Cinema: Sick Comedy

Doctor in Distress is a movie title containing a germ of self-diagnosis. Britain's popular Doctor series, begun nearly ten years ago, has, with this fifth reprise, taken a decided turn for the worse. All the hospital hanky-panky is still there. All the droll British bit players. All the anatomical jokes, delivered by Dr. Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) and Sir Lancelot Spratt (James Robertson Justice), whose medicareers have provided them with a decade of job security. But the humor has grown progressively more frail, foolish and familiar. Nobody really cares when the adipose Sir Lancelot goes on a diet to win the love of his physiotherapist, and deep within the tissue of this feeble jest is what sounds like a cry for help. Clearly, the Doctors are begging to be put out of their misery. Anyone for euthanasia?