Bodies - The Finale
Production notes
The ultimate antidote to medical dramas, the first two series of Bodies received critical plaudits and a Royal Television Society award for Best Drama Series.
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Powerful, emotional and confronting tough issues head on, Bodies was inspired by Jed Mercurio's debut novel and personal experiences as a doctor.
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It is a dark, cynical portrayal of the NHS, where incompetent doctors' deadly mistakes are covered up and even the more appealing characters are routinely forced into morally compromising situations by the system.
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Rich in humour, this is not a medical drama as we know it.
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Bodies is not about glamorous, heroic doctors and nurses, but about real people doing a sometimes impossible job, a ground-breaking series which blew the whistle on NHS cover-ups.
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Tense, gripping, darkly humorous and scarily unsettling, the first series of Bodies was broadcast in 2004 on 91Èȱ¬ Three before being shown on 91Èȱ¬ Two.
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Series two premiered on 91Èȱ¬ Two and the next episode was shown immediately afterwards on 91Èȱ¬ Three.
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In series one, Rob Lake (Max Beesley) joined the team in a city maternity unit as a cocky, idealistic young doctor but, within days, he realised that his new boss, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist Roger Hurley (Patrick Baladi) was making mistakes on an alarmingly regular basis.
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When Rob made his own mistake, resulting in the death of a patient, Hurley covered for him in accordance with the unspoken practice amongst doctors.
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Now beholden to his boss, Rob was faced with the moral dilemma of whether to report Hurley's malpractice and challenge the most powerful institutions of medicine – or bite his tongue and place more patients at risk...
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In series two Rob was working out his last days and his future looked bleak since he blew the whistle on his boss.
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However, Senior Consultant Hurley used his position to cover up his mistakes and he made Rob's position at the hospital untenable.
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Rob realised that his career was effectively over and, to add insult to injury, Hurley took much pleasure in introducing him to his replacement.
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Whitman (Keith Allen) found it hard to come to terms with being demoted and having the dangerously inept Hurley as a boss. His nose firmly out of joint, he set about plotting Hurley's downfall.
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Sister Donna Rix (Neve McIntosh) continued her passionate affair with Rob...
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But three years down the line, everything has changed, and Bodies – The Finale takes up the story.
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Max Beesley explains: "Rob is a newly-appointed consultant working at University Hospital. Polly is also a consultant, but working at SCI Hospital. They are living together; their relationship is pretty dysfunctional, but Polly is pregnant and their baby is due imminently.
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"Rob is having difficulty sleeping, unable to wind down, and he is also distracted by an increasingly persistent hand tremor.
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"Then Rob receives a mysterious phone call from Donna, his ex-girlfriend and former SCI hospital nurse. Recently graduated from university, she's now a budding journalist and divorced.
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"In the heat of the moment, Rob doesn't reveal he's now with Polly – least of all that they are expecting a baby."
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Neve McIntosh comments: "Rob is distracted by the sight of Donna in uniform being shown round the ward. She explains that she is researching an article on incompetent doctors and whistle-blowers. Assuring him anonymity, Donna wants Rob to blow the whistle on Hurley. Rob tells her he has moved on."
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Max adds: "Rob is in a new place now, a new life, basically, and the only connections to the past are through his girlfriend Polly.
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"Everything it seems is swimming along in a nice fashion – except does he love his girlfriend? And how badly scarred is he by his past experiences with Roger Hurley?
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"Rob soon finds out how deeply haunted he is by the untimely arrival of Hurley at his hospital as a new consultant."
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In the meantime Rob goes to see his best mate Rich and confides in him his anxiety over his insomnia and the hand tremor.
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Rich tells him it is nothing; just the stress of being a first year consultant and expectant father.
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But he asks if Rob eats beef and whether he has ever received an injury from a surgical instrument. When Rob confirms both, Rich reels off the facts relating to vCJD (Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) and offers to destroy the notes to give Rob time to take out critical illness cover - although that might be premature.
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Since the second series of Bodies was screened, Tamzin Malleson and co-star Keith Allen have had a baby girl called Teddie, who came along to the read-through in her push-chair.
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Jed Mercurio comments: "I knew when I was writing the script that Tamzin would have had a baby by the time of shooting the finale.
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"It helped suggest the idea of her character being pregnant in the story, but I wrote the scenes with a small amount of trepidation, in case they'd be emotionally difficult for her.
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"However, I spoke to Tamzin on the phone and she was really up for the challenge; and, on set, she was brilliant - full of ideas about what her character would be thinking and feeling."
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Tamzin Malleson comments: "Polly is at a point in her career where she can afford to have a baby as she's now a consultant and therefore more in control of her time.
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"She's fallen into her relationship with Rob; in series one and two they were very much on an equal footing, both specialist registrars, so there was a healthy amount of competition between them.
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"I imagine that at some stage they've gone out for a drink and fallen into bed and then into a relationship and then she fell pregnant. I don't think it's a particularly passionate relationship, which is actually quite depressing!"
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She adds: "The climax of the episode, when Polly is rushed into hospital, was emotionally very demanding and challenging."
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For Patrick Baladi, Bodies – The Finale sees Roger Hurley at an all-time low, both personally and professionally.
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Patrick explains: "Hurley and his wife Harriet have separated and he is missing his children desperately.
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"When one night after closing time Hurley stumbles home slightly worse for wear and stops to take a leak in an alleyway, he is caught in the act by the police and cautioned.
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"Word gets back to his boss Paul Tennant who decides to have Hurley transferred to save any possible embarrassment. And when his wife hears about it, she starts to make it difficult for him to see his children."
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Tennant dispatches hospital consultant Chrissy Farrell to see the suspended consultant Tony Whitman who, with an ever dwindling private practice, is spending more and more time on the golf course.
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Keith Allen explains: "Under duress, Whitman agrees to provide a fake reference for Hurley, and is duly reinstated at SCI Hospital."
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Meanwhile, acting on Tennant's orders, a resigned Hurley is transferred to University Hospital – much to Rob's astonishment...
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How does Jed feel about this being the very final episode?
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"The first two series were received incredibly well by the critics. The fact that the programme won the RTS Award for Best Drama Series but still didn't get recommissioned struck me as a travesty.
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"I've been heartened by the strong collaborative relationships I retain in certain quarters of the 91Èȱ¬, and they've been instrumental in securing the commission for the finale.
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"It's not often as a TV writer you're given the opportunity to round off your own series, and for that I'm deeply grateful. Working with the same wonderful team was a joy from the first day to the last."
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Max adds: "I think the series has done so well because Bodies offers a very real, dramatic, intense, complicated, interesting package.
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"It is so well written, wonderfully shot and well acted that people really do invest in the characters' journeys with a passion."
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He concludes: "I'm sorry to see the series end but I feel it has finished with a very, very strong 90-minute special. It is certainly the best of the series in my eyes, and a piece of work that I am extremely proud of."
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