Two doctors in the house

On Tuesday 17th November 2015, there was a programme on Channel 4 called “Doctor in your house”. The doctor was Dr. Xand van Tulleken, one of the twin brothers who have done many engaging health programmes on UK TV. Xand was joined by Dr. Ellie – a regular spokesperson on Sky TV.

On Thursday 19th November 2015, there was a programme on BBC1 called “Doctor in the house”. The doctor was Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, a new face on British television, although I caught him on BBC breakfast a couple of weeks ago talking about low carb diets and I thought “wow – here’s one to watch.”

TV Politics

What has likely happened here is that someone has had the idea for this programme and then moved from one production company to another and the debate about concept ownership has not been resolved, allowing two channels to essentially show the same programme. The programme format was very simple: a doctor lives with a family for a weekend/few days, so that the doctor can really see the lifestyle being followed – not just what the doctor is told during the 7-10 minute consultation. I thought that people would be on their best behaviour while the doctor was there and that this would undermine the ‘reality’ of the programme, but I was wrong. We really did get an insight into the lifestyles of two different families...

 

The rest of this article is available to site subscribers, who get access to all articles plus a weekly newsletter.
To continue reading, please login below or sign up for a subscription. Thank you.