The English surgeon.

This very engaging documentary presents an intimate portrait of the life and work of Henry Marsh, a British neurosurgeon who travels to Ukraine every year to perform life-saving operations for free on people who otherwise wouldn't receive help. He also regularly ships and carries over discarded medical equipment from the UK. We follow the case of Marian, a young man who has a brain tumour which is causing him to have severe epilepsy - his operation is shown in full detail. Marsh narrates the story of Tanya, a young girl he tried to save with surgery 2 years previously but who died completely disabled from his efforts. This case still troubles him and he returns to visit her mother which proves to be a highly emotional occasion. Many of the people he sees in the clinic in Ukraine have severe brain tumours which there aren't the resources to treat and Marsh tragically has to turn people away. This programme shows us what it would be like to live in a country that has no national health scheme, the realities of a non-Western operating theatre as well as the day-to-day life and concerns of a neurosurgeon faced with having to make almost unbearable medical decisions.