Doctor at the Top

1 9 9 1 (UK)
7 x 30 minute episodes

In this return to the successful series of 70s Doctor TV shows that began with Doctor in the House in 1969, over twenty years have passed since the student days of Duncan Waring, Dick Stuart-Clark and Paul Collier.

Dick (Geoffrey Davies) is now a Professor of Surgery at St Swithin’s Hospital with a rich wife, Emma (Jill Benedict) and a daughter Rebecca (Chloë Annett) who is a militant union leader among the medical students.

Paul (George Layton) is a thrice-divorced Harley Street consultant and Duncan (Robin Nedwell) is a paediatric surgeon dedicated to the NHS and married to Geraldine (Georgina Melville), the daughter of now-retired Sir Geoffrey Loftus (Ernest Clark), their old professor from their early days at St Swithin’s.

The larky students from the LWT series of the early seventies who spent their time chasing nurses and playing japes on each other had grown older, greyer and apparently wiser. But not, it seems, funnier.

It was all a far cry from the bedpan-and-rugger humour that epitomised the earlier series. Indeed it was such a far cry that the humour seemed to have disappeared altogether. Even the expected slapstick and lavatory tendencies which the BBC always seemed to appreciate were not in evidence.

Apparently, LWT was offered the series but showed little interest and the BBC soon snapped up the idea. The new series was written by George Layton with former Goodies star Bill Oddie.

Duncan Waring
Robin Nedwell
Professor Dick Stuart-Clark
Geoffrey Davies
Paul Collier
George Layton
Dr Lionel Snell
Roger Sloman
Geraldine Waring
Georgina Melville
Rebecca Stuart-Clark
Chloë Annett
Sir Geoffrey Loftus
Ernest Clark
Emma Stuart-Clark
Jill Benedict

Episodes

Sins of the Father | Happy Birthday, Sir Geoffrey | The V.I.P. | The Kindest Cut | Bye Bye, Bickerstaff | It’s Alright, I Am a Doctor | Waring Goes Private