Monroe is a brilliant and unusual neurosurgeon. A flawed genius who never lets anyone forget his flaws or his genius. Each episode will feature one compelling story of the week about life or death situations. The drama will focus on the way in which a serious injury or disease cuts across the lives of everyone involved, from hospital staff to patients to relatives. And how that group become, in an intense few days, a reluctant dysfunctional family united by hopes, fears and grief. At the centre of this stands Monroe, his trainees, his anaesthetist and his poker school - and his female colleague, heart surgeon, Jenny Bremner, who has contempt for his cockiness. The series will tell heightened emotional stories and be shot through with dark humour and portray the pressures and pleasures of high-end surgery in a modern urban hospital.
CreatorPeter Bowker
Episode 1
Mar 10, 2011
At work, Monroe has the courage to perform cutting-edge brain surgery but at home, he is afraid to admit that his life is falling apart. When Alison Bannister is admitted with a brain tumour, Monroe has to help her make a frightening decision. To go ahead with an operation could leave Alison paralysed or unable to speak, yet without surgery, she is likely to die within a few years. Does she want to survive if surgery might change who she is? And can Monroe get her through this crisis as his own life starts to spiral out of control?
Episode 2
Mar 17, 2011
As Monroe struggles to accept the fact that his wife Anna has left him, he throws himself into work and tries to pretend that his life is not in freefall. Can he find the courage to tell his son the truth about why his marriage ended? At the hospital, Monroe and cardiac surgeon Jenny Bremner have to deal with a double shooting after a 14-year-old boy accidentally shoots his 12-year-old brother before attempting to kill himself.
Episode 3
Mar 24, 2011
A former soldier is admitted to the hospital with a blood clot in his brain and Monroe controversially decides against surgery. Bremner is tempted to break her own rule about remaining detached from her patients, and Springer tries to cover up the fact that he has `mislaid' a patient.
Episode 4
Mar 31, 2011
Monroe finds that 'civilised divorce' is much harder than he had imagined and his attempts to enter the world of dating seem doomed to failure. At the hospital, Monroe tries to persuade an epileptic man to have an operation that could stop his religious hallucinations, and Bremner is furious to find that she is the subject of gossip about her relationship with Shepherd.
Episode 5
Apr 7, 2011
Monroe has to confront the prospect of operating on a colleague when registrar Sally Fortune collapses. Bremner reaches a decision about her relationship with Shepherd, and Monroe helps his estranged wife Anna build a new life.
Episode 6
Apr 14, 2011
When a 13-year-old girl is admitted to hospital after a road accident, Monroe believes there is little chance of saving her and an operation could leave her severely damaged. However, her father begs him to operate and give her a chance to live - whatever the consequences. The trainees face their final assessments and Shepherd considers leaving following his break-up with Bremner.
