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Medical error in 'Endeavour'

In ITV-1's 'Endeavour', the youthful Morse, still a detective constable at this early stage of his career, found a girl who had died with digoxin in her stomach. "Is that dangerous?" he asked a GP who was involved in the case peripherally (the partner of another doctor who was murdered).

"It certainly is. The clue is in the name of the plant it comes from, deadly nightshade," the GP replied.

But deadly nightshade doesn't give us digitalis or digoxin, it gives us belladonna. Digitalis, from which digoxin is derived, comes from the leaf of the foxglove. I thought that perhaps this wasn't really a medical howler and we were being given an artfully planted clue; the GP was going to turn out to be an imposter. But no, it wasn't the doctor who was ignorant, it was his creator.

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CV Huffstead on :

Thank you for this explanation, I wondered if that GP was correct only because of my interest in nightshade.

Thank you! :)

Michelle on :

Yes I picked it up immediately. Just watching it now Very poor scriptwriting and I was curious to see how many others picked it us. I must say that they are ..ummm..amplifying Morse's skills somewhat and making him out to be a Sherlock Holmes rather than a Morse. Morse was intuitive. Holmes deductive anyway All IMHO and maybe he was like this when young and it all became unconscious.

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