Bethlehem Hospital is the legendary institution which gave rise to the word “bedlam” – its name has been reapplied, without obvious irony, to a fictional geriatric hospital in Yorkshire for this gentle, shrewd ensemble comedy, adapted by screenwriter Heidi Thomas from the much-admired 2018 stage play by Alan Bennett with a new Covid-aware coda bolted on to the end. Richard Eyre directs with a sure hand.
The “Beth” is a small community facility which has attracted donations from celebrities after whom various parts of the building are named: the film is mostly set in the Shirley Bassey ward. But it is facing closure from hardfaced Whitehall bean-counters who want giant cost-efficient hospitals or glitzy “centres of excellence” with measurable success rates. Humble, unglamorous geriatric care is however about vulnerable patients who are heading just one way, and their treatment crucially involves kindness and compassion which have nothing to do with the bottom line.
Russell Tovey plays Colin, a Department of Health consultant with precisely these prejudices who has to come and visit his ailing ex-miner dad Joe (David Bradley) at the Beth, a cantankerous old guy who has never been able to accept his son’s identity as a gay man. There are no prizes for guessing if Colin’s attitude to both the hospital and his dad is going to thaw – and indeed his initial, shrill attachment to the government line is rather broadly written.
