The NHS: A People's History (2018)

A crowdsourced social history of the NHS, told through people's treasured mementoes, whether they be the unsung medical heroes of the staff or the experiences of the patients.

Chapter 1: 1948-1973
Alex Brooker presents this three-part documentary in which patients and staff dig out treasured mementos to tell personal stories about the National Health Service. They include the newly qualified medic who was thrown into surgery on the NHS's first day, the doctor who invented a device that revolutionised hip replacement surgery and a booklet of medical fees proving a stark reminder of life before the NHS.

Chapter 2: 1973-1997
Alex Brooker continues to chart the history of the NHS via the treasured mementoes and personal stories of patients and staff, focusing on the period between 1973 and 1997. Among the artefacts are the personal letters of Dr Elphis Christopher, a family planning specialist who received death threats when she dared advocate sex education in school, and the NHS wigs given to Grand National-winning jockey Bob Champion when he underwent a then-revolutionary form of chemotherapy for testicular cancer.

Chapter 3: 1997-2018
Patients and staff tell their stories from 1997 to the present day, a period in which the NHS has grown unwieldy and almost impossibly expensive to manage. A host of unique, highly personal artefacts, are unearthed, including the homemade badges dedicated to the first surgeons to carry out gender reassignment surgery after it became available on the NHS and a nurse's uniform cherished since it was used in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.