Doctors series 1

The first series of the British medical soap opera Doctors originally aired between 26 March and 19 May 2000. It consisted of 41 episodes, which was the initial order for the entire programme, but it was later renewed for more following a positive reception. Mal Young, the original executive producer of Doctors, introduced nine regular characters for the series and many of the storylines focused on doctor Mac McGuire (Christopher Timothy).

The BBC felt that transmitting the first series of Doctors was an ambitious move due to there being nothing similar at the time. They hoped that it would attract both loyal and casual viewers, due to the combination of a steady core cast and self-contained medical stories in each episode. It was trialled in various timeslots to find the best audience before the BBC settled on an afternoon slot.

Cast
All characters in the first series were introduced by the programme's first executive producer, Mal Young. The original nine regular characters to be introduced in Doctors were Mac McGuire (Christopher Timothy), Steve Rawlings (Mark Frost), Helen Thompson (Corrinne Wicks), Rana Mistry (Akbar Kurtha), Caroline Powers (Jacqueline Leonard), Kate McGuire (Maggie Cronin), Anoushka Flynn (Carli Norris), Ruth Harding (Yvonne Brewster) and Joanna Helm (Sarah Manners). Norris departed from her role as Anoushka at the end of the series, becoming the first regular to depart from Doctors.

Main characters

 * Yvonne Brewster as Ruth Harding
 * Maggie Cronin as Kate McGuire
 * Mark Frost as Steve Rawlings
 * Akbar Kurtha as Rana Mistry
 * Jacqueline Leonard as Caroline Powers
 * Sarah Manners as Joanna Helm
 * Carli Norris as Anoushka Flynn
 * Christopher Timothy as Mac McGuire
 * Corrinne Wicks as Helen Thompson

Production
Doctors was created by Chris Murray, and the first series had Mal Young as the original executive producer. Musician Paul Hemmings was hired to compose the theme music for the opening and closing titles. When the series premiered, Jane Lush, the BBC's head of daytime programming, felt that commissioning Doctors was an ambitious move. She thought that the series offered something new and that viewers would not realise they would want a series like Doctors until they had seen it. Lush felt that despite its serial element, the premise of the programme meant that people could "dip in and out" since the core cast would stay the same and the episodes would be self-contained. Young echoed Lush's comments and said that he had wanted to create a daytime drama series long before his involvement with Doctors. Young thought that the previously unfilled daytime slot would be good for the series due to there being an increase of remote workers in 2000.

Doctors was originally shown at 12:30 pm as a lead-in to BBC News at One. For a brief trial period in mid-2000, episodes from the first series were shown on Fridays at 7:00 pm, but due to rival soap Emmerdale being transmitted at the same time, Doctors suffered from low ratings, and was instead trialled in an afternoon time slot.