"...And Then There Was One"

Who will be the 'one'? This medical drama-doc, exploring mental health and illness, is stylish, nail-biting stuff.

Who will be the 'one'? Experiencing anxiety and depression, four very different people visit their GPs – getting very different reactions, playing out in their lives in very different ways. A canny concept, credible script and acting, atmospheric direction and sharp editing combine to make this sponsored medical drama-documentary unexpectedly stylish and gripping. It's nail-biting stuff.

The film was sponsored by pharmaceutical company Allen and Hanburys and naturally is supportive of the psychoactive medication they and other manufacturers had developed. But this is more than an extended advert – aimed directly at doctors, it is essentially (if for reasons of enlightened self-interest) an educational project to bring general practitioners, many of them with conservative attitudes, up to speed with changing clinical understandings of mental health and illness. The success of this commission led its talented director, Eric Marquis, to two yet more extraordinary 'psychodrama-docs', this time sponsored by Swiss pharma giant Roche: Time Out of Mind (1968, available on BFI DVD) and The Savage Voyage (1971).