and love, which makes the scene riveting.