Green Wing – Nostalgia Central

2 0 0 4 – 2 0 0 7 (UK)
18 x 60 minute episodes

Created by the team that delivered the fast-paced, female-driven sketch show Smack the Pony (1999), this series took elements of that show and added a linking storyline to create a fresh TV comedy.

Although set in East Hampton Hospital, it largely ignored medical matters, focusing instead on the intertwined lives of a disparate group of strange and flawed characters. Central to it all was Dr Caroline Todd (Tamsin Greig), a newcomer confronted by a menagerie of colourful eccentrics, including two would-be suitors – handsome surgeon “Mac” Macartney (Julian Rhind-Tutt) and the soulless egocentric Guy Secretan (Stephen Mangan).

Elsewhere, the viewers encountered the intense consultant radiologist Dr Alan Statham (Mark Heap), an active volcano of spluttering insecurities and barely contained lust; the terrifyingly unhinged staff liaison officer Sue White (Michelle Gomez), who belittled those seeking her help; and Joanna Clore (Pippa Heywood), the tyrannical human relations officer who was sexually involved with Dr Statham.

Although sitcom-type plots could be found in the sixty-five-minute-long episodes, they mainly operated as lines on which to hang sketches.

Green Wing was an ambitious hybrid show that incorporated a flashy style (slo-mo and sped-up film were used to link scenes) and favoured a system whereby scriptwriters incorporated improvisation worked out by the actors beforehand, which encouraged them to push back boundaries.

Certainly, many of the characters were unusually extreme.

Dr Caroline Todd
Tamsin Greig
Dr “Mac” Macartney
Julian Rhind-Tutt
Dr Guy Secretan
Stephen Mangan
Dr Alan Statham
Mark Heap
Sue White
Michelle Gomez
Joanna Clore
Pippa Heywood
Harriet Schulenburg
Olivia Colman
Kim Alabaster
Sally Bretton
Boyce
Oliver Chris
Naughty Rachel
Katie Lyons
Karen Ball
Lucinda Raikes
Dr Martin Dear
Karl Theobald