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The Best...TV doctor

Hugh Laurie as Dr Gregory House
  • Posted at 5:44pm
  • 27 March 2007
  • by LauraPledger-RT
  • 2 comments

Most people - unless they're dedicated medical folk or ineffective managers looking for a steady job - are anxious to stay away from hospitals. There's something about those long corridors with their unmistakeable clinical reek,and that strange grey lino that makes your shoes squeak, which sends you running for the exit.

Probably the only hospital in the world I'd gladly visit, therefore, is the Princeton-Plainsboro. And that would be for one reason: to enter the orbit of god-like diagnostician Gregory House.

Hugh Laurie is a revelation as the doctor whose bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired. For years Laurie made a living playing upper-class English twits. Now he's a roaring success playing a character who, the harsher among us would argue, is an even bigger twit with a vowel change.

House likes nothing more than getting his teeth into a meaty medical mystery (unless it's time for his favourite series General Hospital, in which case he'd rather be sitting in front of the telly). The show's creators have openly acknowledged their debt to Sherlock Holmes, and in Hugh Laurie's take on the title character we have a "sleuthing" figure who's arguably closer to the real Holmes than even the great Jeremy Brett achieved in his portrayal of the master detective.

House is clever, condescending, scornful, sardonic, rude, committed (though he'd hate to admit that himself) and, without doubt, the best in his field.

They say nobody likes a smart aleck, but "they" obviously never met Allison Cameron. She's the only member of House's team to profess affection for her boss. That Cameron should manage to be so preternaturally sweet-natured all the time is amazing, given that she's most commonly seen striding down corridors in startlingly high heels - a torture that even Torquemada might baulk at.

Then again, Greg's entire team look as if they belong more in the pages of Vogue than in a lab or on a ward. But the makers of House aren't much interested in portraying the realities of hospital care. You won't see a grubby floor, a dusty surface or a healthcare assistant sneaking out for a cigarette break at the Princeton-Plainsboro. Indeed, they're so proud of their facilities that every room has at least two walls that are floor-to-ceiling glass, affording passers-by a clear view inside (which can't do much for patient confidentiality).

When they're not trying to outdo House by reaching a diagnosis first, real-life medics who watch the show must be rubbing their hands with glee every time he slaps down a patient. Usually it's some poor hypochondriac who's got carried away with researching their imagined condition on the internet. House articulates everything doctors must be bursting to say on a daily basis.

And more faint-hearted viewers who find the medical reconstructions a little too convincing (reverse peristalsis, anyone?) can always focus instead on House's put-downs or his wonderful blue eyes, which have all the intensity of a laser beam.

You can keep your George Clooneys and your Richard Chamberlains; I'll take Hugh Laurie - popping pills and spitting vitriol like a demented cobra - any day. And it seems plenty of other people agree. With sky-high viewing figures and two Golden Globe awards perched on his piano, it looks like House's position as US TV's favourite doctor is safe for a while yet.

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  • Posted on 26 July 2007
  • at 10:26am
  • by Pascal

Do you remember Howie Mandel as a wild doctor in St Elsewhere? I still remember his giving a tour of the hospital to new interns and explaining along the way that "sleep is a childhood memory".

P

  • Posted on 30 March 2007
  • at 2:48am
  • by LawAndOrderFan

Yes, I love Hugh. His eyes really don't distract me from the gross med bits, though!

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