The third in the Doctor series of films sees Dr Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) back at St Swithin’s where he loses out to the self-important Dr Bingham (Michael Medwin) for a job as senior house surgeon.
Feeling that he has no future as a surgeon, he takes a general practice job in an industrial town with the mean-spirited Dr Hatchet (Lionel Jefferies) where he finds he has to do most of the work (including night calls) whilst avoiding the advances of his partner’s flirty young blonde wife, Jasmine (Dilys Laye).
He then takes a locum job with Dr Potter-Shine (Derek Farr) at a Harley Street practice where most of the patients are dotty aristocrats and neurotic society women. Leaving after three months, he moves to a rural practice where patients pay not in cash but in kind (ranging from home-grown raspberries to poached salmon).
Meanwhile, Tony Benskin (Donald Sinden) fails his finals – again – and travels to Ireland where he buys a very dubious medical degree. This leads to a post as private physician to a rich elderly aristocratic lady in Wiltshire.
Sparrow and Benskin take a short holiday in France, where they save Dr Hopcroft (Ernest Jay), a governor at St Swithin’s, from an embarrassing incident. In return, he arranges for Sparrow and Benskin to return to St Swithin’s.
Sparrow commences advanced surgical training with Sir Lancelot Spratt (James Robertson Justice), whilst Benskin becomes the personal physician to a rich Maharajah (Martin Benson).
Dr Simon Sparrow
Dirk Bogarde
Dr Joy Gibson
Muriel Pavlow
Dr Tony Benskin
Donald Sinden
Sir Lancelot Spratt
James Robertson Justice
Nurse Nan McPherson
Shirley Eaton
Dr Potter-Shine
Derek Farr
Dr Charles Bingham
Michael Medwin
Maharajah of Rhanda
Martin Benson
O’Malley
John Chandos
Wilkins
Edward Chapman
Pascoe
George Coulouris
Mrs Digby
Judith Furse
Mrs Wilkins
Gladys Henson
Emerald
Anne Heywood
Charles Hopcroft
Ernest Jay
Dr Hatchet
Lionel Jeffries
Smith
Mervyn Johns
Mrs Jasmine Hatchet
Dilys Laye
Duke of Skye and Lewes
A.E. Matthews
Major Porter
Guy Middleton
Kitty
Barbara Murray
Mr Wayland
Nicholas Phipps
Sam the poacher
Wensley Pithey
Mrs Dalton
Maureen Pryor
Dr Farquarson
George Relph
Lady Hawkins
Athene Seyler
Colonel Graves
Michael Trubshawe
Director
Ralph Thomas