Adrian Chiles has named The Pitt, the HBO medical drama, as his new favourite show in the genre, saying it is "on a different level" and "not so much like watching drama as being in one." In a column for The Guardian, the broadcaster and writer explained that he now wants to take his accident-and-emergency needs to Pittsburgh, where the series is set.
A change of heart on fictional doctors
Chiles, who previously worked with Dr Hilary Jones on ITV, admitted he has not always felt this way about fictional TV medics. He never watched ER, finds Casualty entertaining but not enough to fantasise about being rushed to Holby City hospital, and would be put off by the constant pop songs in Grey's Anatomy. Nurse Jackie's Jackie Peyton and Dr O'Hara are compelling, he said, but "too unhinged" for him to take the risk.
His enthusiasm for The Pitt is such that he would welcome medical attention from the actors who play the doctors, even knowing they are not real medics. "Seriously, even knowing they are actors and not doctors, I'd be very happy to have their medical attention," he wrote. "Perhaps not for actual surgery – that would be silly – but for general diagnosis and a bit of stitching or some such, bring it on."
Top picks at the bedside
Chiles named his top choices for medical care from the show. At his bedside he would pick Frank Langdon, citing his bags of experience and brave handling of a drug-dependency problem. Alongside him, he would want Cassie McKay, describing her as "no nonsense, but compassionate with it." He would also hope his case was complex enough to warrant a call for Dr Robbie, saying two minutes with him would see him rise from his bed "right as rain."
For primary care, Chiles looked closer to home, to the Cornish coast and Doc Martin's Dr Martin Ellingham. He came across the classic recently through his mum, whom he gently mocked before becoming hooked after one episode. He is now binge-watching all 79 episodes and has interviewed the show's creator, Dominic Minghella.
What he wants from a GP
Chiles praised Dr Ellingham as exactly what he wants from a GP, rejecting the "kindly, understanding family doctor guff" in favour of someone skilled but also impatient, abrupt, direct and "unpardonably rude." He concluded that if Doc Martin cannot help, the doctor can pack him off to Pittsburgh to do the rest.
