"Doctor in Charge" (1972) TV series 1972-1973

Creator:

Richard Gordon
(more)

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

9 April 1972 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

The continuing misadventures of Duncan Waring (Robin Nedwell), Dick Stuart-Clark (Geoffrey Davies)...

Plot Keywords:

Doctor | Friendship | Nurse | Hospital | Medical

Cast

Robin Nedwell	...	Dr. Duncan Waring (43 episodes, 1972-1973)
George Layton	...	Dr. Paul Collier (38 episodes, 1972-1973)
Geoffrey Davies	...	Dr. Dick Stuart-Clark (37 episodes, 1972-1973)
Ernest Clark	...	Professor Geoffrey Loftus / ... (33 episodes, 1972-1973)
Richard O'Sullivan	...	Dr. Lawrence Bingham / ... (26 episodes, 1972-1973)

Series Directed by
David Askey		(1 episode, 1972)
Bryan Izzard		(1 episode, 1973)
Alan Wallis		(1 episode, 1973)
David Boisseau		(unknown episodes)
Maurice Murphy		(unknown episodes)
Bill Turner		(unknown episodes)

Series Writing credits
Bernard McKenna		(16 episodes, 1972-1973)
Graham Chapman		(14 episodes, 1972-1973)
George Layton		(11 episodes, 1972-1973)
Jonathan Lynn		(11 episodes, 1972-1973)
Graeme Garden		(9 episodes, 1972)
Bill Oddie		(9 episodes, 1972)
Phil Redmond		(3 episodes, 1973)
David Sherlock		(2 episodes, 1973)
Richard Gordon		(1 episode, 1972)

Series Produced by
Humphrey Barclay	....	producer (43 episodes, 1972-1973)

Series Production Design by
Eric Shedden		(1 episode, 1972)
Tom Carter		(1 episode, 1973)
Colin Pigott		(1 episode, 1973)
Rodney Cammish		(unknown episodes)
David Catley		(unknown episodes)

Series Other crew
Tony Cornford	....	stage manager (3 episodes, 1973)
Rima Neave	....	production assistant (3 episodes, 1973)
Hazel Sharples	....	assistant stage manager (3 episodes, 1973)

Production Companies

• London Weekend Television (LWT)

Distributors

• Independent Television (ITV)

Runtime:

30 min (43 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

London Weekend Television (LWT)

Trivia:

'Ambrose Phillpotts' was no stranger to the Doctor Franchise, she had acted in the film Doctor In Love

Movie Connections:

Referenced in What the Pythons Did Next... (2007) (TV)

The National health at it's best!

This LWT sit-com gem from1969-1979 was the Doctors series, a comedy series that was inspired by the success of the 1950's and 60's films starring none other than Dirk Bogard, Leslie Phillips and the bombastic James Robertson Justice. In reality ran for ten years but it was actually broken up into six series that first started with 'doctor in the house' and finally ended with on the other side of the world with 'doctor down under' in 1979.

Many would say that the golden years was 'doctor in charge' although it lasted only two seasons over forty episodes were packed in and it probably had the best cast who were all at their peaks. We had the smooth and charming Dr.Stewart- Clark, the devious Dr Collier, the groveling square Dr Bingham, and the ever chirpy Dr Duncan Warring all of course all held in check by their tormentor the ever sufferable (now knighted) Sir Geoffrey Loftus.

Very much in tune with the original films 'doctor in charge' followed the antics and the hilarious capers that Warring and his cohorts got up too. For example, missing corpses, doctors with hangovers, patient misdiagnosis, wild parties, trouble with the police, missing patients, gambling and chasing nurses were all routine at St.Swithans. That's just for starters, they were also consistently falling foul of the hospital administrators and senior members of the hospital faculty because of their ineptness and general incompetence when it came to their responsibilities. Over the series they must have broken every medical code and violated every medical ethic! Put it this way you would not want to be treated at St.Swithans!