Medics get an injection of fun
Is there a doctor in the house? We look at the medical sitcom which was proving laughter is the best medicine 50 years ago
DOCTOR In The House offered viewers a big dose of comedy 50 years ago and was an immediate hit for ITV. The medical sitcom was set in the fictional teaching hospital of St Swithin’s and began on July 12, 1969.
It came complete with a strong comedy pedigree. Real-life doctor Gordon Ostlere brought out the first of his bestselling “Doctor” series of books under the pseudonym Richard Gordon in 1962. They led to several hugely popular
British comedy Doctor movies with Dirk Bogarde appearing in many of them as Dr Simon Sparrow.
The comedy scenario was given a shake-up when Frank Muir acquired the TV rights when he was head of comedy at LWT.
The new batch of hapless junior doctors included Barry Evans as Michael Upton, Robin Nedwell as
Duncan Waring, George Layton as Paul Collier and Geoffrey Davies as Dick Stuart-Clark.
Ernest Clark and Ralph Michael played top surgeon Professor Loftus and hospital boss, the Dean, and Martin Shaw also appeared for one series as Welsh medical student Huw Evans before he went on to make his name in The Professionals. Richard O’Sullivan later joined the regular cast as Dr Lawrence Bingham.
The sitcom proved so popular that Doctor At Large, Doctor In Charge, Doctor At Sea and
Doctor On The Go all followed over the years. Australia’s 7 Network also had Doctor Down On while BBC brought the cast back together in 1991 for Doctor At The Top. Several of the early episodes of Doctor In The House were written by Barry Cryer, future Monty Python stars John Cleese and Graham Chapman and Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden before they became known as
The Goodies.
The TV series certainly gave them a chance to hone their comedy writing talents and proved the right treatment for the sitcom’s success.