Twenty years ago, Channel 4 rolled the dice and the result was Green Wing. After success with Smack the Pony, Victoria Pile created a sitcom based in a fictional hospital staffed by a bunch of weird and wonderful characters, who would spend much of the episodes doing anything but work: Green Wing is the only show set in the medical world featuring crossbows, camels and naked recorder playing. There’s also incest.
When Green Wing premiered on 3 September 2004, it was a hard sell – surreal, offbeat and un-PC – accentuated by the now-signature use of speed-up and slo-mo shots. Pile had even convinced Channel 4 to extend the running time of each episode to 45 minutes.
To mark the show’s 20th anniversary, The Independent spoke to Pile and a number of the show’s cast members about their core memories, the wild antics their characters got up to, and their fears of corpsing and getting mistaken for real hospital staffers while filming their scenes.
In 2002, Victoria Pile, enjoying success with sketch show ‘Smack the Pony’, is asked by Channel 4 to devise a new series.
Michelle Gomez [Sue White]: Victoria Pile has one of the most original imaginations. She plucked this whole thing out of her head. I think it was called Green Wing because a green fly landed on a script in her office.
Mark Heap [Dr Alan Statham]: I knew the wonderful Vic Pile who said there was some silly thing about hospitals she was doing. She said, “You probably can’t be bothered but would you come in?”
With an idea in motion, Pile sets her sights on casting and invites a ragtag bunch of actors for in-character hot-seat interviews. Slowly, the cast of ‘Green Wing’ is assembled.
Denne historien er fra September 03, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra September 03, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
'Fight days are for fighting, not chatting to each other'
This Saturday, Joshua Buatsi will share a card with his friend Anthony Joshua for the fourth time, boxing Willy Hutchinson for an interim title at Wembley. Alex Pattle gets the lowdown
F1 title opening could prove to be Norris's only chance
Under the afternoon sun on Saturday in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, it felt like the moment the drivers’ title slipped away from Lando Norris.
The Man City hearing must answer these two questions
Amid all of the uncertainty around the Manchester City investigation, there is one view that can be stated with confidence as it finally gets under way.
Super clubs have nothing to fear from Uefa's shake-up
As a new Champions League format makes its debut today, Miguel Delaney looks at what it means for the competition
Final messages from Titan before implosion revealed
“All good here.”
New Zealand's bird of the year picked up by a penguin
A rare, smelly and yellow-eyed penguin species has been crowned New Zealand’s bird of the year for the second time in less than a decade.
Death toll rises as floods devastate central Europe
The death toll across central Europe from the worst flooding in decades has risen to at least 16 after Storm Boris brought a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours.
Germany reimposes border controls to tackle migration
Germany has reintroduced checks on all nine of its land borders in a move that has angered a number of its neighbours – but brought praise from the far right.
Putin boosts troop numbers as missiles pummel Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin yesterday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to increase by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million soldiers, the third time he has expanded its ranks since sending the military into Ukraine in February 2022.
'I figured he must be either dead or in prison by now...'
Those who know Ryan Routh talk of his previous 'escapades'