Loveday Writing

Doctor Doctor premiered on 14 September 2016 on the Nine Network and focuses on Dr. Hugh Knight, a high-flying heart surgeon who is forced to work in his hometown of Whyhope for a year as a local GP, as part of a punishment for going on a drug bender that results in a woman overdosing.

The pilot does the job of establishing the show’s premise and characters, as well as contrasting Hugh’s privileged life as a highly regarded city doctor with the realities and limitations of rural medicine. The characters of the show consist of his family: Meryl (his mother), Jim (his father), Matt (his younger brother), Charlie (his ex who is now married to Matt), and Ajax (his ostensibly youngest brother), and his colleagues: Penny (fellow doctor and Hugh’s supervisor), Ken (the hospital registrar), Betty (the hospital receptionist), and Aoife (the hospital nurse and one of Hugh’s love interests).

Doctor Doctor would go on to last for five seasons with its popularity spreading to Europe and being known as ‘The Heart Guy’ internationally. It was also the first Australian TV series to be renewed during the COVID-19 pandemic.