Episode #1.1

Being a Doctor and having worked in the largest free hospital in Asia, in India where Birth Rate is in top ranks in the world, and seeing colleagues and myself having 20x much more patient load and long 48hrs shifts, I was skeptical at first, thinking that this would show how a Doctor has to sacrifice his social life, a self pity type of show, where the doctor sees far less patients (not saying that it's less as per UK standard, just when compared to India) and earning substantially more (again not a bad thing) and still cries about his profession where he knew what he was getting into at first.

This episode PROVED ME WRONG This expressed what many doctors feel. I'm hooked. Hope rest episode stand at par with this one.

From the opening scenes of This Is Going to Hurt. I guessed writer Adam Kay had to be a doctor. The show is meant to be semi autobiographical.

It had the chaotic and dark humour of a previous BBC medical drama Cardiac Arrest shown in the mid 1990s. That was written by Jed Mercurio.

So I look forward to a series from Kay about bent coppers in the 2030s!

The first episode opens with Junior Doctor Adam Kay (Ben Whishaw) waking up in his car. He is so tired he crashed out in his car at the hospital car park.

Before he gets inside the hospital he comes across a heavily pregnant woman who needs an emergency caesarean. They get on the maintenance lift.

It is clear the staff are overworked, the hospital is under resourced. The patients are demanding.

Shruti is a trainee doctor who no one has taken time to train up.

Adam manages to safely deliver the baby whose arm was already sticking out. In such a frenzied environment, he might not always be so lucky.

The first episode ends with Adam leaving a stag do early to work another shift due to staff shortages. Only to find out that a pregnancy has gone wrong, he had sent the mother home without doing a blood test.

Luckily for Adam, the consultant surgeon covers up for him. Recognising that Adam is indeed a conscientious and hard worker.

I liked the first episode and I liked shows such as Cardiac Arrest and St Elsewhere. There is a lot of fourth wall breaking and it has a good balance of black comedy and drama.

Ben Whishaw is very good as Dr Kay trying to balance his hectic work life and his personal life with his boyfriend.

The episode does not shy away from the frustrations of hospital life. Dr Kay suspects a patient is racist and is admonished for calling them out on it. Only for the patient to later let rip when Shruti helps deliver the baby.