James Nesbitt dominates the wards as Gabriel Monroe, a divorced, motorbike-riding neurosurgeon who cracks wise during brain surgery and keeps a human skull on his desk. Each week one surgical crisis consumes St Matthew’s Hospital, pulling registrar Tom Riley, anaesthetist Sarah Parish and a rotating cast of frightened relatives into the same emotional orbit. Creator Peter Bowker, inspired by his daughter’s brain-tumour scare, wanted a British answer to House: a single abrasive genius rather than an ensemble soap. Paul McGuigan shot the first three episodes like a glossy film, tracking cameras through the former Leeds Girls’ High School repurposed as a working theatre ward. The second run opened with Bremner returning from maternity leave to find Monroe still gambling, flirting and refusing to fill in forms, then ended on 5 November 2012 when ITV pulled the plug after ratings slid below three million. Twelve episodes in total, no finale, no funeral, just a terse network press release.
Production Details
STV / 2 Seasons / 12 Episodes / 2011 - Present
Created by: Peter Bowker
Writer(s): Peter Bowker
Producer(s): Damien Timmer
Main Cast
James Nesbitt as Gabriel Monroe
Sarah Parish as
Tom Riley as
Susan Lynch as
Manjinder Virk as Sally Fortune
Andrew Gower as andrew mullery
Matthew Needham as David Foster
Amelia Young as Shelley Maxwell
Kathryn Prescott as Jennifer
