Doctor in the House

Simon Sparrow is a medical student newly arrived at St Swithin's hospital in London. He falls in with three students who have been sitting in the same year for far longer than he has, and learns the real curriculum of medical training in the fifties: courting, drinking and driving fast cars. Over all of it stands the shadow of the chief surgeon, Sir Lancelot Spratt. Ralph Thomas directed the film from Richard Gordon's novels, and it became the first of a run of seven made between 1954 and 1970. It belongs to the crowded, fast and harmless wing of British comedy; it makes fun of the institution without doing it any damage. Dirk Bogarde plays Simon, and Sir Lancelot, as James Robertson Justice plays him, is the figure that stays with you. Kenneth More and Kay Kendall are also in the cast.