History Series / DoctorInTheHouse

* SequentialSymptomSyndrome: Bumbling medical student Reggie Grace experiences this in the ''Doctor in Charge'' episode "The Epidemic", first when a fellow student answers Waring's question about the symptoms of gastroenteritis (including stomachache, fever, and vomiting, the last manifesting as dry heaves in Grace's case), and then again when Waring recites the symptoms of Ménière's disease (including deafness, tinnitus, and sudden attacks of vertigo).

* ShownTheirWork: Not only did the series have a medical adviser to look over the scripts, but several of the main writers, most notably Creator/GrahamChapman and Graeme Garden, had trained as doctors.[[note]] Chapman and Garden both started their studies at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, then finished their training at hospitals in London; Chapman at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Garden at King's College Hospital. Neither ever practised medicine, however.[[/note]] As such, the ''Doctor in the House'' series not only features a great deal of medical terminology (mostly accurate unless the RuleOfFunny takes priority over reality), but also includes a few "tricks of the trade" for medical students. For example, in "Pass or Fail" from ''Doctor in the House'', Stuart-Clark gives Upton the mnemonic "Luscious French Tarts Sit Naked In Anticipation" as a way to remember the seven nerves which pass through the superior orbital fissure in the skull to control eye movement: Lacrimal, Frontal, Trochlear, Superior oculomotor, Nasociliary, Inferior oculomotor, Abducens.[[note]] Though the actual mnemonics used by medical students are often too vulgar for anything other than late night television![[/note]]

* WavingSignsAround: In "The Students Are Revolting" from ''Doctor in the House'', Upton is misidentified as having participated in a student demonstration (until Loftus points out that the demonstration was in New York), and the resulting attention attracts a real group of itinerant student protesters who proceed to occupy the hospital, complete with signs, choruses of "We Shall Overcome", and (somewhat jumbled) rallying speeches. When Loftus engages in a bit of ShamingTheMob by telling them how silly it is to occupy a building dedicated to saving and prolonging life, they agree to leave, but then the police arrive and arrest Loftus when they see him holding a sign. At the end of the episode, the students at St. Swithin's stage a sign-waving rally in his support until he points out that he has already been pardoned by the Dean.

** In the second series ''Doctor in Charge'' episode "Brotherly Hate", Richard O'Sullivan plays ''three'' roles: Lawrence Bingham, his identical brother Lionel (who impersonates Lawrence to persuade Sir Geoffrey to take Collier on as a surgeon), and, in the episode's final scene, Lawrence and Lionel's identical brother Leonard. All three appear on screen at once via the use of green screening (although the effects are rather obvious, as the colours don't quite match).
** Ernest Clark plays both Sir Geoffrey Loftus and Captain Norman Loftus in ''Doctor at Sea'', with both brothers appearing in the first and last episodes, "Sir John and Baby Doc" and "But It's So Much Nicer to Come Home". As in "Brotherly Hate", Clark's appearance as both characters on screen simultaneously is achieved through green screen techniques.

* RememberTheNewGuy: When the character of Lawrence Bingham is introduced in the first episode of ''Doctor at Large'', "Now Dr. Upton", Upton, Stuart-Clark, and Collier already seem to know him well enough to loathe him and all he represents, and when Huw Evans shows up in "Mother and Father Doing Well" and is told Bingham is on duty in the maternity ward, he clearly knows him well enough to be disgusted by the idea. However, Bingham was never so much as mentioned in ''Doctor in the House'', despite pipping Upton and Waring (in that order) to the surgery prize in his final year at St. Swithin's.

* BedmateReveal: In "Honeymoon Special" from ''Doctor in Charge'', Waring has reluctantly driven the newly married Binghams in their hired car to a country hotel after Stuart-Clark and Collier have encased Lawrence's leg in plaster as a prank, and must stay the night as public transport has stopped running by the time they arrive. Waring takes Room 9 while the Binghams take Room 6, but when they leave their rooms when Collier phones the hotel late at night to confess the prank, Waring returns to his room and slams the door, causing the number 9 to fall upside-down and leading Mary to assume the room is hers. Then Lawrence returns to what he thinks is his room, switches on the light, and finds Waring and Mary in bed together - to the shock of all three.

* OhCrap: The students/doctors often had this look when Loftus found evidence of their scheming or shirking. A notable example comes from the ''Doctor at Large'' episode "Operation Loftus", when he returns from an extended trip to America to take up his position as Professor of Surgery at St. Swithin's. In his absence, Stuart-Clark has been running all sorts of money-making schemes, and dumping all the real work on the more than willing Bingham. He gets a series of increasingly alarmed looks when Loftus returns (finding Stuart-Clark in the bar, which he now opens for lunch) and announces that he is not only resuming his position as Professor of Surgery, but has been appointed to the Board of Governors and will be conducting a thorough review of everything that goes on at St. Swithin's.

* UpperClassWit: Dick Stuart-Clark comes from old money, with his aunt's will providing the funds for his medical education; in ''Doctor in the House'', he has been abusing a loophole in the will which funds him a certain amount per year until he graduates by deliberately failing his exams so that the money keeps coming and he never has to do any real work. Even after he qualifies as a doctor, he seems to coast by doing as little work as possible, dividing his time between drinking and chasing women. He is intelligent and savvy, though more likely to apply that intelligence to scheming than medicine.

** The ''Doctor in Charge'' episode "Mum's the Word" involves Loftus and the other board members having to choose between Waring and Bingham as a junior doctor representative on the board; Stuart-Clark claims that Waring's mother is a Countess (she is, in fact, a policeman's wife). As she is at St. Swithin's as a patient, the board members decide to meet her, and Stuart-Clark dons a blonde wig, blue eyeshadow, and women's clothing and pretends to be Mrs. Waring while the real Mrs. Waring is kept out of sight. His disguise manages to fool the board members, especially when he reveals inside knowledge of the Chairman's "friendship" with Lady Cornford.

The series made not just a ChannelHop but a country hop in 1979, with ''Doctor Down Under'' airing on UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}'s Creator/SevenNetwork. Waring was now at St. Barnabas' Hospital in Sydney, with Stuart-Clark following in the first episode, both of them under the disapproving eye of surgeon Professor Norman Beaumont (Frank Wilson), and competing with the toadying Dr. Maurice Griffin (John Derum). Waring and Stuart-Clark were still drinkers and skirt-chasers, never shy about turning on their English charm around the Australian nurses.

The series made not just a ChannelHop but a country hop in 1979, with ''Doctor Down Under'' airing on UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}'s Creator/SevenNetwork. Waring was now at St. Barnabbas' Hospital in Australia, with Stuart-Clark following in the first episode, both of them under the disapproving eye of surgeon Professor Norman Beaumont (Frank Wilson), and competing with the toadying Dr. Maurice Griffin (John Derum). Waring and Stuart-Clark were still drinkers and skirt-chasers, never shy about turning on their English charm around the Australian nurses.

* AccidentalInnuendo: "The Fox" from ''Doctor in Charge'' contains a {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d example. Loftus is giving Waring a dressing down for his behaviour in front of Matron Fox (with whom Loftus crossed paths, to his cost, as a young doctor), and at one point shouts, "She's a very forceful woman! And it takes me all my time to stay on top of her!" Waring cannot keep from sniggering at this choice of words, which only angers Loftus further.

** One of the story arcs of the first series of ''Doctor in Charge'' involved Bingham falling in love with and marrying Waring's ex-girlfriend, Dr. Mary Parsons, who remained a recurring character through both series and still seemed fond of Waring even after her marriage (though not enough to seriously consider adultery - which, as Waring saw her as something of an AbhorrentAdmirer, was fine by him).

** Waring and Collier deliver a well-intentioned one to Stuart-Clark in the ''Doctor in Charge'' episode "A Deep Depression Centred over St. Swithin's" after he accidentally brings the wrong patient in for a leg amputation (which Sir Geoffrey only just notices before he makes the first cut). They point out that he's frankly incompetent as an anaesthetist (in several other episodes, Loftus remarks that Stuart-Clark is more likely to be asleep during operations than his patients are), and is getting too old to still be enthusiastically pursuing young nurses.

* TheMissusAndTheEx: "For Your Own Good" from ''Doctor on the Go'' features a gender-inverted version, in which Gascoigne's father is admitted to St. Swithin's with a head injury, and his wife turns out to be an old girlfriend of Loftus' whom the elder Gascoigne seduced away from him while he was on holiday several decades earlier.

The students graduated from St. Swithin's at the end of ''Doctor in the House'', so ''Doctor at Large'', which followed in 1971, found Upton, Stuart-Clark, and Collier as newly qualified doctors (Nedwell left to join the cast of ''The Lovers'', so Waring was PutOnABus, as were Briddock, Evans, and Hooley) trying to obtain gainful employment. The series also introduced the grovelling, uptight Lawrence Bingham (Richard O'Sullivan), a highly competent yet snobbish and humourless doctor who was often on the receiving end of pranks by the more laid-back main trio. Loftus was absent for most of the series, but returned just over halfway through, as determined as ever to squash the doctors' more irresponsible behaviour.

George Layton left the franchise to star in ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum'', while Richard O'Sullivan took the lead role in ''Series/ManAboutTheHouse'', so in the next series from 1974, ''Doctor at Sea'', the central cast was down to Waring and Stuart-Clark, with Ernest Clark appearing as Sir Geoffrey's twin brother, Captain Norman Loftus. Having fallen out with Sir Geoffrey, Waring and Stuart-Clark got jobs on the cruise ship MS ''Begonia'' as ship's surgeons, but were far more interested in drinking and pursuing the female passengers than in actually practising medicine.

* UpperClassTwit: James Gascoigne from ''Doctor on the Go'' comes from a wealthy family, and though he is a skilled doctor and more likely to join in the other doctors' fun than Bingham ever was, he is still portrayed as a pompous buffoon who is often on the receiving end of pranks by the other doctors.

The increasingly unreliable Barry Evans was let go after ''Doctor at Large'', so Robin Nedwell was brought back as Duncan Waring to be the central character of ''Doctor in Charge'', which aired for two series in 1972 and 1973. Waring, Stuart-Clark, Collier, and Bingham were now established doctors on Loftus' firm at St. Swithin's: Waring and Bingham as surgeons, Stuart-Clark as an anaesthetist (and more likely to fall asleep in the operating theatre than his patients), and Collier as a radiologist. A notable story arc from the first series saw Loftus put forth for a knighthood; the first series finale involved the hijinks involved in getting him to Buckingham Palace to become Sir Geoffrey Loftus.

* MsFanservice: Dave Briddock dated two Swedish girls over the course of ''Doctor in the House'' - Helga (Yutte Stensgaard) in the first series, Ingrid (Kirsten Lindholm) in the second. Their roles mostly seemed to revolve around being provocatively dressed, and, in "Hot off the Presses", posing for racy photographs to spark sales of the St. Swithin's student newspaper.