Under SCRUTINY

TOM HUGHES on playing a confident medic whose actions are called into question as the hit show returns

- MICHAEL DARLING

MALPRACTICE NEW SUNDAY-TUESDAY, 9PM, ITV1 DRAMA (BOX SET, ITVX)

The first series of ITV1’s acclaimed medical thriller Malpractice in 2023 focused on an investigation into the conduct of Niamh Algar’s battle-hardened doctor Lucinda Edwards following the death of a patient during a busy shift in A&E.

But as the show returns for a much-anticipated second outing, there’s a new lead character at the heart of the action: on-call psychiatric registrar Dr James Ford, played by Victoria star Tom Hughes.

Over the course of the fiveparter, set to air this week and next, the assured medic finds every aspect of his life being examined by the Medical Investigation Unit’s straight-talking Dr Norma Callahan and Dr George Adjei (returning stars Helen Behan and Jordan Kouamé; see our interview, right) after his decisions at work result in a tragedy.

‘It’s thrilling to come into a show like this and play a character at the centre of the story,’ smiles Tom when TV Times is invited to Belfast, which is doubling as the story’s setting of North Yorkshire, to visit the cast as they film scenes at Ulster Museum.