Since 2012 the identical van Tulleken brothers have turned gore into playground currency, filming inside Alder Hey and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospitals while crashing ambulances, swallowing cameras and stapling each other’s arms on camera. Each 28-minute episode stitches together dash-cam rescues with slow-motion claret and kitchen-table science, giving viewers step-by-step instructions to replicate cartilage tests or make fake blood. The format proved durable enough to survive a pandemic, with the ninth run opening on a COVID-19 special before the series resumed in January 2021.
Chris, the practising clinician, and Xand, the research academic, met at Oxford medical school and graduated in 2002; their on-screen rapport relies on sibling one-upmanship rather than autocue patter. Producer Maverick Television added emergency doctor Ronx İkharia in 2019, broadening the presenting roster and the range of procedures the team will attempt. The result is a show that has clocked up 161 episodes across fourteen series, making it CBBC’s longest-running factual commission and the reason a generation of British children can explain platelet function while brandishing homemade scabs.
Production Details
CBBC / 17 Seasons / 204 Episodes / 2012 - Present
Producer(s): Maverick Television[1]Ian France[1]
Main Cast
Xand van Tulleken as Himself - Presenter
Chris van Tulleken as Himself - Presenter
Ronx Ikharia as Herself - Presenter
