Surgical Spirit is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 situation-comedy

British sitcom

A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...

 television series

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

 starring Nichola McAuliffe

Nichola McAuliffe

Nichola McAuliffe is an English television and stage actress and writer, best known for her role as Sheila Sabatini in the sitcom Surgical Spirit.-Background:McAuliffe was born in 1955 in Surrey, England...

 and Duncan Preston

Duncan Preston

Duncan Preston is an English actor probably best known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood. His best remembered roles are Clifford in the Victoria Wood As Seen On TV soap opera parody Acorn Antiques , and Stan in dinnerladies.In July 2010, Preston revealed he was...

 that was broadcast from 1989 through 1995. It was written by Peter Learmouth, Graeme Garden

Graeme Garden

David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...

, Raymond Dixon, Annie Bruce, Annie Wood

Annie Wood

Annie Wood is an American film, television and voice-over actress, host and writer.Wood was born in Los Angeles and is best known as the bubbly host of the nationally syndicated dating game show Bzzz!...

 and Paul McKenzie. It was made for the ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 network by Humphrey Barclay Productions for Granada Television

Granada Television

Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....

.

Cast

• Nichola McAuliffe
  Nichola McAuliffe
  Nichola McAuliffe is an English television and stage actress and writer, best known for her role as Sheila Sabatini in the sitcom Surgical Spirit.-Background:McAuliffe was born in 1955 in Surrey, England...
  
   as Mrs Sheila Sabatini
• Duncan Preston
  Duncan Preston
  Duncan Preston is an English actor probably best known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood. His best remembered roles are Clifford in the Victoria Wood As Seen On TV soap opera parody Acorn Antiques , and Stan in dinnerladies.In July 2010, Preston revealed he was...
  
   as Dr. Jonathan Haslam
• Marji Campi
  Marji Campi
  Marji Campi is a British actress, best known for playing Joyce Watson in Surgical Spirit between 1989 and 1995; and Jessie Hilton in Brookside, from 1998 to 2002....
  
   as Joyce Watson
• David Conville as Mr George Hope-Wynne
• Emlyn Price as Mr Neil Copeland
• Heather Chasen
  Heather Chasen
  Heather Jean Chasen is a Singapore-born English actress. Her best known roles are playing Valerie Pollard in the ITV soap opera Crossroads and voicing many roles in BBC Radio 2's The Navy Lark...
  
   as Sabatini's Mother

• Suzette Llewellyn as Sister Cheryl Patching
• Beresford Le Roy as Michael Sampson
• Simon Harrison as Giles Peake
• Andrew Groves as Daniel Sabatini
• Lyndham Gregory as Dr. Simon Field (series 1–4)

Plot

The series was based around Sheila Sabatini, a senior surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

 at the Gillies Hospital, whose verbal skills have most people running for cover. She dominated the operating theatre, while at home she was divorcing her Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 husband, Remo, with whom she had a son, Daniel. Sheila was also a gossip, often gossiping with her best friend, theatre administrator Joyce Watson.

One of the major themes in the programme was her developing relationship with Jonathan Haslam, the anaesthetist

Anesthesiologist

An anesthesiologist or anaesthetist is a physician trained in anesthesia and peri-operative medicine....

. At the end of the sixth series, they married and she had become Director of Surgery, while her son had become a medical student at the hospital, much to her annoyance.

Trivia

Beresford Le Roy, who played theatre technician Michael Sampson, was in fact a qualified theatre technician (correct title is in fact Operating Department Practitioner) in real life and later became a medical advisor on the series.

Production

Granada Television

Granada Television

Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....

 decided to decommission the program after the seventh series.

The outside shots were of Lister Hospital in Stevenage

Stevenage

Stevenage is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated to the east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1, and is between Letchworth Garden City to the north, and Welwyn Garden City to the south....

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

.

Series one (1989)

1. "The Lecture" (14 April)
2. "The Locum" (21 April)
3. "Joyce's Ulcer" (28 April)
4. "The Country, Right or Wrong" (5 May)
5. "Fame" (12 May)
6. "Sammy Eldridge" (19 May)

Series two (1990)

1. "Cold Cuts" (27 April)
2. "The Copeland Affair" (4 May)
3. "Educating Daniel" (11 May)
4. "Doubting Thomas" (18 May)
5. "The Phone Call" (25 May)
6. "The Garden Party" (1 June)
7. "Something in the Air" (8 June)

Series three (1991)

1. "The Holiday Job" (4 January)
2. "Only a Roach" (11 January)
3. "Making News" (18 January)
4. "The Fools on the Hill" (25 January)
5. "Close to the Edge" (1 February)
6. "The Earth Trembles" (8 February)
7. "'The Rover's Return" (15 February)

Series four (1992)

1. "The Mating Game" (14 February)
2. "Joyce's Little Turn" (21 February)
3. "The Son also Arises" (28 February)
4. "Oh Happy Day!" (6 March)
5. "The Fence" (13 March)
6. "Wanderlust" (20 March)

Series five (1993)

1. "Congratulations" (19 February)
2. "Sheila's Baby" (26 February)
3. "The Right Man for the Job" (5 March)
4. "A Marvellous Opportunity" (12 March)
5. "Trial by Fury" (19 March)
6. "You Won't Feel a Thing" (26 March)
7. "Moan, Moan, Moan" (2 April)

Series six (1994)

1. "Yes or No" (7 January)
2. "The Morning After" (14 January)
3. "Daniel's Stunt" (21 January)
4. "The Deaf Sentence" (28 January)
5. "Midnight Bugler" (4 February)
6. "On the Rebound" (11 February)
7. "Hot Gossip" (18 February)
8. "Cost Cutting Exercises" (25 February)
9. "Reunion Night" (4 March)
10. "For Richer, for Poorer" (11 March)

Series seven (1995)

1. "Driving it Home" (26 May)
2. "'Rhyme or Reason" (2 June)
3. "All Pull Together" (9 June)
4. "The Silence of the Haslams" (16 June)
5. "The Walkout" (23 June)
6. "Kicking against the Pricks" (30 June)
7. "Administrator of the Year" (7 July)

DVD releases

All seven series of Surgical Spirit have now been released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

. A 8-disc set of the complete series has also been released.

DVD	Year(s)	Release date
The Complete Series 1	1989	28 May 2007
The Complete Series 2	1990	4 May 2009
The Complete Series 3	1991	17 August 2009
The Complete Series 4	1992	18 January 2010
The Complete Series 5	1993	19 April 2010
The Complete Series 6	1994	5 July 2010
The Complete Series 7	1995	23 August 2010
The Complete Series 1 to 7 Box Set	1989- 1995	4 October 2010

External links

• Surgical Spirit at British TV Comedy