Here’s a review from Variety.
Before looking at the Variety review, I want to mention that Breathless is rather weak in the “Mystery” department. Not much of a Whodunnit, more of a WhaHoppened.
The now-“retired” nurse wanted to pretend she’s part of a higher social class, so she invented a story of being evacuated during the war and Angie went along with it.
I thought that was the case, also, but doesn’t it have something to do with her father & his (presumed) dementia? I would have thought her home & its location would give away any hint of a lower social class. And why does she have to keep her sister’s identity a secret?
Spoilers follow… if anyone cares.
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Last night’s deeply unsatisfying ending to *Breathless *makes some sense if you know that there was originally going to be a second season/series, which has been shelved (or possibly trashed) by ITV.
In England, this series aired in six parts; over here it was three long episodes. If I had spent six weeks watching this, I’d be even more upset over the non-resolution of the Powell situation than I am.
The secret was that nine years ago in Cyprus, Powell was driving a car drunk and he flipped it and killed his passenger, the boyfriend of Elizabeth who was pregnant with Thomas. Enderbury helped him dispose of the body and Powell bribed then-Sergeant Mulligan to hush the whole thing up. That Macguffin was barely substantial enough to the bear the weight of all the tangled secrets that ensued. As reparation, Powell married Elizabeth to give Thomas a father, but they never live as a married couple. Powell tells Angela that he has never even kissed Elizabeth, but never has a chance to tell her the whole story. Enderbury ambushes Mulligan and kills him just as Powell is offering himself as a sacrificial lamb (which wouldn’t have solved anything).
Reflecting on this after reading the IMDB message board, I’m actually starting to see this as kind of interesting, but the story fairly cries out for a second season to tie up some loose ends.
As I see it, the pivot of the whole shebang is Powell’s personal code of honor, which has led him to stick it out indefinitely in this *faux *marriage because of his vow to protect Elizabeth and Thomas, but paradoxically, also leads him to perform illegal abortions in people’s homes in the dead of night. IOW he follows the rules consistently, but they are HIS rules. He and Elizabeth have a deal that he can sleep around since they’re not sleeping together, but she sees that his growing feelings for Nurse Angela make her different and a threat to Elizabeth’s secure way of life. Her way of life is secure because Powell is trustworthy and his personal code of honor is ironclad.
Why did Elizabeth go to bed with Mulligan instead of telling Powell about him? She said it was because she was afraid Powell would kill him. What would have been the problem with that? A doctor could kill a person pretty stealthily-- and in fact, a doctor does wind up killing Mulligan. Even as Mulligan was dying, Powell was trying to save him and telling Elizabeth to run to a nearby pub to call an ambulance. Thank goodness she ignored him.
I think Elizabeth didn’t tell Powell about Mulligan, because if Powell killed Mulligan, then there would be less of a reason for the Powells to stay married. The danger of Powell’s past crime being revealed would be nil. But then she might lose her cushy position as the doctor’s wife. By having sex with Mulligan and getting pregnant, she re-enlisted Powell and his sense of honor as her husband and protector. Even though the baby was Mulligan’s, and Powell probably would have been willing to perform an abortion. She said no, they can start over, they can go to the beach and be a family.
But at the end Mulligan was dead at Enderbury’s hand and presumably lost in the river with no external signs of force. And Powell rushes to keep his rendezvous with Angela at the coffee shop only to spy her at the table, completely gobsmacked, with her big black husband kissing her hands. Drat! Powell sadly walks away.
The other subplots reached more satisfying (sort of) conclusions-- Jean and the death of her husband Truscott’s lover, Truscott actually realizing after an emergency surgery that doctors are more than show ponies–they actually save lives, Powell helping Angela’s father out of a jam, and Enderbury turning down a good job because he couldn’t cut the umbilical cord that pumps sustenance to him from Powell.
And there needs to be a second season, goddammit!
Surgeons here are called Mr. as well.
Back in the day (1700’s) you needed to have a medical degree to be called a doctor. Not so to be a surgeon. Early surgeons needed little or no formal education to set up shop as it were and so were called Mr. to differentiate them from the real doctors. When surgery and the training for it became more formalised through the Royal College of Surgeons they kept the Mr as a badge of honor. They were no mere doctors! 
Spoilers here, too:
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ThelmaLou, I do agree that the ‘Cyprus car crash’ was ridiculously weak as a basis for all the angst and tortured secret-keeping. Motivations of many characters were poorly supported and contrivances abounded.
As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I do like the look of the show. But unless new writers were to be brought onboard, I can’t mourn the demise of Breathless.
Spoilers:
It wasn’t just the car crash. Powell bribed Mulligan, who realized that Powell was driving, not Glen (they had moved the body to make it look like Glen was the driver). Revealing that would mean Powell was guilty of a crime, which probably would have put an end to this medical career. Mulligan was also guilty, but he had less to lose. Also, the scandal, even if Powell were never charged, would have been enough to end his career.
In the first episode, there was a young patient in the hospital who was, I think, afraid of her father. One of the nurses helped her leave the hospital and hid her in the nurse’s house. Was that Mulligan’s daughter?
Yes. Nurse Angela took her home to shelter her and she wound up looking after Angela’s father. Quite a coincidence, eh? Not sure why we needed that coincidence.