Bitter PILL

NIAMH ALGAR on playing a doctor who’s under investigation…

- CAREN CLARK

LUCINDA EDWARDS 

NIAMH ALGAR 

The doctor and devoted mum is mortified to come under scrutiny after a patient dies, but are there skeletons in her closet?

MALPRACTICE 

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

A former tax office in the Yorkshire town of Shipley has been transformed into a bustling A&E department for ITV1’s new medical drama Malpractice.

As TV Times visits the set on a warm day in August, an ambulance is parked outside the front doors and we’re standing in a corridor near the crowded hospital reception watching a scene being filmed in which a shocking incident is unfolding.

While we’re sworn to secrecy as to what we’re witnessing, it’s just one of the jaw-dropping twists at the heart of the thriller, penned by real-life former NHS doctor Grace Ofori-Attah.

The five-part series centres on hard-working but harassed Dr Lucinda Edwards, played by Niamh Algar (Deceit and The Virtues). When a woman is brought in following a suspected overdose, Lucinda leaves her in the care of a junior colleague, and deals with a more urgent case herself.

After the original patient dies, however, Lucinda’s actions become the subject of an enquiry by the Medical Investigation Unit. But as devastating secrets emerge and her life spirals out of control, is Lucinda revealing everything she knows?

During a break in filming, Niamh, 30, sat down with us for a chat about the show, which she describes as a ‘passion project’…