Alma Halliwell
Encyclopedia
Alma Marie Halliwell played by Amanda Barrie
, is a fictional character
on the ITV
soap opera
, Coronation Street
. Alma was featured as a recurring character from 1981–1982; however, she was reintroduced as a regular in 1988. She remained in the show for a further 13 years, featuring in high-profile storylines such as a problematic marriage to the long-running character Mike Baldwin, kidnapping, and a supermarket siege. Amanda Barrie decided to leave the serial in 2001, and Alma was killed off in a controversial cervical cancer storyline.
in 1996.
Alma has a tempestuous on-off relationship with Mike Baldwin. They date but he then dumps her in favour of Jackie Ingram in 1990. Alma then dates Mike's enemy Ken Barlow
, but she is seduced by Mike after he decides he wants her back, and her relationship with Ken dissolves. Alma and Mike marry in 1992. Alma never has a family but is often the motherly, sympathetic, liberal-minded character in many storylines, particularly off-setting her husband's often harsh and high-minded attitudes.
Mike's patronising and chauvinistic mannerisms alienate Alma at times; she occasionally rebels, buying herself a convertible MG and seeking employment against his wishes. Alma considers straying briefly with Stephen Reid (son of Audrey Roberts
and half brother of Gail) in 1996. She makes a pass at him but is rebuffed, and is hurt moreso when Mike responds with nonchalance to the incident. She is then caught up in the plight of Don Brennan. Alma feels sympathy for Don after Mike sells him a garage business at a knowingly inflated price to then sit back and watch him go bankrupt. Don eventually has a breakdown, becoming obsessed with revenge on Mike. After attempting to frame Mike for arson and insurance fraud, he kidnaps Alma, driving her into the river in his taxi; both survive. His last act is to steal Alma's car and drive into the viaduct at the end of Coronation Street, killing himself.
Alma and Mike separate in 1999 when Alma discovers that Mike has cheated on her; they eventually divorce and Alma moves in with her good friend Audrey.
After finding employment at Freshco supermarket, Alma excels in the job and is promoted. She is involved in an armed siege there in 2000, coincidentally along with Mike and Ken amongst others, in which one of the gunmen is shot dead by the police. Following this, Alma grows close to Frank, a security guard at Freshco; they consider moving away to be together, but their happiness is cut short as in May 2001, Alma discovers that due to a missed smear test and a further misdiagnosis, she has been stricken with inoperable and terminal cervical cancer
. Frank cannot face watching her die and leaves. Alma is supported by her friends however, and opts to die at home with the people she loves. The illness claims her life within weeks; she dies at Audrey's home in Grasmere Drive on 17 June 2001, aged 56, with Mike and her friends surrounding her.
Alma was mentioned a few times in 2006 by Mike before his death.
, who was previously best known to viewers for her roles in the British Carry On films
. Barrie played the character in a recurring role for several years, and then, after a long hiatus, she was asked to return as a regular character, Alma taking over control of the café she was given in her divorce settlement from Jim. Barrie has recalled that her first scene was opposite a Coronation Street "legend", Elsie Tanner
, played by Pat Phoenix
: "She came for a job at the café and I had to tell her she couldn't have one. That was quite scary. It was my first episode but I didn't think the Street took me to its heart because I wasn't called for another eight years. By that time, Jim had gone - I never actually met him!" After Alma's reintroduction as a regular, the British press labelled her as "the next Elsie Tanner", a comparison that Barrie refuted: "I think they always do that. There was only one Elsie Tanner, and I think they will go on looking."
Barrie has revealed that it was thanks to her mother that she was given a permanent role in Coronation Street. According to the actress, she "bombarded" Granada
studio with calls pretending to be a series of fans requesting that Alma be brought back, even speaking directly with producer Bill Podmore
.
(Helen Worth
), formed a close friendship with Audrey Roberts
(Sue Nicholls
), and had several romantic relationships most notably with Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs
).
Alma and Mike's romance stemmed back to 1989 and they wed on-screen in 1992, the marriage lasting seven years. It has been suggested in a 2006 ITV documentary that Mike, an antagonistic womanising chartacter, met his match in Alma. William Roache
who plays Ken Barlow
has stated that of all Mike's many women in the serial, he always felt that Alma was Mike's true love, the one that was right and good for him. Briggs has stated that he always enjoyed watching the scenes between Mike and Alma, because Alma knew how to handle Mike. Barrie has discussed the way she approached playing the romance between Mike and Alma, suggesting that as Alma she treated Mike in the same way that she [Barrie] treated Briggs off-set, poking fun at him.
Barrie has suggested that she and her co-star Sue Nicholls who plays Audrey Roberts share a friendship that emulates the screen friendship between their two characters. She commented, "Sue Nicholls, who plays Audrey Roberts, is one of my best friends in the Street. We're all so close that we instinctively know how each other is feeling on any given day and we even know how the others will play each scene. If I'm reading a script I can actually hear Sue's voice saying her part, and what expression she will use."
), who attempted to kill Alma by driving her into the River Irwell
in a bid for revenge on Mike Baldwin. The events were screened in an hour long special in 1997. The episode ended on a cliffhanger
and viewers were left guessing as to whether Alma and Don had survived the crash. Both characters survived, but the storyline marked the exit of Don, who had been written out of the soap. More than 15million viewers watched the episode.
Producers opted to kill Alma off in the serial with terminal cervical cancer, which had already spread to her other organs before detection. A source reported to The Mirror, "we believe Alma's sad death has every ingredient to make it one of the all-time Coronation Street greats." As a precursor to the storyline, Alma had begun a romance with a security guard Frank O'Connor (Eamon Boland
) and both had decided to leave Weatherfield
to begin a new life together. Discussing the storyline, the source said, "Alma agrees to go and live with Frank. They decide to make a new start together somewhere in the country and begin excitedly telling their plans to people back home. Alma has had her fair share of ups and downs with men in the past and she sees Frank a dependable chap to see out her days with. There's even a surprise farewell party planned at the Rovers. But just as it looks as if they are off into the wide blue yonder the devastating news hits Alma." In the scripts, Alma was faced with a choice, leave Weatherfield, or remain and die with her friends. The source added, "Alma is wrestling with her innermost thoughts about what to do for the best. She is agonising about starting a new life away from Weatherfield with Frank. But it is Audrey who tells her that she should stay amongst her friends who will be able to nurse her when the time comes. After a lot of hard thinking Alma realises that she will be better off staying with the people who have known and loved her. So she makes the emotional decision to remain with her friends until she dies. We have had some tear-jerking episodes in the past, and Alma's farewell will have to rank as one of the most sorrowful in Corrie's history."
An estimated 15 million viewers tuned in to see Alma's death on-screen. It was reported that a power surge
occurred at the episode's climax as there was a 1000 megawatt demand on the National Grid as more than 400,000 kettles were switched on by viewers after the episode. A National Grid spokesman said "Soaps normally average between 400 and 600 megawatts, so it was a considerable increase."
Barrie has been critical about the producers' decision to kill Alma in such a way and cancer organisations also highlighted inaccuracies with the plot. Barrie said, "Cancer touches all our lives, there can't be anyone who hasn't been affected. If you are going to take an issue like this and use it for entertainment, you have to be just so very, very careful. As Alma's illness and deterioration proceeded with such amazing speed I really did feel I was being asked to take part in a cheap ratings ploy. I didn't like it one bit."
According to Barrie, she argued daily with the soap's producers about the way the storyline was being written, accusing them of being medically inaccurate: "Cervical cancer takes years to develop. No consultant would make a pronouncement as quickly as that. And no woman would have reached that stage without severe symptoms, which Alma didn't have. I felt straightaway that it gave completely the wrong message. And I know that as the storyline has developed, a number of medical experts have spoken out against it. That didn't surprise me one bit."
Dr Anne Szarewski, a senior research fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, suggested that Alma's storyline was extreme and portrayed the worst case scenario, because invasive cancer is rarely diagnosed by a smear test, rather a colposcopy and a cone-biposy. She added that it was very rare for a woman to die from cervical cancer six weeks after diagnosis, as in most cases a hysterectomy would be performed and unless cancer has reached its final stages, deterioration is gradual and can take approximately a year till death occurs.
Cancer Research UK
was also critical of the storyline. They suggested that the writers tried to write the disease around the plot rather than the other way around, leading to unrealistic depiction of cancer.
A spokesman for Coronation Street responded in defence of the storyline, saying that Alma's cancer progressed so quickly as she had missed a smear test, and the storyline did have a positive impact on female viewers, resulting in a significant increase in smear testing in the UK. However, a British Medical Journal paper in 2003 warned that the storyline could have unduly worried audiences and placed a burden on the National Health Service
(NHS).
Amanda Barrie
Amanda Barrie is an English actress.-Career:Born as Shirley Anne Broadbent, Barrie attended St Anne's College, St Anne's on Sea. She then trained at the Arts Educational School in London and later at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School...
, is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
, Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. Alma was featured as a recurring character from 1981–1982; however, she was reintroduced as a regular in 1988. She remained in the show for a further 13 years, featuring in high-profile storylines such as a problematic marriage to the long-running character Mike Baldwin, kidnapping, and a supermarket siege. Amanda Barrie decided to leave the serial in 2001, and Alma was killed off in a controversial cervical cancer storyline.
Storylines
Alma Halliwell is first introduced in 1981 as the wife of cafe owner Jim Sedgewick. The marriage is a disaster, and when Alma falls pregnant a year later she has an abortion rather than bring a child into their loveless home. Alma's character takes over Jim's Café after they divorce in 1982. She emigrates to Florida for a while with a pools winner named Phillip, but when he squanders the money Alma returns to Weatherfield. The character properly begins to make an impact when she takes a more active role in the management of the café in the latter part of 1988. This is the beginning of a long-running working relationship with Gail Tilsley, who becomes Alma's business partner in 1989, until Alma sells her share of the café to Roy CropperRoy Cropper
Royston "Roy" Cropper, is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor David Neilson, the character was introduced during the episode airing on 19 July 1995. Originally a secondary character, he was given a more prominent role in 1997, by the...
in 1996.
Alma has a tempestuous on-off relationship with Mike Baldwin. They date but he then dumps her in favour of Jackie Ingram in 1990. Alma then dates Mike's enemy Ken Barlow
Ken Barlow
Kenneth "Ken" Barlow is a long-standing fictional character from the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by William Roache, and created by Tony Warren. He is currently the world's longest-serving soap opera character, having appeared continuously from the programme's inception in December...
, but she is seduced by Mike after he decides he wants her back, and her relationship with Ken dissolves. Alma and Mike marry in 1992. Alma never has a family but is often the motherly, sympathetic, liberal-minded character in many storylines, particularly off-setting her husband's often harsh and high-minded attitudes.
Mike's patronising and chauvinistic mannerisms alienate Alma at times; she occasionally rebels, buying herself a convertible MG and seeking employment against his wishes. Alma considers straying briefly with Stephen Reid (son of Audrey Roberts
Audrey Roberts
Audrey Roberts is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Sue Nicholls, the character first appeared during the episode aired on 16 April 1979....
and half brother of Gail) in 1996. She makes a pass at him but is rebuffed, and is hurt moreso when Mike responds with nonchalance to the incident. She is then caught up in the plight of Don Brennan. Alma feels sympathy for Don after Mike sells him a garage business at a knowingly inflated price to then sit back and watch him go bankrupt. Don eventually has a breakdown, becoming obsessed with revenge on Mike. After attempting to frame Mike for arson and insurance fraud, he kidnaps Alma, driving her into the river in his taxi; both survive. His last act is to steal Alma's car and drive into the viaduct at the end of Coronation Street, killing himself.
Alma and Mike separate in 1999 when Alma discovers that Mike has cheated on her; they eventually divorce and Alma moves in with her good friend Audrey.
After finding employment at Freshco supermarket, Alma excels in the job and is promoted. She is involved in an armed siege there in 2000, coincidentally along with Mike and Ken amongst others, in which one of the gunmen is shot dead by the police. Following this, Alma grows close to Frank, a security guard at Freshco; they consider moving away to be together, but their happiness is cut short as in May 2001, Alma discovers that due to a missed smear test and a further misdiagnosis, she has been stricken with inoperable and terminal cervical cancer
Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
. Frank cannot face watching her die and leaves. Alma is supported by her friends however, and opts to die at home with the people she loves. The illness claims her life within weeks; she dies at Audrey's home in Grasmere Drive on 17 June 2001, aged 56, with Mike and her friends surrounding her.
Alma was mentioned a few times in 2006 by Mike before his death.
Casting
Alma was introduced in 1981 as a recurring/guest character, the wife of café proprietor Jim Sedgewick. The role saw the return to mainstream television for actress Amanda BarrieAmanda Barrie
Amanda Barrie is an English actress.-Career:Born as Shirley Anne Broadbent, Barrie attended St Anne's College, St Anne's on Sea. She then trained at the Arts Educational School in London and later at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School...
, who was previously best known to viewers for her roles in the British Carry On films
Carry On films
The Carry On films are a series of low-budget British comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. They are an energetic mix of parody, farce, slapstick and double entendres....
. Barrie played the character in a recurring role for several years, and then, after a long hiatus, she was asked to return as a regular character, Alma taking over control of the café she was given in her divorce settlement from Jim. Barrie has recalled that her first scene was opposite a Coronation Street "legend", Elsie Tanner
Elsie Tanner
Elsie Tanner is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Patricia Phoenix from 1960 to 1973 and from 1976 until 1984. Elsie Tanner was one of the original core characters on Coronation Street and appeared in the very first episode...
, played by Pat Phoenix
Pat Phoenix
Patricia "Pat" Frederica Phoenix was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role of Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street.-Early life and career:Born in Ireland to Anna Maria Josephine Noonan and Tom Manfield, but moved to Manchester before...
: "She came for a job at the café and I had to tell her she couldn't have one. That was quite scary. It was my first episode but I didn't think the Street took me to its heart because I wasn't called for another eight years. By that time, Jim had gone - I never actually met him!" After Alma's reintroduction as a regular, the British press labelled her as "the next Elsie Tanner", a comparison that Barrie refuted: "I think they always do that. There was only one Elsie Tanner, and I think they will go on looking."
Barrie has revealed that it was thanks to her mother that she was given a permanent role in Coronation Street. According to the actress, she "bombarded" Granada
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
studio with calls pretending to be a series of fans requesting that Alma be brought back, even speaking directly with producer Bill Podmore
Bill Podmore
Edgar William "Bill" Podmore was a British television producer. Born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, he was best known for his long association with the soap opera Coronation Street, a series he produced for twelve years...
.
Relationships
The character went into a business partnership with Gail TilseyGail Platt
Gail McIntyre is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Helen Worth, the character first appeared on screen on 12 July 1974...
(Helen Worth
Helen Worth
Helen Worth is an English actress, best known for her portrayal of the Coronation Street character Gail McIntyre- Early life :...
), formed a close friendship with Audrey Roberts
Audrey Roberts
Audrey Roberts is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Sue Nicholls, the character first appeared during the episode aired on 16 April 1979....
(Sue Nicholls
Sue Nicholls
Susan Frances Harmar Nicholls is an English actress, best known today for her long-running role as Audrey Roberts in British soap opera Coronation Street.-Early life:...
), and had several romantic relationships most notably with Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs
Johnny Briggs (actor)
Johnny Briggs, MBE is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Mike Baldwin in the soap opera Coronation Street, in which he appeared from 1976 to 2006...
).
Alma and Mike's romance stemmed back to 1989 and they wed on-screen in 1992, the marriage lasting seven years. It has been suggested in a 2006 ITV documentary that Mike, an antagonistic womanising chartacter, met his match in Alma. William Roache
William Roache
William Patrick Harry Roache MBE is a British actor, best known for his role as Ken Barlow in the soap opera Coronation Street...
who plays Ken Barlow
Ken Barlow
Kenneth "Ken" Barlow is a long-standing fictional character from the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by William Roache, and created by Tony Warren. He is currently the world's longest-serving soap opera character, having appeared continuously from the programme's inception in December...
has stated that of all Mike's many women in the serial, he always felt that Alma was Mike's true love, the one that was right and good for him. Briggs has stated that he always enjoyed watching the scenes between Mike and Alma, because Alma knew how to handle Mike. Barrie has discussed the way she approached playing the romance between Mike and Alma, suggesting that as Alma she treated Mike in the same way that she [Barrie] treated Briggs off-set, poking fun at him.
Barrie has suggested that she and her co-star Sue Nicholls who plays Audrey Roberts share a friendship that emulates the screen friendship between their two characters. She commented, "Sue Nicholls, who plays Audrey Roberts, is one of my best friends in the Street. We're all so close that we instinctively know how each other is feeling on any given day and we even know how the others will play each scene. If I'm reading a script I can actually hear Sue's voice saying her part, and what expression she will use."
Kidnapping
One of the character's most notable storylines was her kidnapping by Don Brennan (Geoffrey HinsliffGeoffrey Hinsliff
Geoffrey Hinsliff is an English actor best known for his portrayal of Don Brennan in Coronation Street from 16 August 1987 to 8 October 1997. He had previously played other characters in the same programme, in 1963 and 1977....
), who attempted to kill Alma by driving her into the River Irwell
River Irwell
The River Irwell is a long river which flows through the Irwell Valley in the counties of Lancashire and Greater Manchester in North West England. The river's source is at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup, in the parish of Cliviger, Lancashire...
in a bid for revenge on Mike Baldwin. The events were screened in an hour long special in 1997. The episode ended on a cliffhanger
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction...
and viewers were left guessing as to whether Alma and Don had survived the crash. Both characters survived, but the storyline marked the exit of Don, who had been written out of the soap. More than 15million viewers watched the episode.
Departure (2001)
It was announced that Barrie had decided to leave the programme. She stated, "I thought it was about time I bowed out in the hope that there's one more show in me. I want to endlessly thank Granada and Coronation Street. I've had a very happy time and I feel blessed and proud to have been in the show. But everything has its time. I feel it's time to hand over to the youngsters in the show, who I think are so brilliant [...] I thought it was about time I bowed out. This is something I've been thinking about for ages but couldn't face up to the emotion of leaving or tear myself away." Executive producer Jane Macnaught commented, "We are sorry to see Amanda go and wish her well for the future. She has been a much-loved character and we truly appreciate her loyalty and commitment to the show. I respect her decision and appreciate that she feels she has to move on. We will now work on an exciting exit for the character."Producers opted to kill Alma off in the serial with terminal cervical cancer, which had already spread to her other organs before detection. A source reported to The Mirror, "we believe Alma's sad death has every ingredient to make it one of the all-time Coronation Street greats." As a precursor to the storyline, Alma had begun a romance with a security guard Frank O'Connor (Eamon Boland
Eamon Boland
Eamon Denis Boland is an English actor.He has played Tony Walker in Casualty, Frank O'Connor in Coronation Street, Gerry Hollis in Kinsey, Jim Gray in The Chief, Phil Fox in Fox...
) and both had decided to leave Weatherfield
Weatherfield
Weatherfield is a fictional town, based on Salford in North West England, which serves as the setting for the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street...
to begin a new life together. Discussing the storyline, the source said, "Alma agrees to go and live with Frank. They decide to make a new start together somewhere in the country and begin excitedly telling their plans to people back home. Alma has had her fair share of ups and downs with men in the past and she sees Frank a dependable chap to see out her days with. There's even a surprise farewell party planned at the Rovers. But just as it looks as if they are off into the wide blue yonder the devastating news hits Alma." In the scripts, Alma was faced with a choice, leave Weatherfield, or remain and die with her friends. The source added, "Alma is wrestling with her innermost thoughts about what to do for the best. She is agonising about starting a new life away from Weatherfield with Frank. But it is Audrey who tells her that she should stay amongst her friends who will be able to nurse her when the time comes. After a lot of hard thinking Alma realises that she will be better off staying with the people who have known and loved her. So she makes the emotional decision to remain with her friends until she dies. We have had some tear-jerking episodes in the past, and Alma's farewell will have to rank as one of the most sorrowful in Corrie's history."
An estimated 15 million viewers tuned in to see Alma's death on-screen. It was reported that a power surge
Voltage spike
In electrical engineering, spikes are fast, short duration electrical transients in voltage , current , or transferred energy in an electrical circuit....
occurred at the episode's climax as there was a 1000 megawatt demand on the National Grid as more than 400,000 kettles were switched on by viewers after the episode. A National Grid spokesman said "Soaps normally average between 400 and 600 megawatts, so it was a considerable increase."
Barrie has been critical about the producers' decision to kill Alma in such a way and cancer organisations also highlighted inaccuracies with the plot. Barrie said, "Cancer touches all our lives, there can't be anyone who hasn't been affected. If you are going to take an issue like this and use it for entertainment, you have to be just so very, very careful. As Alma's illness and deterioration proceeded with such amazing speed I really did feel I was being asked to take part in a cheap ratings ploy. I didn't like it one bit."
According to Barrie, she argued daily with the soap's producers about the way the storyline was being written, accusing them of being medically inaccurate: "Cervical cancer takes years to develop. No consultant would make a pronouncement as quickly as that. And no woman would have reached that stage without severe symptoms, which Alma didn't have. I felt straightaway that it gave completely the wrong message. And I know that as the storyline has developed, a number of medical experts have spoken out against it. That didn't surprise me one bit."
Dr Anne Szarewski, a senior research fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, suggested that Alma's storyline was extreme and portrayed the worst case scenario, because invasive cancer is rarely diagnosed by a smear test, rather a colposcopy and a cone-biposy. She added that it was very rare for a woman to die from cervical cancer six weeks after diagnosis, as in most cases a hysterectomy would be performed and unless cancer has reached its final stages, deterioration is gradual and can take approximately a year till death occurs.
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the United Kingdom, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Its aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. As the world's largest independent cancer...
was also critical of the storyline. They suggested that the writers tried to write the disease around the plot rather than the other way around, leading to unrealistic depiction of cancer.
A spokesman for Coronation Street responded in defence of the storyline, saying that Alma's cancer progressed so quickly as she had missed a smear test, and the storyline did have a positive impact on female viewers, resulting in a significant increase in smear testing in the UK. However, a British Medical Journal paper in 2003 warned that the storyline could have unduly worried audiences and placed a burden on the National Health Service
National Health Service (England)
The National Health Service or NHS is the publicly funded healthcare system in England. It is both the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world. It is able to function in the way that it does because it is primarily funded through the general taxation system, similar to how...
(NHS).