James Nesbitt is to star as neurosurgeon Gabriel Monroe in Monroe, a new six-part medical drama due to start on ITV on Thursday 10 March 2011. The show also features Sarah Parish as cardiac surgeon Jenny Bremner, Tom Riley as anaesthetist Dr. Lawrence Shepherd, and Manjinder Virk as registrar Sally Fortune.
While Monroe does all he can to encourage his shy and weak-stomached trainee Kitty Wilson (played by Michelle Asante) and keep the ambitious Daniel Springer (played by Luke Allen-Gale) in check, Bremner's trainees, Andrew Mullery (played by Andrew Gower) and Sarah Witney (played by Christina Chong), are left to observe her cardiac operations from the sidelines.
In what is already being talked about as the UK’s answer to House, the drama will look at Monroe’s life both inside and outside the hospital, including Monroe’s close-on dysfunctional marriage to Anna (played by Susan Lynch) and his relationship with his teenage son Nick, played by Perry Millward.
A lot of the drama in the hospital centres on the close relationship between Monroe and his best friend Shepherd, who has a love life that Monroe is always ready to poke fun at. But Shepherd also has the job of keeping Monroe’s delusions of grandeur in check.
The Actors in Monroe
Irish actor James Nesbitt has been acting on television since he had an uncredited role in an episode of Play for Today in 1984 but had his first real breakthrough when he played Leo McGarvey in 1996’s Ballykissangel and John Dolan in 1998’s Playing the Field. He is though perhaps best known for his role as Adam Williams in Cold Feet. Other roles include Tom Jackman and Mr Hyde in Jekyll, Tommy Murphy in Murphy’s Law and Clem Donnelly in The Deep. He is due to play Bofur in the upcoming movie The Hobbit.
Sarah Parish is well remembered for her performances as the Empress of the Racnoss in Doctor Who, Lady Catrina in Merlin and Regan Hamleigh in The Pillars of the Earth, but she first became known as Dawn Rudge in Peak Practice. More recently, she played Katie Roden in Misstresses.
Tom Riley is not new to hospital drama, having played Doctor James Walton in Casualty 1906 and Casualty 1907. Other roles include Mr Wickham in Lost in Austen and Gavin Sorenson in Bouquet of Barbed Wire.
Also happy in medical roles is Manjinder Virk, whose CV includes Holby City, Green Wing and Doctors. Michelle Asante was also in Holby City and played Venetia in Some Dogs Bite. Luke Allen-Gale recently played Corporal Jackie Clough in The Promise. Thomas Morrison (Brideshead Revisited and Blackpool) is hospital porter-cum-bookie Lee Bradley.
The Team Behind Monroe
Monroe was written and created by Peter Bowker, directed by Paul McGuigan and David Moore, and produced by Jennie Scanlon. It was executive produced for ITV by Michele Buck and Damien Timmer from Mammoth Screen. Howard Ella was co-producer.
"Monroe will breathe new life into the medical genre,” said ITV's director of drama commissioning Laura Mackie in the official ITV press release. “I hope the combination of Pete's sharp and pacy script and Jimmy's performance as the charismatic surgeon will make this one of the most compelling new dramas for 2011."
Monroe was jointly commissioned by Mackie and Sally Haynes, controller of drama commissioning. Filmed on location in Leeds, Monroe was produced by Mammoth Screen and co-produced by Ingenious Broadcasting and Capico Productions.
Why Peter Bowker Wrote Monroe
Much of the story was inspired by the real-life events that writer Peter Bowker experienced when his four-year old daughter had a brain tumour. The outcome, thankfully, of the nerve-wracking experience was successful.
“He operated successfully,” said Bowker in the ITV press release. “My daughter’s tumour was removed. Non-cancerous. A full recovery. A good news story. We leave the hospital with the cards, presents and profound relief to get on with our lives. And tomorrow the surgeon has to go and do it all again. And see families to whom he has often to break bad news not good. He goes to work knowing that today somebody might die, or be irreparably brain damaged, as a result of his actions in trying to heal them.”
But he said he wanted a surgeon who had the expected god complex but without the accent and manner one would normally expect, someone who looked and sounded more like the person who might fix a washing machine.
“And so, from those building blocks, Monroe the series began to emerge,” said Bowker. “A year on we found a group of lead actors who I knew and trusted, a cast of new discoveries who have proven themselves every bit as talented as we suspected they were, and two supremely talented directors in the shape of Paul McGuigan and David Moore, who have given the show a visually exciting look and a visceral energy that helps to make this a new kind of hospital show.”
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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