The Fragile Heart

The Fragile Heart is a BAFTA award-winning British medical drama television series created by Paula Milne and first aired on Channel 4 from 6 to 20 November 1996. The series nominated the Royal Television Society award for Best Drama Serial.

Story
Edgar Pascoe (Nigel Hawthorne) is a highly successful and charismatic cardiac surgeon. Pre-eminent in his field, he is the embodiment of the upper echelons of medicine: urbane, assured, supremely confident in his own abilities. But he is not infallible - either in the operating theatre or in his private life with his divided family.

Edgar's wife Lileth (Dearbhla Molloy), a dedicated and compassionate country GP, is increasingly drawn to the holistic arts of healing still practiced in the East, but scorned by purveyors of Western technology. As their professional ideals and methods clash, so inevitably does their relationship. Nicola (Helen McCrory) is Edgar's favoured child, ruthless and unscrupulous in her ambition to emulate her illustrious father.

But it is in China, heading a medical delegation, that Edgar is confronted by an ethical dilemma over the abuse of human rights and is forced into a painful moral awakening which will prove to affect every area of his life.

Award

 * BAFTA Awards 1997
 * Won Best Actor: Nigel Hawthorne
 * Nominated Best Drama Serial: Brian Eastman, Patrick Lau, Paula Milne
 * Best Editing (Fiction/Entertainment): Neil Thomson
 * Banff Television Festival 1997
 * Won Best Mini-Series : Paula Milne, Carnival Film & Television
 * Royal Television Society, UK 1997
 * Nominated Best Drama Serial
 * Nominated Best Actor - Female : Dearbhla Molloy
 * London Film Critics' Circle
 * Nominated Actress of the Year : Helen McCrory

Home Media
The Fragile Heart was released on DVD on 8 October 2018.