List of Doctors characters
Doctors is a British medical soap opera which began broadcasting on BBC One on 26 March 2000. Set in the fictional West Midlands town of Letherbridge, the soap follows the lives of the staff and patients of the Mill Health Centre, a fictional NHS doctor's surgery, as well as its two sister surgeries, the University of Letherbridge Campus Surgery and Sutton Vale Surgery. The following is a list of characters who currently appear in the programme, listed in order of first appearance. In the case that more than one actor has portrayed a character, the current actor portraying the character is listed last. Doctors was cancelled in October 2023 and aired until November 2024.
At the time of the show's conclusion, Doctors had a core cast of twelve regular characters: surgery partners and general practitioners Zara Carmichael and Suni Bulsara ; general practitioners Jimmi Clay, Emma Reid, Al Haskey and Sid Vere ; consultant midwife Ruhma Carter ; nurse practitioner Luca McIntyre ; business manager Bear Sylvester ; receptionists Rosie Colton and Scarlett Kiernan and police sergeant Rob Hollins. As well as the regular characters, Doctors also featured numerous recurring and guest characters. At the time of the show's conclusion, these included general practitioners Michelle Walton and Graham Elton ; nurse Tash Verma ; security guard Barry Biglow and police constable Pat Dyson.
Casting
The original nine regular characters to be introduced in Doctors were Mac McGuire, Steve Rawlings, Helen Thompson, Rana Mistry, Caroline Powers, Kate McGuire, Anoushka Flynn, Ruth Harding and Joanna Helm, all of whom have since left. In the early 2000s, the Woodson family consisting of Ronnie, George and Bracken were introduced, with the family appearing until the later half of the decade. The late 2000s also saw the departures of regulars Vivien March, Archie Hallam and Melody Bell. The early 2010s also featured the exits of several regular characters, including Lily Hassan, Ruth Pearce, Simon Bond and Freya Wilson. In 2013, producers wrote three characters out of the series, with Jack Hollins, Imogen Hollins and Elaine Cassidy exiting.2015 saw Ian Kelsey leave his role as Howard Bellamy after three years due to the heavy filming schedule; his exit saw his character killed off. 2019 saw the exit of mainstay character Mrs Tembe, who had gone from the receptionist to the practice manager of the Mill during her tenure. She was replaced by manager Becky Clarke, who left nine months into her tenure so that Bastian could focus on getting pregnant in real life. 2020 saw a brief guest appearance from former regular Julia Parsons, who had originally appeared in Doctors from 2003 to 2012. Later that year, Ayesha Lee left the soap. 2022 then saw the departure of another Doctors mainstay, Valerie Pitman, with Princess Buchanan leaving in 2023 after getting Valerie fired. 2023 also saw the departure of mainstay Karen Hollins after fourteen years, as well as Matthew Chambers leaving his role as Daniel Granger after sixteen years.