We’ve been through the mill over the years with Doctors, the daytime medical soap – sorry, continuing drama – that has left no abscess unlanced during 23 years of plundering the medical dictionary for crisis-based storylines.
The peculiar thing is, it was only when the BBC handed Doctors its own terminal diagnosis that it got the credit it was long overdue. Actors, writers, directors, costume designers, make-up artists… There aren’t many working in British TV today who didn’t cut their teeth cranking out a fast-turnaround half-an-hour set in Letherbridge’s Mill clinic.
Doctors to depart? A classic case of not knowing what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. Sure, Doctors was never going to challenge Wolf Hall at the Baftas. But in a daytime world increasingly swamped by endless cheap gameshows and identikit consumer faff, the series stood out like a beacon of creativity. Slightly naff, yes, the acting a tad creaky at times, but by weaving in topical issues and an encyclopaedia of medical issues, it connected with an audience overlooked by prestige-crazed streaming services that throw millions at overheated dramas that disappear up their multiple time frames.
In a final week – seriously underplayed by the BBC – that poignantly included the late Timothy West turning in a priceless cameo as a grumpy neighbour (laughing adversity in the face and expressing a desire to “Go out dancing”, a fitting epitaph), we got the best and worst of Doctors.