Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean, “Smash”) stars as a brilliant London surgeon in 1961, when doctors were treated like gods and acted the part. Also starring in this stylish story of a dark secret amid the complexities of the sexual revolution are Zoe Boyle (“Downton Abbey”), Catherine Steadman (“Mansfield Park”), Iain Glen (“Downton Abbey”), Natasha Little (“Case Histories”), Oliver Chris (“Sharpe’s Challenge”), Joanna Page (Love Actually) and Shaun Dingwall (“Touching Evil”).
Tuesday, August 21
Part One
When the brilliant Dr. Otto Powell takes over a surgery before his junior colleague, Dr. Richard Truscott, botches it, Truscott's long-simmering resentment is compounded. But the encounter is lost on the powerful surgeon who whisks his striking new nurse Angela off to assist him, against her principles, on a highly illegal procedure. Incurring her wrath for making her complicit, Otto – trapped in a loveless marriage, bound to his glamorous wife Elizabeth by a dangerous secret – is ablaze with attraction for the young nurse who is determined to resist temptation.
Wednesday, August 22
Part Two
When a private procedure goes wrong, Otto, Charlie and Jean have a brush with the law, increasing Charlie's desperate sense that he stands unsupported, alone. As Jean and Richard's marriage crumbles, Richard embraces his newly-returned first love, Margaret, as Jean embraces her new role of housewife. But for consummate housewife, Elizabeth, the very foundation of life begins to crack when the sinister Inspector Mulligan pays a visit to her home.
Thursday, August 23
Part Three
Secrets and guilt hamper doctors, nurses and lovers as Charlie and Lily attempt to make a fresh start, Richard and Jean try to find a way back to each other, and Otto struggles to start a relationship with Angela based on truth. Elizabeth, trying to manage Inspector Mulligan, is alone with her secrets and guilt. But when a lavish fundraiser and beauty pageant force Otto and Elizabeth's secret into sharp relief, Otto and Charlie both take drastic measures to bury the past, once and for all.
Masterpiece Mystery: Breathless, begins Tuesday, August 21 at 6 p.m. on PBS 6 Plus.
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