Typical of the great actor Timothy West, his last appearance took place not in a major film or artistic show, but in an everyday TV episode – on the very day his death was announced.
West was a trouper, a product of the repertoire of touring theater companies of the 1950s. He was never too proud to dabble in soaps, playing patriarch Stan Carter in EastEnders. And in Coronation Street his character, Eric, was given the rare privilege of dropping dead in the Rovers.
His last role was a cameo in Doctors on Wednesday, in which he had a great time as a nosy neighbor named Artie Simkins, who calls for medical attention after the neighbor collapses in her backyard.
Artie and the deadpan Sylvie (Trudie Goodwin) flirted madly over the garden fence as they waited for the ambulance. It was great to see West bow with his signature twinkle.
Doctors themselves stopped 24 hours later, ending the quarter-century run with a flourish. Annoying doctor Graham Elton (Alex Avery) got his comeuppance, doctor Jimmi Clay (Adrian Lewis Morgan) tore up the NHS rulebook and returned to treating patients, and midwife Ruhma Carter (Bharti Patel) survived a hostage crisis before falling into arms from her admirer, Sergeant Rob Hollins (Chris Walker).
Timothy West’s latest role was a cameo in Wednesday’s Doctors, in which he had a great time as a nosy neighbor named Artie Simkins.
Doctors themselves stopped 24 hours later, ending the quarter-century run with a flourish
The episode ends with a montage of the cast in the operating room as the video pans over The Mill Heath Health Centre
Doctors: A Celebration followed, a 25-minute summary that really should have been longer. Christopher Timothy, one of the original cast, fondly remembered his years as the hard-drinking Dr. Brendan ‘Mac’ MacGuire.
Other famous faces included Brian Blessed, Richard Briers and Honor Blackman. . . all, like Tim West, hard-working thesps. Even more surprising was the roll call of student actors before success struck – including Jodie Comer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Eddie ‘the Jackal’ Redmayne.
Now that Doctors has been dropped from the schedule as part of the BBC’s budget cuts (original drama is too expensive compared to quiz shows and panel games), a great TV tradition dating back to the 1960s is over.
Before the Doctors of Letherbridge we had another daily soap opera in Birmingham, at the Crossroads motel. Because it was filmed so vividly, Doctors often had a similar style: the sets didn’t wobble, but the camerawork relied on the same silent close-ups and exaggerated reaction shots.
The plots rattled along, often making inexplicable jumps. Even on the last day this was clear: one moment Ruhma was under fire by a deranged conspiracy theorist; the next day, she and an expectant mother were barricaded in a side room, keeping the madman at bay with a broom.
Such inconsistencies never mattered. All the viewer needs is to see well-known characters deal with everyday crises and fall in love with each other. It’s not much to ask.
When the beloved Australian soap Neighbors ended on Channel 5 a few years ago, Amazon quickly stepped in and revived it. Let’s hope the same thing happens again. Save our doctors!