The Doctor novels are a series of 18 comic novels by British physician Richard Gordon, covering the antics of a group of young doctors. [1] They were published between 1952 and 1986. [2]
The seven Doctor films were developed from the books, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. [3] The early films featured Dirk Bogarde in the lead as Doctor Sparrow and Donald Sinden as Benskin. [4] Later films starred Leslie Phillips. [5] The first film came in 1954 and the last in 1970. [6]
The films inspired in turn to seven different Doctor television series between 1969 and 1991, totalling 157 thirty-minute episodes:
A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television.
John Francis Junkin was an English actor and scriptwriter who had a long career in radio, television and film, specialising in comedy.
Richard David Briers was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television.
Esmonde and Larbey were a British television screenwriting duo, consisting of John Gilbert Esmonde and Robert Edward Larbey, who created popular sitcoms starting from the mid-1960s until the mid-1990s such as Please Sir!, The Good Life, Get Some In!, Ever Decreasing Circles, and Brush Strokes.
Jack Morris Rosenthal was an English playwright. He wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and over 150 screenplays, including original television plays, feature films, and adaptations.
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 for six seasons from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually original works written for television, although dramatic adaptations of fiction also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen.
David Troughton is an English actor. He is known for his Shakespearean roles on the British stage and for his many roles on British television, including Dr Bob Buzzard in A Very Peculiar Practice and Ricky Hanson in New Tricks.
George Sewell was an English actor, best known for his television roles, but also active on stage and in films.
Rudolph Malcolm Walker is a Trinidadian-British actor, best known for his roles as Bill Reynolds in Love Thy Neighbour (1972–1976) and Constable Frank Gladstone in The Thin Blue Line (1995–1996), as well as his long-running portrayal of Patrick Trueman on the BBC's EastEnders (2001–present), for which he received the 2018 British Soap Award for Outstanding Achievement. He also provided voiceovers for the British and American versions of Teletubbies (1997–2001). Walker's feature film credits include 10 Rillington Place (1971), Bhaji on the Beach (1993), and Ali G Indahouse (2002). He runs The Rudolph Walker Foundation, a charity designed to help disadvantaged youths find careers in entertainment, and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2021.
Anthony Samuel Selby was an English actor. He was best known for his roles as Clive Mitchell in EastEnders, Corporal Percy Marsh in Get Some In!, and Sabalom Glitz in Doctor Who.
The Army Game is a British television sitcom that aired on ITV from 19 June 1957 to 20 June 1961. It was the first ITV sitcom and was made by Granada, and created by Sid Colin. It follows the exploits of Hut 29, a dysfunctional group of soldiers and their National Service conscription into the British Army during the post war years.
Barry Joseph Evans was an English actor best known for his appearances in British sitcoms such as Doctor in the House and Mind Your Language.
Richard Gordon, was an English ship's surgeon and anaesthetist. As Richard Gordon, Ostlere wrote numerous novels, screenplays for film and television and accounts of popular history, mostly dealing with the practice of medicine. He was best known for a long series of comic novels on a medical theme beginning with Doctor in the House, and the subsequent film, television, radio and stage adaptations. His The Alarming History of Medicine was published in 1993, and he followed this with The Alarming History of Sex.
Julia Foster is an English stage, screen, and television actress.
Neville Smith is a British screenwriter and actor who has contributed to numerous television productions, radio plays and movies.
Anthony John Melody was an English television character actor who appeared in a number of long running comedies and soap operas. with more than 100 television roles.
Geoffrey Sumner was a British actor. As well as appearing in a number of films, he was also a commentator for British Movietone News.,
Jim Goddard was an English film and TV director who was born in Battersea, London. He directed episodes of many UK TV series such as Public Eye, Callan, Special Branch, The Sweeney, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, The Bell and Holby City. He may be best known outside England for the TV series Kennedy starring Martin Sheen or directing the film Shanghai Surprise as a vehicle for newlyweds Sean Penn and Madonna.
Thirty-Minute Theatre was a British anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known. It was produced initially by Harry Moore, later by Graeme MacDonald, George Spenton-Foster, Innes Lloyd and others. Thirty-Minute Theatre began on BBC2 in 1965 with an adaptation of the black comedy Parson's Pleasure. Dennis Potter contributed Emergency – Ward 9 (1966), which he partially recycled in the much later The Singing Detective (1986). In 1967 BBC2 launched the UK's first colour service, with the consequence that Thirty-Minute Theatre became the first drama series in the country to be shown in colour.
ITV Sunday Night Theatre, originally titled ITV Saturday Night Theatre and often shortened to simply Sunday Night Theatre or Saturday Night Theatre, is a British television anthology series screened on ITV, whose episodes were contributed by various companies in the ITV network.