With Barry Evans out of the 'Doctor' series, it hit crisis point. So popular was he that to have recast the role of 'Upton' would have been a mistake. Humphrey Barclay chose instead to bring back the cheeky 'Duncan Waring' - not seen since 'In The House' - played by the late, much-missed Robin Nedwell. His absence was explained by his being in America, studying medicine ( and getting up to naughty business as the episode 'Honey Lamb' would make abundantly clear ).
Upton was said to have joined the Merchant Navy to escape the amorous advances of Nurse Willett, to whom he had drunkenly proposed. He was never seen again and remained virtually forgotten until the opening episode of 'Doctor At The Top' twenty years later.
It didn't take long for Waring to engender the same level of affection as his predecessor. He was more of an extrovert ( only an extrovert would wear those hideous bow-ties! ) and Nedwell was particularly adept at physical comedy.
The early episodes gave him a steady girlfriend in the shape of Nurse Sandra Crumpton, played by Sammie Winmill, of 'The Tomorrow People' fame, but she was dropped after a handful of episodes, along with Duncan's mother and father.
Richard O'Sullivan had proved popular as slimy 'Bingham' and so was granted the honour of appearing in the opening titles along with the others. Inside Duncan's pacing outline Lawrence can be seen reacting in horror as the ambulance he is in collides head-on with another, carrying Dick Stuart-Clark.
'In Charge' became the first 'Doctor' series to earn a two-page strip in the children's comic 'Look-In'. Angus P.Allan's stories were true to the spirit of the original, although the nurse-chasing and boozing were conspicuously absent!
I rate this as the best of the 'Doctor' series, mainly because of the combined team of Nedwell, Davies, Layton, O'Sullivan and Clark and the superb scripts by, amongst others, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie ( 'The Black & White Medical Show' excepted! ). Sadly, they left after the first series to concentrate on 'The Goodies'. Future 'Grange Hill' and 'Brookside' creator Phil Redmond was one of their replacements.
Two story arcs occurred in the first series - Loftus' quest for a knighthood and Bingham courting and marrying one of Duncan's old flames - the ghastly 'Dr.Mary Parsons' ( Helen Fraser ), who refers to him as 'Bidger-Badger!' and Duncan as 'Dunky'!
Incidentally, a young Tony Robinson ( 'Baldrick' from 'Blackadder' ) appears in the episodes 'Amazing Grace' and 'The Epidemic'.
Funniest episode - 'Honeymoon Special' Watch it and cry laughing!
Upton was said to have joined the Merchant Navy to escape the amorous advances of Nurse Willett, to whom he had drunkenly proposed. He was never seen again and remained virtually forgotten until the opening episode of 'Doctor At The Top' twenty years later.
It didn't take long for Waring to engender the same level of affection as his predecessor. He was more of an extrovert ( only an extrovert would wear those hideous bow-ties! ) and Nedwell was particularly adept at physical comedy.
The early episodes gave him a steady girlfriend in the shape of Nurse Sandra Crumpton, played by Sammie Winmill, of 'The Tomorrow People' fame, but she was dropped after a handful of episodes, along with Duncan's mother and father.
Richard O'Sullivan had proved popular as slimy 'Bingham' and so was granted the honour of appearing in the opening titles along with the others. Inside Duncan's pacing outline Lawrence can be seen reacting in horror as the ambulance he is in collides head-on with another, carrying Dick Stuart-Clark.
'In Charge' became the first 'Doctor' series to earn a two-page strip in the children's comic 'Look-In'. Angus P.Allan's stories were true to the spirit of the original, although the nurse-chasing and boozing were conspicuously absent!
I rate this as the best of the 'Doctor' series, mainly because of the combined team of Nedwell, Davies, Layton, O'Sullivan and Clark and the superb scripts by, amongst others, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie ( 'The Black & White Medical Show' excepted! ). Sadly, they left after the first series to concentrate on 'The Goodies'. Future 'Grange Hill' and 'Brookside' creator Phil Redmond was one of their replacements.
Two story arcs occurred in the first series - Loftus' quest for a knighthood and Bingham courting and marrying one of Duncan's old flames - the ghastly 'Dr.Mary Parsons' ( Helen Fraser ), who refers to him as 'Bidger-Badger!' and Duncan as 'Dunky'!
Incidentally, a young Tony Robinson ( 'Baldrick' from 'Blackadder' ) appears in the episodes 'Amazing Grace' and 'The Epidemic'.
Funniest episode - 'Honeymoon Special' Watch it and cry laughing!