Instructive and gruesome in equal parts, this program enters the operating theater with eyes wide open to observe how “fast and dirty” surgery—inexpressibly brutal in the time before anesthesia—led to 19th-century breakthroughs in the area of pain management. Traveling from the Victorian era to the present day, the program charts the evolution of anesthesiology and reviews the trial-and-error research behind anesthetic substances ranging from chloroform and nitrous oxide to cocaine and ketamine. Dr. David Wilkinson, president of the Confederation of European National Societies of Anaesthesiology, is featured. Viewer discretion is advised. A BBCW Production. (49 minutes)