A STUDYGUIDE by Robert Lewis
www.metromagazine.com.au
www.theeducationshop.com.au
ABOVE, L-R: James Kent, Norman Heatley, Howard Florey & Ernst Chain (Photo: Gordon Glenn);
Cover: Florey (photo: Alice Glenn)
SYNOPSIS
Penicillin: The Magic Bullet (Gordon Glenn, 2006) is a 52-minute documentary using dramatic
re-enactment to tell the story behind the discovery and production of penicillin, and the way
history may have got it wrong.
W
hen Alexander Fleming telephoned Howard Florey on
the night of 5 August 1942,
to ask for a sample of his new medicine to treat a sick friend, Florey could
not know that his act of generosity
in giving Fleming their limited supply
would rob him and his team of most
of the public credit for the worlds first
antibiotic – penicillin.
Florey’s genius was to use a team
approach and the Oxford Group had
three key members:
• Howard Florey himself, known as
‘The Bushranger’ because of his
rough manner and his success at
raising research funds;
• the temperamental and gifted
biochemist Ernst Chain, a Jewish
refugee from Germany with five
pounds to his name who lost his
family in the holocaust; and
• an Englishman, Norman Heat-
ley, a skinny-as-a-rake genius at
making laboratory equipment. He
made the first minute quantities of
the drug using a strange-looking
machine be built from five pounds
worth of dairy equipment; glass he
had blown himself; some old bookshelves, and an alarm clock.
In the first clinical trials the first patient
made a miraculous recovery. Despite
a relay race on bicycles transporting
the patient’s urine back to the lab to
recover minute amounts of penicillin,
the patient relapsed and died as the
powder ran out.
Later critically ill children were used
because they needed less penicillin.
SCREEN EDUCATION
Fleming had ceased working on the
penicillin mould fourteen years earlier
because he saw no practical medical
application in it. But when he used
Florey’s gift, as far as the British popular press were concerned, the story
was complete. Penicillin was Fleming’s
discovery and his alone.
In the years that followed, Fleming
– for his own reasons perhaps – never
put the record straight. This program
sets out to do just that.
When they had the proof that penicillin
worked, Florey and Heatley made a
secret flight to America – with penicillium spores rubbed into the cloth of
their coats to prevent it falling into
German hands – to convince US drug
companies to begin production in
large quantities.
Three men shared the Nobel Prize
in 1945: Fleming, Florey and Chain
(Heatley, a mere laboratory technician
missed out), and a measure of justice
was achieved. But by then the original
Penicillin: The Magic Bullet can be
used in middle to upper secondary
level classes in:
• History – How history is
represented
• English – Creating a biography
• Science – The elements of
scientific method
• Biology – Infection and
resistance
• Media Studies – Storytelling and reconstructions in
documentaries
‘spin’ had entered popular culture
and almost every book since on great
discoveries refers to Fleming alone as
the discoverer of penicillin.
In 1969 the Americans named a crater
on the moon after Fleming. Is it named
after the wrong man?
SCREEN EDUCATION
Then Alexander Fleming telephoned
to ask his favour. Unguarded – half the
team were no longer on speaking terms
– they agreed, and having succeeded
in working the miracle of a medicine
which would empty half the western
world’s hospital wards, they watched in
dismay as the British wartime propaganda machine stepped in and gave all
the publicity to a rival hospital, and all
the credit to someone else.
CURRICULUM GUIDE
BEFORE WATCHING THE FILM
Welcome to this meeting of the jury to award the Nobel Prize for ‘Discovery’ this year.
As you know, this is the special award of fifty million dollars that goes to the person who has
made the most significant discovery that has benefited humanity.
Past winners have involved the discovery of the way to eliminate poverty,
the discovery of the way to create
world peace, and the discovery of the
way to eliminate racism.
This year’s award is right up there with
these great discoveries. It is for the
discovery that eliminated cancer.
The problem is, there are four applicants for the award. We do not know
who should get it, so we have asked
you to meet and decide. Without any
more delay, let’s look at the applicants.
They are:
Applicant A: She is an indigenous
inhabitant of the Brazilian rainforest.
She found the plant that cured cancer
after a mysterious space rock crashed
into the area. She was the only person
who knew that the plant contained
the juice that seemed to cure certain
cancers. She only ever used it for her
own tribe. This plant was the only one
of its type and would not propagate.
It would have disappeared forever if it
had not been for Applicant B.
novative person, and saw a way to manufacture the key element in large quantities. He set up equipment to do this,
and the rest is history – and there are no
more deaths from cancer in the world.
Applicant B: He met A, and learned
the secret. He managed to secretly
extract part of the sap that seemed to
contain the healing power of the plant.
He experimented to separate the
healing element from the rest, but was
unable to do so. He wrote a scientific
paper in which he admitted his failure.
Well, judges, it’s up to you. Cast your
vote for one applicant only – and may
you choose the best person. (complete box below)
Exploring Issues And Ideas
In The Film
Applicant C: This is where Applicant
C enters the story. She was a great
research scientist, and came across
B’s research paper. She saw where
he had gone wrong, and was able to
identify how to extract the key element
– at least in theory. She was never able
to do so in practice. She met Applicant D and told him about her failure.
Applicant D: Applicant D was a very in-
• Who did you vote for in the introductory exercise? Your vote was
determined by your idea of the
meaning of ‘discovery’.
Penicillin: The Magic Bullet is about
‘discovery’. It is also about biography,
the scientific method, the way people
and events are represented in history, human motivation, and human
strengths and weaknesses.
GROUP: ________________________________________________________________________________________
I vote for:
APPLICANT A
APPLICANT B
APPLICANT C
APPLICANT D
Because: _____________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
SCREEN EDUCATION
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
After Watching the Film
After you have watched the film, answer these questions, and explore the
issues that the film raises.
Understanding the story
The film is about the effect of penicillin
in medical history.
1 What is penicillin?
2 What does it do to bacteria?
3 Why is this so significant?
4 What has the impact of penicillin
been on the world?
Alexander Fleming
5 What did he achieve in 1928?
6 What was the importance of this?
7 What was its limitation?
8 When did he re-appear in the story?
9 What did he have to do with the
medical trials and the mass manufacture of penicillin after 1928?
Howard Florey
10 What did he do?
11 Why was his role so important?
Norman Heatley
14 What did he do?
15 Why was his role so important?
Storytelling in the film
You might say that the film is about the
discovery of penicillin. But that story
could have been told in a few minutes.
Penicillin: The Magic Bullet is actually
about the story behind the discovery
of penicillin – the people involved, the
events, the crises and conflicts, the
problems faced and the way they were
overcome, the human triumphs and
tragedies, the emotions and ambitions
involved, the clash of personalities,
and the possible injustice.
1 Look at the elements that are
included in the story. Some of
them are listed in the introduction
above. Explain how each of these
From top: Ernst Chain working in
lab; Florey with camera; Heatley
and his machine (all 3 photos:
Georgia Metaxas); Ethel Florey
at tennis (Photo: Alice Glenn)
SCREEN EDUCATION
Ernst Chain
12 What did he do?
13 Why was his role so important?
16 What judgements does the film
make about the role of the four
men?
17 What did the Oxford University
team achieve?
18 What is the Nobel prize?
19 Why is it so important?
20 What message about the discovery of penicillin and its use in the
world do you take from the film?
From top: Director Gordon Glenn on location; Producer Claire Jager on location (Photos: Alice Glenn)
contributes to (or perhaps does
not contribute to) the story that is
presented in the film. Would the
film have been weakened without
these elements? Is there a way
the story could have been made
stronger?
The film also comprises many elements that work together to help tell
the story.
The film’s maker, Gordon Glenn, has
these comments about aspects of the
making of the film:
Dramatic Re-enactments
There was never enough archive material to tell the Oxford story properly as
a television documentary. The Oxford
team had shunned publicity and only
been recorded in rather stilted poses
for a 1945 documentary.
We wanted to make the program for
a general audience – not a specialist
science audience.
For this reason we chose to use full
colour re-enactments. Dramatic re-
enactments allow us to go behind the
scenes at the Sir William Dunn School
as the three scientists clash and struggle to extract the vital element from
the mould.
An additional bonus was our discovery
that Florey was a keen 16mm cameraman and documented his work and his
family life in home movies. We have
used these and his excellent stills collection to deepen the portrayal of the
man.
Re-enactments were controversial a
Storytelling
The natural rhythms of storytelling
have always favoured Fleming.
For the first time, we start the penicillin
story with an Oxford perspective and
allow Fleming to enter it as he did – as
a surprise.
SCREEN EDUCATION
The Oxford work has been an irritating
sidetrack. As readers, or viewers we
demand that the tale begin and end
with the great man. Inconvenient story
elements – like the ten-year gap between 1929 and 1940 – get in the way
of a good yarn. The truth is irritating to
the myth.
From top: Director Gordon Glenn & Producer Claire Jager; Heatley & his lab assistant; Penicillin girls;
Heatley & Florey; Director Gordon Glenn with Heatley & Florey (Photos: Georgia Metaxas)
few years ago.
The French called them ‘evocations’
at the start of the fashion. Images to
evoke a reality or a mood. Then, The
History of Britain used historical clubs
where the members liked to dress up
and re-enact such things as the Battle of Hastings on weekends for the
cameras.
Times have moved on. The Seven
Wonders of the Industrial World and
other programs have proved that audiences like re-enactments and that they
can be done in credible and satisfying
ways.
Our script had always been a hybrid of
The finished work uses look-alike
actors to enable us to cross between
Florey’s footage, archive stills and our
scenes.
The last stage in our process was a
decision to use our actors to do interviews using the actual words of the
three scientists. It evokes for the story
a personal dimension, and we hope
will bring audiences to an emotional
involvement with the struggle that
gave us penicillin.
2 Look at the following aspects of
making the film, and decide how
each of them contributes to the
overall effect.
• The structure or sequence
of the film, building up to its
climax
SCREEN EDUCATION
On The Magic Bullet, it was a gradual
process of becoming bolder as we
explored the idea of re-enactments. At
the Work Congress of History Producers in Toronto in 2005 we became
emboldened as we watched an
English production, which used CGI to
put the actual faces of Churchill, Hitler,
Stalin and Roosevelt on actors playing
Churchill, Hitler, Stalin and Roosevelt.
At that Congress there were many
programs with full dialogue based on
transcripts from court cases, public inquiries or air traffic control monitoring.
full drama and documentary. As words
on the page it ranged backwards and
forwards trying to find the correct mix.
We probably had a secret wish that
someone would give us the money
to make it as a drama, similar to Life
Story, the film about Crick and Watson
and the discovery of DNA. When we
pitched to the French at Arte they
urged us to make a full blown drama,
but unfortunately declined to fund to
an adequate level.
From top: Penicillin bottles; --- ; Penicillin mould in petri dish (Photos: Alice Glenn)
• The use of dramatic reconstructions
• The role of the narration and
script
• The use of historical stills and
footage
• The device of having actors
talk to the audience
• Music
• Editing
• Use of sites
3 Do you think Penicillin: The Magic
Bullet is a good and successful
documentary film? Explain your
views.
of WW2, it ushered in the antibiotic
revolution. It truly was a magic bullet.
Although three men shared the Nobel
Prize for penicillin, the world has always believed Alexander Fleming was
responsible.
Penicillin: The Magic Bullet is a representation of history — that is, it is
one person’s view or selection of what
happened. In this case the filmmaker
emphasises the role of the Oxford
team, headed by Florey, rather than
the Fleming emphasis which is often
presented.
But in 1929 when Fleming published
an inconclusive paper on a mould
called penicillium, neither he nor
others at the time recognized that
the substance would be of any great
clinical value. Even as late as 1940,
Fleming said of penicillin ‘the trouble
of making it seemed not worthwhile’.
Here is the Director’s statement about
his own view of the film:
Then in 1942, after a team at Oxford
had found a way to make what we now
call penicillin, and tested it on humans,
Fleming was thrust forward to claim all
the credit.
It is hard to avoid hyperbole when
talking about the discovery of penicillin. It emptied whole hospital wards, it
saved 300,000 lives in the latter years
An orchestrated campaign, by St
SCREEN EDUCATION
Representing the past
Between 1942 when the penicillin
story broke and 1955 when Fleming
died, he received the Nobel Prize, a
knighthood and 127 doctorates from
grateful governments and universities
around the world. The Pope lauded
him, Presidents and Kings fell down
before him. In Spain they thought he
was a saint.
From top: Norman Heatley; Heatley’s assistant, Glister, on the ‘P-Patrol’ (Photos: Alice Glenn)
Mary’s hospital where Fleming worked,
and by newspapers controlled by the
press baron Lord Beaverbrook, who
sat on the Board of St Mary’s, combined to sideline the crucial Oxford
work. There were no investigative
reporters to cover the story. The public
believed what they were told, and
they were told that the shy Scot was
responsible. The 10-year gap between
his work and the creation of a medicine was explained away. His evasive
answers were taken as shyness and
modesty. His widow barred access
to the uncomfortable records in his
laboratory notebook.
To this day, the public still credit the
discovery of penicillin to Fleming,
while those who did the crucial work
remain forgotten.
But change is in the air.
1 The film claims that it is presenting
an accurate picture, and that most
people believe a flawed or inaccurate picture. Is this true?
2 Devise a simple test of what people know about the discovery of
penicillin, and the role of the main
people involved in it. You need to
do this carefully. For example, if
you ask: ‘Did you know that Florey
was responsible for isolating and
manufacturing penicillin?’, and an
interviewee answers ‘Yes’, how do
you know that it is true? A better
version of this question might be:
‘Name the person who …’
3 A follow up question to whichever
name they give is: ‘How do you
know that?’ This will help you
to identify the main sources of
knowledge – school, books, TV
programs, etc.
4 Another way of testing the public
perception of the discovery of
penicillin is to Google search and
see how many times Fleming’s
name comes up as the discoverer
of penicillin. Use the question:
‘Who discovered penicillin?’
SCREEN EDUCATION
The Google search favours Fleming,
and there is a good chance that your
own survey of people did so as well.
How do you test whether any representation of an historical event or period
is accurate? Here is some information
from a university botanist’s website
about the discovery of penicillin. Read
it, and then decide how Penicillin: The
Magic Bullet compares with it.
ABOVE: Howard Florey writing in study (Photos: Alice Glenn)
experiments properly, rather than
through good investigative work.
However, he was actively searching
for antibacterial agents at the time.
But he then wrote his paper and
made further attempts until 1931 to
follow up his research, but gave up
due to lack of success in isolating
the feature that caused the death of
the bacteria.
• Dr Cecil Paine, who had read
Fleming’s paper, carried out some
successful treatments using
penicillin, but he did not publish
anything about these. Paine had,
however, discussed his work in
1932 with Howard Florey. Florey
later said that he had forgotten
the conversation, but a student
claimed that Florey had referred to
it in a lecture in 1936.
• The film’s maker, Gordon Glenn,
says that Paine had been a student
at St Mary’s hospital before he
came to work for Florey at Sheffield
Uni in 1932. While with Florey he
did some work with the surface application of penicillin broth on eyes
but never considered using penicillin to treat infection inside the body.
Florey was fully aware of this work
but was not interested in 1932 and
Paine’s results were not dramatic.
• Florey’s team started working on
penicillin in 1938 after reading
Fleming’s 1928 paper.
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect21b.htm
5 How does this representation of
what happened in history compare
with that of the film?
6 Can more than one representation
in history be true? Discuss this idea.
Scientific method
The film shows the way in which a
scientific development occurred.
1 What does it tell you about the role
of the following in that process:
• Ideas
• Innovation
• Hypotheses
• Research
• Trial and error
• Tests
• Record keeping
• Chance
• Equipment
• Funding
• Building on the past
• Breaking with the past
• Role of the individual
• Role of teamwork.
• Patenting
SCREEN EDUCATION
• Ancient people as early as 1500
BC knew that mould could help
heal injuries.
• Some Aboriginal people used to
take bark from the mouldy side of
a tree and use it to treat wounds.
• Joseph Lister, an English surgeon,
observed in 1871 that urine samples contaminated with mould did
not allow the growth of bacteria.
• In 1874 William Roberts observed
that bacterial contamination was
often absent in cultures of a penicillin mould.
• In 1877 Louis Pasteur and Jules
Francois Joubert observed that
cultures of the anthrax bacilli,
when contaminated with some
moulds, became inhibited.
• In 1897 Ernest Duchene recorded in
his work that some penicillin mould
inhibited bacterial growth. He died
during World War 1 and was unable
to follow up his studies.
• In the 1920s Andre Gratia and Sara
Dath observed fungal contamination
inhibiting the growth of bacteria.
• From the early 1920s Fleming was
searching for antibacterial agents
• In 1928 he made a chance observation of bacterial cultures being
inhibited by airborne moulds. This
was due to his sloppy research
techniques in not caring for his
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Biography
Some school curricula ask students to
explore the role of a significant person
in history, and Howard Florey is sometimes given as a suitable person to
investigate.
The film can be seen as a biography of
Florey. A good biography will allow the
audience to understand the achievement, but also the person behind the
achievement.
1 List the characteristics and qualities in Florey that are shown in the
film.
2 Do you think the film creates a full
and believable portrait? Explain
your reasons.
3 Are there any questions about the
man and the issue that you feel are
unanswered, and that need to be
asked?
4 We are told about Fleming’s private
affairs – his deteriorating relationship with his wife, and his affair
with Margaret Jennings. Is this
intrusive? Or is it a proper concern
with knowing the truth so that we
can understand a situation? Would
it make any difference if Florey
were alive today, or is it acceptable
because he is dead? Explain your
views.
5 The discovery of ways to massproduce a safe and effective form
of penicillin has saved millions
of lives. Would you call Florey a
‘hero’? Explain your ideas.
6 In a recorded interview held at
the Australian National Library in
Canberra, Florey said:
People sometimes think that I, and
the others, worked on penicillin
because we were interested in suffering humanity. I don’t think it ever
crossed our minds about suffering
humanity. This was an interesting
scientific exercise, and because
it was of some use in medicine is
very gratifying, but this was not the
reason that we started working on
it. (http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/
nlanews//2001/sep01/hflorey.
html)
Does this matter? Could you still call
him a hero? Justify your opinion.
7 What would you say was Florey’s
role in Australian history? You will
need to research further, particularly looking at his role in the
John Curtin School of Medicine at
Australian National University.
Conclusion
• Who discovered penicillin? Explain
your reasons.
• Would you change the vote you
cast at the start of this study?
FURTHER RESOURCES
• Eric Lax, The Mould in Dr Florey’s
Coat, Abacus, London, 2004.
• Australian Dictionary of Biography
Online Edition http://www.adb.
online.anu.edu.au/biogs/
A140202b.htm
• Nobel Prize site http://nobelprize.
org/medicine/laureate/1945/
florey-bio.html On this site you
can also play the Discovery of
Penicillin Game. Go to http://
nobelprize.org/medicine/
educational/penicillin/index.html
• ABC Science http://www.abc.net.
au/science/slab/florey/story.htm
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SCREEN EDUCATION
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