Malpractice (UTV, Sunday 9pm) is from the production company behind Line of Duty and, as with that convoluted copper caper, features an Irish actor in a key role. Niamh Algar plays Dr Lucinda Edwards, a seemingly hypercompetent doctor at a busy London A&E. She’s no Ted Hastings, though: where Adrian Dunbar spent 90 per cent of his screen time spouting aphorisms, Algar’s character is soon in the middle of a bloody mess when a young patient in her care dies of an overdose.
But is the woman actually in her care? A gun victim is rushed in at the same time, and Edwards hands the overdose case to an inexperienced junior doctor. Who is to blame for the death? That is the question an official inquiry seeks to answer. Here we are truly in Line of Duty territory, as Algar’s Edwards is grilled by a scrum of seniors in a claustrophobic office.
As with Line of Duty, Malpractice goes OTT with the lingo. Its writer, Grace Ofori-Attah, a former doctor, treats viewers to a blizzard of medical technobabble. “I’m going to have to clamp his aorta and stabilise him,” Edwards says at one point. “Prep for an emergency thoracotomy”. Sounds painful.
Edwards isn’t a bent copper. But is she a wonky doctor? What, for instance, about those mysterious phone calls she constantly receives – including several on the night of the death?
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Another wrinkle is that the grandiose consultant who was supposed to be in charge had skipped off half an hour early to collect his son from sports training (rugby, naturally). So even if Edwards did muck up, is the real culprit a health system that forces those further down the ladder to do the heavy lifting while those at the top chauffeur their little darlings to rugger?
Algar is the mesmerising centre of gravity in a show that, with a flakier lead actor, could have gone off the rails. There is more to Edwards than meets the eye – as we discover when she gets in contact with a flustered GP who knew the dead woman. This is followed by a twist so ridiculous you have to laugh – and also wonder if the writers are unaware that every centimetre of central London is cobwebbed with CCTV.
But despite the giggles, it’s hard not to be gripped by this taut thriller. At moments it feels like Line of Duty with stethoscopes. But given the blockbuster ratings of that series, UTV doubtless considers this no bad thing. And with Algar’s riveting performance driving the action, another Irish thesp may be about to go full Ted Hastings.
