Doctors is a British daytime Soap Opera set in a doctors' surgery, which has aired on BBC One since 26 March 2000. It is set in the fictional Birmingham suburb of Letherbridge.
The setting of a GP's practice means that the series cast is based around 4 or 5 doctors, a nurse and a reception. The actual characters have had a fairly high turnover with most of the current cast only having a 1 or 2 year history on the show but the size of the cast keeps it to a similar sort of format with Two Lines, No Waiting for one line of plot dealing with some interpersonal problems between the doctors and another plot line often dealing with some Patient of the Week. These latter plot lines often opened themselves up for some topical issue taking up the headlines.
This show has examples of
- Adam Westing: One episode had Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who) Adam Westing as a has-been actor best known for his title role in the children's fantasy series The Magical Lollipop Man.
- All Abusers Are Male: Most definitely averted, most recently with Heston and Marina.
- "Also sprach Zarathustra": Used, possible rather parodically, when Karen, who had been making efforts to eat healthily, finally snapped and tucked into a burger at a Greasy Spoon cafe.
- Asshole Victim: Lauren Porter
- Beware the Nice Ones: Exhibited when Simon, having suffered numerous homophobic jibes from Charlie, eventually confronted the latter: his controlled rage was scary.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lauren Porter was a classic example. Marina Bonnaire is a rather more complex case; it's not clear how genuine the nice part of her personality is.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Imogen Hollins is doing a very good job of fulfilling this entire trope on her own.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Handled with surprisingly little Squick.
- By-the-Book Cop: Rob Hollins
- Casting Gag: They once had a Patient of the Week who was an actor best known for his role as a mysterious time-traveller in a decades-old children's programme. He was played by Sylvester McCoy, a.k.a. the Seventh Doctor.
- The Charmer: Dr. Jimmi Clay which is an rare combination with a character with OCD.
- Chekhov M.I.A.: Mrs Tembe's husband Thomas, who she had claimed was dead, eventually turned up.
- Dirty Old Man: Charlie Bradfield.
- Dr. Jerk: Heston Carter
- Faking the Dead: Jimmy's girlfriend, who was an undercover cop had to fake her own death at the hands of another undercover agent to make it seem like her partner was willing to kill cops and thus get closer to the heart of a drug smuggling ring.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted with Karen.
- Handsome Lech: Daniel Grainger.
- Honey Trap: An old friend of Julia's asked her to try to seduce her fiancé to prove he was loyal. Unfortunately, Julia got the wrong man.
- Insult to Rocks: An ex of Daniel's left a baby in the surgery. When he insisted it was nothing to do with him, Michelle called him a horrible stinking rat. Archie asked that they not insult rats.
- Karma Houdini: Nic, a deranged homeless woman in the 2016 homeless storyline. On top of being a bully and a thief, she murders two people. She receives no comeuppance and never appears again.
- Limited Social Circle: Despite Letherbridge being a fair-sized town (it has a university), whenever an incident requires the police to become involved, it is invariably Sergeant Rob Hollins who takes up the call, or else he becomes involved at some point, often recognising somebody he knows.
- Power of Trust: A terminally ill woman and her son successfully use this on the woman's homeless brother to persuade him to look after the boy when she dies.
- Reformed, but Rejected: An example in the episode on 8 October 2010: a previously abusive mother managed to turn her relationship with her daughter around, but was still regarded with suspicion by her own mother, who eventually abducted the child on the strength of this.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Zara
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Zara Carmichael.
- Twofer Token Minority: A job that tends to befall the nurses, that of being a black woman with a slightly thicker regional accent surrounded by white middle class doctors.
- Mandy Marquez is a threefer token minority, being a lesbian as well.
- Vanity License Plate: Vivian had to take a driving test and as is natural she had to read out a license plate from twenty feet: X565 BUM. Cue embarrassment.
- World of Snark: Everyone is snarky on occasion, particularly Julia, Imogen and Zara.
- Worthless Foreign Degree: In this case, the more logical, Worthless Foreign Medical License for an Asian bus driver who saved the life of a boy on his bus, then feigned a lack of English to avoid getting in trouble for practicing without a licence. So they called in a translator, which led to a funny moment when she recognised him:Doctor: You know this man?Translator: Yes, he's my husband. And an idiot.
