There was a double blow for Doctor Who’s army of anxious devotees on Tuesday.
In the morning Ben Whishaw assured Lorraine Kelly there was absolutely no chance of him succeeding Jodie Whitaker.
That evening, in BBC1’s new medical drama This Is Going To Hurt, he let the fandom look at what they could have won, with an outstanding performance that showcased many of the skills required by any prospective pilot of the TARDIS.
Wit, verve, comic timing, sensitivity, pig-headedness and that special something which we are probably no longer allowed to call geeky attractiveness.
Unless Whishaw is in the business of lying to a fellow thespian, we must accept that what he told Lorraine was correct.
In any case, if the opening episode of This Is Going To Hurt was anything to go by, Whishaw could be far too busy playing a medical doctor.
It’s an adaptation of Adam Kay’s best-selling autobiographical novel which you may have been advised to read because, “It’s a bit gruesome, but I think you’ll enjoy it.”
I haven’t read the book, but the TV version was very eye-popping - well, unless you grew up on Jed Mercurio’s Bodies and Channel 4’s One Born Every Minute - and I did really enjoy it.
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It set its stall out early on as the exhausted and frustrated acting registrar Kay (Whisaw) described his workplace, the obstetrics and gynaecology ward, as “Brats and tw*ts”. (By happy coincidence, that line aired while The Brits was on ITV).
The combination of gallows humour and bloody gore is not the most shocking and disturbing thing about this four-parter though.
No, what really strikes you is that it is set in 2006, long before Brexit, Covid and our current Tory overlords began doing their stuff.
I mean, if NHS staff and patients had it this tough back then…
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