The forgotten Oxford scientist who helped transform world healthcare with the introduction of penicillin will tomorrow have his moment of glory in a television drama.

But although Dr Norman Heatley’s widow Mercy is pleased his work is being highlighted in the BBC Four’s Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin, she is worried she might not be able to watch it.

The programme is being shown on BBC4, but the widow cannot receive digital television.

History books state penicillin, the first antibiotic, was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming in London, but work by Oxford University scientist Sir Howard Florey and his colleagues Dr Ernst Chain and Dr Heatley transformed the mould into a life-saving drug.

Although Dr Heatley played a vital role — discovering how to extract penicillin from whatever it grew on so it could be used as a medicine — he was the only one of the four not to be awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

He died in January 2004, five days short of his 93rd birthday.

Dr Mercy Heatley, 87, of Oxford Road, Old Marston, said: “Fleming noticed the antibiotic properties of penicillin, but failed to realise its potential for clinical use.

“Ten years later Florey and his team were looking at bodily functions that worked against bacteria.

“They were looking at tears, but turned their attention to penicillin. My husband was particularly good at extracting it from things — I think it seemed to grow best on grapefruit.

“I feel sad Fleming is always named as the discoverer. I think what happened was he was always happy to talk to the press, whereas Florey wasn’t keen to talk to them and have his team disrupted, which is why Fleming received all the publicity.

“I’m very glad the programme shows their work.

“I’m only concerned I won’t be able to watch it as I don’t have digital television. I’m trying to find a neighbour who’ll let me watch it.”

As well as highlighting their work, Breaking the Mould shows arguments in Florey’s team as they worked in the South Parks Road laboratories.

While Dr Chain wanted to patent their extraction processes — preventing others using the mould for medicine — Dr Heatley wanted it to be freely available.

Dr Mercy Heatley said: “My husband wanted soldiers returning from World War Two to be given the drug, but the patent issues held it all up.”

After hearing from us, the BBC agreed to send her a DVD of the programme, which is based on Eric Lax’s book The Mould in Dr Florey’s Coat.

Producer Pier Wilkie said: “Writer Kate Brooke read the book and thought it was a really interesting subject.

“Our school books say one thing, but the facts are something else.

“I look forward to Mrs Heatley seeing the drama and hope she is pleased with it. Dr Heatley is seen in a very good way.

“He was an absolutely delightful man, free of ego.

“The really sad thing is that you can only award a maximum of three people one Nobel Prize and he was the fourth man in the penicillin project.”

Prof Herman Waldmann, current head of Oxford University’s Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, where Florey’s team worked, said: “It’s hard to imagine what it was like before penicillin and other antibiotics we have now, when simple bacterial infections would fill hospital wards and often prove fatal.

“Heatley, Chain and Florey’s work has saved countless lives and is a crowning moment in medicine at Oxford University.”

Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin will be shown tomorrow at 9pm on BBC Four.