Episode 3 A Picture of Health

With transplants, microsurgery and life-saving medicines,

it's too easy to take for granted the amazing things our doctors do for us.

We forget just how far we've come in our lifetime.

So I'm going to take us on a journey to remind us how things used to be.

I'm Larry Lamb. Welcome to A Picture Of Health.

Coming up - how two men found hope in the shadow of a life-threatening disease.

-It's a wonderful place, the way it was run and everything.

-I've got a lot to be thankful for.

The remarkable experiment that brought hope to thousands of childless couples.

We feel so privileged,

that we were part of this amazing piece of history.

And Larry's special guest in the Picture Of Health surgery

is newsreader Fiona Armstrong

who'll share some of her own personal stories.

-Waiting for it to touch a nerve and grasping the edge of the seat.

-Yeah, and no injections.

It was really horrible.

First today, every medical breakthrough needs pioneers

but they also need people willing to test out their theories.

This story's about a brave group of women who took part

in a secret experiment that would change the world.

In today's society, infertility is often seen as a treatable condition.

But rewind 40 years and it was a completely different story.

Infertile couples and women would have to come to terms with the fact they might never have children.

I think most women in this position feel very inadequate, and...

it comes as quite a blow

when you can't have children and you want them badly.

But one man was determined to change all that.

He was a scientist called Bob Edwards.

Dad was always passionate in every way possible.

He thought having children was the most important thing in life

and he knew there was a great section of society

that were unable to have children.

Bob linked up with a gynaecologist called Patrick Steptoe.

Together they came up with a treatment

called in vitro fertilisation, or IVF

and they hoped it would help thousands of couples and women

desperate to have children.

He knew what it could lead to.

He just had a vision and he was determined he was going to get there.

Grace MacDonald was one of the women needing their help.

I was told that I couldn't have children after we'd been trying

for maybe about a couple of years and so I was devastated.

Because I couldn't imagine my life just...you know, childless.

Today almost everyone's heard of IVF,

but in the 1970s the treatment was less well known.

It was a sheer fluke I read it in The Lancet at a friend's house.

It was just on the coffee table and I opened it up

and read this article.

When I related it to my situation, I realised that this is me,

it's exactly what I've just gone through

and I just thought, if there's any chance at all,

I hope I can have that chance, to have my own baby.

Grace was accepted onto this ground-breaking programme.

She was sent to a small cottage hospital

called Dr Kershaw's in Oldham

along with around 20 other women who were also taking part in the experiments.

These experiments had already sparked controversy.

People thought test-tube baby,

that meant the actual baby grew in a test tube

right until it was mature.

They were certainly working on something

that a lot of people did disagree with.

To protect Grace and the rest of the group from this media spotlight,

they were asked to keep the trials a secret.

I used to travel down and even my parents had no idea.

I think my mum thought I had some strange disease,

that I had to go down south to have treatment for

because I couldn't tell them.

In this unassuming building, a revolution was taking place.

Edwards and Steptoe believed

that if they could remove an egg from the womb,

fertilise it outside the womb and then replace it,

these women might fall pregnant.

I never thought of it as being strange or...

Just fantastic that someone had actually thought of doing this

and someone with the calibre of brain of Bob Edwards

because he'd worked on it for years.

Grace and the other women on the programme were guinea pigs,

but if this worked, it would give them everything they ever wanted.

I believed so much in both of them, like we all did,

all the girls who were on the programme.

We would've done anything for them because we just trusted them

and knew that they were trying their best for us.

After one failed attempt,

Grace finally got the news she was hoping for.

In the spring of '78, she was told she was pregnant.

I could've literally swung from the rafters. I was so elated.

I just couldn't believe it.

Grace went home to continue her pregnancy.

It would be an anxious wait to see if everything was OK.

Then, a few months later, there was some major news.

BABY SCREAMS

Baby Brown at 20 seconds.

Another woman on the programme had given birth to a baby girl,

called Louise Brown.

It's all right.

And the two pioneers were at the birth.

Huge excitement for the whole family

and disbelief that after all this time

it would finally come to Louise Brown.

I was so delighted when Louise was born because it gave me hope

that everything was going to be all right.

And it was all right.

Just a few months later, Grace gave birth to a healthy boy.

Oh, it was the most amazing feeling.

I felt I'd been given the moon. You know, everything I'd ever wanted.

At long last, you're here and you're mine. It was wonderful.

It was another triumph for the two pioneers.

I don't think there's ever a day I don't thank both of them

for what they gave me.

We've stayed very close to Bob Edwards and his family

and as Alastair puts it, he's his hero.

As the world's first IVF boy and girl

Alastair and Louise have become firm friends.

But they were just the start of the revolution.

ALL: Yeah!

Since those early experiments, Edwards and Steptoe went on

to set up the world's very first IVF clinic.

Now, over four million IVF babies have been born worldwide.

And all of them owe their life to those pioneering trials

back in the late '70s.

They all regard Dad as a father figure and I just think...

he's just an amazing person.

To have been in right at the very start,

I just still can't quite believe my luck.

So yes, I'm very, very lucky and very grateful

that I've been blessed with that opportunity and with my son.

And Grace MacDonald's here with us in the Picture Of Health surgery.

-Hello, Grace.

-Hello.

-What a wonderful film.

Were you all much of an age, all you girls?

Were you sort of similar ages?

Yes, I think most of us

had gone through obviously a few years of being childless

so yes, I would say we were all roughly about the same age.

Must've been extraordinary, and all from different parts of the country?

-Yes.

-Did it all just sort of become like a club?

Yes, we used to call ourselves the Ovum Club!

BOTH LAUGH

Did you actually get involved

in any of the stories at all yourself, Fiona?

I was a raw reporter then

so no, this was a big national news story and I was working on

a local radio station covering flower shows, things like that.

It was way out of my league, but it was a sensational story.

It went right around the world.

News bulletins, headlines in every newspaper.

It was on a par, really, I think, with man landing on the moon.

-It was huge.

-Absolutely, and it's interesting, the bit in the film that talks about people

thinking about it being a baby raised in a test tube. I still remember feeling like that.

-How will they get that baby in?

-That was the headline.

That's what it seemed like to me. So it's a very valid point,

people were, sort of mystified by it, weren't they?

What would you have done with your life had you not had a baby?

It would've been totally different and not nearly so fulfilling

-if I didn't have Alastair in my life.

-Ha-ha, fantastic!

What an extraordinary story, thank you.

You're very welcome.

In a few short years, some diseases and illnesses

that were a potentially deadly fact of life

have almost been entirely wiped out in Britain.

TB is one such illness.

A big ceremony in St George's Square opens Glasgow's

five-week campaign against tuberculosis.

In the 1940s, the whole of Britain began a campaign.

It was campaign to find people who had the deadly disease, TB.

Any of these people, without knowing it, may be harbouring this germ,

any one or all.

And two people found to be carrying the disease

were Charlie Townsend and Keith Easter.

'My father died in 1934 with tuberculosis.

'I was four years old.'

And mum died of tuberculosis in 1948.

I was in the army when I developed TB but it was a terrible disease.

In the poor conditions that still existed in our towns and cities,

tuberculosis was rife.

It was a highly contagious disease with deadly consequences.

About 80% of people who contracted TB affecting their lungs

would be dead within, say, five years of their first symptom.

People with TB were socially isolated

because you wouldn't want necessarily

to have somebody with a disease, which might kill you,

next-door or the train or whatever.

TB was a vicious illness that eroded the lungs

but it could be detected by the emerging technology of X-ray.

The subject stands with head up tilted on a chin rest,

chest flat against a polished square plate, takes a deep breath

and holds it for two seconds.

After such an X-ray confirmed they were carrying TB,

Charlie and Keith were whisked away from their homes.

They would have to begin a new life in an isolation hospital

called a sanatorium.

Here they would begin years of treatment

with no guarantee that it would ever work.

-Cos this was the Princess Hospital, wasn't it, Charlie?

-Yes, over there.

Cos the men's hospital further down was exactly the same shape.

Peaceful now, but in the 1940s,

it was a place where people were dying on daily basis.

'I suppose I saw hundreds die, really.'

I had one boy sit on my bed one night. He said, I'll see you in the morning, Charlie.

I said, all right, mate, I'm going to bed now, he said.

He'd gone in the night, died.

They call it spontaneous collapse,

both his lungs collapsed together and he'd gone.

It was a terrible disease, really.

At that time there was no real cure for TB.

Faced with a disease that was still killing thousands every year,

doctors were trialling many different treatments.

One theory was that something as simple as fresh air might just help.

Fresh air was good because it was the opposite of what was then

the big industrial cities of the 19th century

where the slums were being built up,

the standard of living was really poor for many people.

So the fresh air was the opposite of that, thought to be healthy.

-You had treatment, but basically you need plenty of fresh air.

-Fresh air, that was the main thing.

-And sunshine.

-Yeah.

I used to just lay there on the veranda

and them nurses would come around, see if I was all right.

It was a dull existence, and nurses had to work hard to keep spirits up.

The nurses were nurses in them days. Now they're half-doctors, things like that, ain't got time.

In them days, they looked after you and nursed you.

But it wasn't just about fresh air and rest.

Both men had to face months of painful treatment.

For Keith, doctors needed to try and save his lungs

which were slowly being destroyed.

The diseased part is shown black. For this part to get better,

the lung must be rested by a method called pneumothorax or "lung rest".

They used to collapse your lung, you'd have this needle stuck between your ribs

and they'd force air in to push your lung down

and you have to have that refilled every week

for about two years, I had mine.

A TB infection in the lungs is very destructive.

What happens is that bits of the lung die

and this leaves holes or cavities or abscesses in the lungs.

It was realised that if the walls of these cavities could be got together

so that there was no air or oxygen for the TB bacteria to rely on,

that their growth rate slowed down or they may even die off completely

and this really was the first big breakthrough.

Joan is being given her lung rest under local anaesthetic.

Now her sick lung will have a chance to heal.

In the 1940s and '50s, thousands were dying from TB every year.

Keith and Charlie were lucky. They were found in time

and were eventually strong enough to leave the ward.

But they were still nowhere near well enough

to leave the confines of the sanatorium.

So they were moved into a purpose-built shed

called a TB Hut.

'There are about 100 of these shelters in the sanatorium section so he won't be lonely.'

They were tiny and primitive, but still a welcome change for Keith

who'd spent nine months on a hospital ward.

Your bed would be there.

Here was just a little table where you'd stand your cup of tea in the morning or whatever, you know.

And here was sort of a three-cornered wardrobe

and chest of drawers here. And that was it.

It opened up all the way round. All you left was four posts

which in the sun was absolutely gorgeous.

Pretty cold in the winter, but you got used to it.

I can never remember being cold.

I had fun in here, it was really good. I enjoyed it.

When you've got better in the hospital,

you'll begin to do a bit of work again.

There's a fine cabinet shop there, an upholstery section

and a rather interesting sign-writing department.

JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS

As their health improved,

Keith and Charlie were encouraged to get out and about.

And it wasn't long before the young men began to get up to

a little bit mischief.

-Girls used to invite us up to their house!

-It was good fun, really.

I had a girlfriend in there. The old lady come in one day, I was sitting on her bed.

She said, "Get off that bed!" She was very strict!

We were all young and we enjoyed life, really.

-Happy days.

-Yeah.

Keith and Charlie were both cured of their TB

thanks to the introduction of the antibiotic, streptomycin.

-VOICEOVER:

-'These are the final stages of preparation

'of the wonder drug, science's latest weapon against some forms of tuberculosis.'

But they had spent years living in an institution.

When it came time for them to leave, they found it impossible to say goodbye.

-It WAS a family.

-That's why people say to me, "When war was over, why didn't you go home?"

A lot of them went home then, you see.

I said, "I've got a good job at the printers that I love and I've got lovely mates."

We'd go out and have a few beers, you know.

It just felt I'm here and I knew everything was fine here,

you could get married, and get a house.

So I stayed here as well and I'm glad I did.

Keith and Charlie have now made their own families in the local village.

But they will never forget the devastating disease of TB

and how living in a sanatorium has changed them for ever.

I think it saved a lot of people's lives, I know that.

It's a wonderful place, the way it was run and everything.

-Got a lot to be thankful for.

-Yeah, we have - we're still here.

Keith is here with Fiona and I, in the Picture Of Health surgery.

The thing for me is that wonderful sense of camaraderie

that built up between you.

I can't believe it, it was wonderful, it really was.

We had good times, you know, it was marvellous.

How long were you and Charlie actually together?

Charlie is older than me - he's 90, and I'm 80-odd.

We've known each other for years. There's not many of us left.

We're like The Last of the Mohicans, not many of us here now!

Do you have any idea how you actually contracted TB?

You look at those pictures and it's people living in tenements,

and you're a country boy, I would've thought, are you not?

Yes, but the house I was born in, that was a yard.

There was no electricity, no water, no toilets.

But Dad died with it and when I was five, I had my first X-ray.

That frightened the life out of me because I lay on this floor

with this great thing coming down from the ceiling...

-On the floor?

-Yeah, with a steel sheet.

I don't know how I got the X-ray, someone must have paid for it.

And then I never heard any more until I was 19.

I got a letter to say... I can't remember what it actually said

because when I got to Papworth, I went to see this chap in charge,

the nurse in charge, and he said, "Who's your next of kin?"

I thought, "Am I going to die?!" Then straight to bed for nine months, well, up and down.

-Did it touch any of your family at all, Fiona?

-Happily not. I was born in the '50s

so this cure began to come about roundabout that stage.

But I do remember my grandmother talking about people who'd had TB

and I do remember her mentioning certain people had died.

What a frightening thing it must have been in those days,

because you knew if you'd got it, there was probably only one way out.

-You were incredibly lucky, Keith.

-Yeah, I was.

I was caught early. As I said, I didn't even know I had TB.

-There was very definitely a stigma attached to having TB.

-There was.

Which is sad, really, because you can't help getting it.

A lot of people were poor, we were pretty poor,

you didn't get the right food, which doesn't help, does it?

I can't say I'm sorry about what happened, I've had a good life,

met Charlie and many buddies.

-I was his friend for life.

-Thank you for sharing that with us. It was lovely, thank you.

Thank you very much.

AIDS has been around now for almost 30 years,

but thanks to remarkable advances,

it's now understood, and in many cases, treatable.

But in the 1980s, that was far from being the case.

In the early 1980s, Britain was in fear of a new killer disease.

This is the worst infectious disease epidemic to confront Europe,

the Western world.

Cases had been recorded in the largely gay communities of America.

And now Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS,

had come to the UK, too.

Doctors from all over Britain have met to discuss AIDS.

Rumours spread like wildfire.

AIDS can be caught by kissing someone.

The hysteria reached fever pitch.

It's very much regarded as a fatal illness for the gay community.

But by blaming the gay community and ignoring the real risks,

people were putting themselves in more danger.

AIDS now became the dreaded thing you hardly mentioned.

Amidst all this rumour and ignorance were those faced with the reality.

People like Jonathan Grimshaw.

It was February 1984 and, um...

I think I was one of the first people in the country to be diagnosed.

When Jonathan was diagnosed as being HIV-positive, it was a time

when no-one fully understood this virus.

'It seems to knock out the body's natural defences. Research is aimed at finding out what causes AIDS,

'but at present no-one knows.'

And even those closest to him found it hard to come to terms with.

I was really having a bad time,

I wasn't reacting well at all to the news. I was very upset

and I wanted to get away from things and spend a few days with my family.

So I called them and they said...

I had a younger brother at the time who must've been in his teens,

and they said, "We are worried that could he catch something from you?"

They didn't want me to come home because they were so anxious

about the possibility of my little brother being able

to pick something up from me. So I was very upset.

HIV is a virus that can cause AIDS.

As cases rose, many newspapers began to use the gay community as a scapegoat.

When AIDS first came to light, I remember reading things like,

"the gay plague".

It was the biggest scaremongering I have ever seen.

"Towns of Terror." This is from The Sun in November '86.

This is exactly the kind of coverage

that got people really anxious and frightened

of the gay community, by making it seem as though

the gay community is in some way to blame for HIV.

When AIDS first came in,

people didn't know anything about it,

the scientists knew very little about it.

And people were frightened.

The press certainly went for sensationalism and got it.

'The AIDS problem has given the popular press the best scare story for decades.

'Small matter that only 500 people have the disease here,

'nor that relatively simple safeguards can curb its spread.

'Doctors who specialise in AIDS have an unequivocal view of the press coverage.'

Shameful, frankly.

It has stigmatised and alienated people who suffer from a very unpleasant disease.

The issue of misleading, misinforming the public

about the roots of spread and not informing about the real roots.

People were starting to believe what they read

and sometimes this was leading to hate.

Because it was tied to homosexuality and called the gay plague,

gays were really mistreated.

I was nervous. I remember, um...

If I go on the Tube, I would not stand near the edge of the platform

because I knew that there were people who were...

Er... They were nutcases!

Hello and good afternoon.

The disease is spreading, as yet there's no cure,

and the problem for the politicians is getting worse.

By the mid-1980s,

there was a real worry that things could get out of control.

Whatever we do now, it is likely that as many as 4,000 people

will have died of AIDS in the United Kingdom by the end of this decade.

Many people thought you had to be gay to catch HIV

and were ignoring the facts.

It is as easily caught through heterosexual contact

as homosexual contact, if your contact happens to be an infected person.

Everybody in Britain needed to be warned about the real dangers

and told how to take precautions.

A government committee was set up.

Jonathan was asked to advise.

The government needed to use language that the public would understand,

and so it needed to be quite explicit

about talking about sexual practices

that could expose people to the virus

because the experience from within the gay community up to that point

was that you needed to call a spade a spade

if people were really going to understand what you were talking about.

Good evening. The government is going to spend £20 million

over the next couple of months, warning the country about the danger of AIDS.

This was a campaign designed to finally put the record straight.

Newspapers will carry the message in stark terms,

pointing out, among other things, that you don't have to be promiscuous to catch AIDS.

And it was designed to really grab the whole country's attention.

There's now a danger that has become a threat to us all.

It needed a mighty powerful message to say, look,

this could happen to anybody if you don't take precautions,

and that message came out in this very hard-hitting commercial.

It was brilliant.

The virus can be passed during sexual intercourse with an infected person.

Anyone can get it, man or woman.

So far, it's been confined to small groups, but it's spreading.

And there was that huge thing breaking through the crust of the Earth. "AIDS!"

And you knew that could kill you.

So protect yourself, and read this leaflet when it arrives.

If you ignore AIDS, it could be the death of you,

so don't die of ignorance.

The commercial and leaflet aimed to shatter the myths surrounding HIV and AIDS,

but also educate Britain about taking proper precautions.

For Jonathan, it worked.

Nothing like it had happened before

so I think none of us quite knew what the reaction was going to be,

but in fact it was OK,

and conveyed accurately how the disease was passed on

so hopefully it would be diminishing the kind of vacuum of ignorance

in which the sort of stigma against people which HIV rose.

But that wasn't the end of the crusade.

More awareness campaigns followed.

AIDS week was launched in Bristol today.

Campaigners are desperate to convince the public that AIDS is an issue for everyone.

Today, HIV is still a threat and will claim more lives,

but Britain is now much more aware of the real risks,

and now, as a result, we're all better protected.

People are still contracting HIV, sadly in far too many numbers,

but nowhere near the numbers they would have contracted it.

It would have spread through our community, our country,

and the world as an absolute pandemic

if not for campaigns like the one in this country in the '80s.

It really was something, wasn't it?

I'm sitting here squirming a bit actually

because I'm looking at all those reports in the newspapers, being a journalist,

and even the television, the way they sensationalised everything.

Gay plague and, er... Yes, I'm rather uncomfortable with that.

Yes, and all that chat and all that explicit stuff

that was being discussed on the television openly, you know?

This was very odd because people think of the swinging '60s

and then the '70s, we all got a bit raunchier, etc,

but even in the '80s, I still remember it mentioning homosexuality, really discussing it,

it was still something you didn't put on national television, really.

No. It really did change things, didn't it?

But gradually, I suppose the other side of all this public information

was it put you wise to the fact that really this was something... You wouldn't just pick it up, you know,

it was something that you got if you did things in a certain way, you know?

Certainly, for my generation, I was in my sort of mid to late 20s when this started coming about,

and I remember seeing some of those adverts and being taken short,

and thinking, "We have to start thinking here about casual relationships

"and casual sex and things like that."

-It really did hit home, it really put the message across.

-Yes.

In today's celebrity-obsessed world,

having a winning smile is a great way of getting on in life,

but, not too long ago, taking care of your teeth wasn't a priority at all.

If you're afraid of the dentist, spare a thought for your ancestors.

Before the NHS, having your teeth seen to was an expensive business.

Availability of dentists to the general public was very limited

because everything had to be paid for

and it didn't come terribly highly in the priorities for a lot of people.

So some people sought help closer to home.

My father, if he had a toothache, he pulled his own tooth out.

Put a piece of string round it,

and I've known him to tie it onto the door handle and then close the door!

With few people able to afford regular trips to the dentist,

false teeth were often seen as the answer.

Very often, when a young woman got married,

she had all her teeth removed.

They thought, well, once she'd got rid of them,

there wouldn't be any problem with bad teeth or anything else,

and she'd have a full denture as a wedding present.

It was almost accepted that, by the time you were in your... certainly 50s, 60s,

that you wouldn't have any teeth left,

and you'd have your plastic teeth in the jar beside the bed at night.

I know my father, when he came back after the war, he had his teeth out,

and he used to arrive home from work

and he'd put them in a mug.

I'd say, "What do you do that for, Dad?"

He said, "They've been working all day, they need a rest!"

But, in 1948 came a free service

that would change the way we cared for our teeth.

This leaflet is coming through your letterbox one day soon.

It tells you what the new National Health Service is

and how you can use what it offers.

It was time for the dentists to get to work.

When the NHS first came in, the dentists became exceedingly busy.

A dentist was paid per tooth

and obviously, the more teeth you removed, the more money you earned.

So, very often, healthy teeth would be removed

because they would be remunerated for it.

And with teeth coming out, replacements needed to be made.

Our shelves were full.

There was one set of dentures sitting next to another one,

waiting to be completed.

There were some very, very grateful patients.

In its first nine months,

the NHS supplied 33 million artificial teeth.

The huge demand took the government by surprise and was costing a fortune.

In the 1950s, a new direction was needed.

The philosophy of the NHS,

which was really a repair service rather than a health service,

changed and it became... Prevention became the flavour of the month.

Here at the dental unit of a London hospital,

they try to make a treat out of treatment.

The government campaigned to get people to care for their teeth,

and decided the best way forward was to catch them young.

Dentists hope they won't grow up like their parents,

whose dental bill to the state is about £20 million a year.

The most stress is laid on prevention by dental attention rather than cure.

Some councils went to extraordinary lengths to get the message through.

Hot on the trail of toothache in Kent is a new kind of dental service

for children in out-of-the-way country districts.

The dental clinics on wheels

are bringing modern and expert service to the children of the country.

Despite a big push,

in the '60s, tooth decay was still a major problem.

And it was our children who were suffering the most.

The mouths of two youngsters,

one aged two and a half, the other aged 15.

Their teeth were rotten and needed lots of attention.

And soon the dentist chair...

became a place of nightmares.

One of the abiding memories of my childhood

is waiting at the dentist, you're waiting outside,

and you take a book or a comic and you're promised a lolly afterwards,

and suddenly you hear, "Zrrrrrrr!"

and the muffled cries of the child who's having his tooth filled inside.

Children were terrified,

and enticing them into the chair was no mean feat.

When you had the teeth pulled out, the crunch...

Cos they pulled it out. For a child, that's really horrible.

Thankfully though, our dentists had a few tricks up their sleeves.

Oh, I loved stickers.

And children would say, "Oh, where's the sticker?"

They could be used as bribes as well.

"If you don't sit for two minutes you won't get a sticker."

PAINED ROAR

And with more and more people having access to a television,

the government had a new way to capture our children's imagination.

His mum should've taught him to clean his teeth every day.

They could've been as clean as mine. Look!

CHATTERS TEETH

'Have a crocodile smile.'

Throughout the '70s and '80s,

the drive to improve Britain's smile gathered momentum.

'Remember, whatever you eat, don't leave it on your teeth.'

Our children were taught how to brush properly

and the best food to eat for perfect teeth.

'The dangers of sweets and hidden sugar in foods like sauces and fruit yogurts is emphasised.

'Self help can reduce the need for dentists to intervene and repair rotten teeth.'

MOTHER: Lovely and clean.

Over the years our teeth did begin to improve.

By the 1990s, over half of under fives had no tooth decay at all.

So it seems the message about brushing well finally got through.

I used to say to patients, "You have your teeth 365 days a year.

"I see you for maybe 20 minutes a year.

"You have much more influence on what happens to your teeth than me."

And with less need for the dreaded drill,

the dentist's chair is a much more pleasant place to be.

How it's all changed, Fiona.

For the better, for the better.

I can remember, as a child, you would dread going to the dentist.

For days before, you'd be in a state of panic cos you knew

this man or woman was going to hurt you.

-They were all men, never women.

-They were generally all men.

When you came out, your jaw would be aching like this

and it would hurt for days after.

The dentist was not my favourite place. And those needles!

Maybe as a child it just seemed thicker and fatter,

but it just seemed that these people were sadists that wanted to inflict pain on you.

With all the equipment, it was a frightening environment, wasn't it?

What about when they were raking around in there to find...

I had a lot of cavities as a kid,

so I made regular trips to the dentist for fillings

with that dreadful old grinder drill they had.

Every vibration went rattling through your body

and it seemed to go on and on for ever.

And you're just waiting for it to touch a nerve

and grasping the edge of the seat like this.

No injections. No injections for drilling.

As the years went on, as our film showed,

it became more on the prevention rather than just treating it.

A thoroughly good thing.

The children now want to have good teeth.

-Absolutely.

-And that lovely smile.

Didn't come into it when I was a kid at all.

-I don't mind going to the dentist now.

-No.

-In fact, I rather like the dentist. I thought I'd never say that.

-Oh?

-Yeah, I like my dentist.

-I like mine.

Thanks, Fiona. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Great. Thank you.

To find out more about how healthcare has changed from an Open University expert,

go to bbc.co.uk/pictureofhealth and follow the links.

Coming up next time...

how two war veterans were helped back on their feet.

That leg has been with me for 67 years.

Amazing stories of how medical training used to be.

Put this firework under the stove...

Nearly blew him on his back for real!

And the ads that taught us how to cross the road.

When you get to the curb, always stop, stop, stop.

And that's all from me today. Goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media