The year 1963 was a time of innovation and excitement in British psychiatry, thanks largely to the National Health Service (NHS), which in 1948 had taken the mental hospitals from the control of the local authorities and made them part of a national service, which meant more money and far more medical staff. Rehabilitation of chronically ill patients resulted in a proliferation of out-patient clinics, home assessments, day hospitals, and even halfway houses; doors were unlocked, and informality became the order of the day. Hospitals with enough nurses demonstrated that the whole adult psychiatric service of an area could be successfully provided without a single locked door and almost without a compulsory order in a year. Medical superintendents disappeared and therapeutic communities developed. Suicide ceased to be a crime and became a new subject of research. And, of course, it was the era of successful chemotherapy, chlorpromazine in 1954 and imipramine in 1957 being the first of many drugs used.