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New Flying Doctors emotional, charming

JAMES CROOT

IT was the mini-series that became a beloved prime-time drama, the Aussie show that introduced one Kiwi actor to the world (Rebecca Gibney) and gave another the role of a lifetime (Pat Evison, as the scene-stealing town busybody Violet Carnegie).

A potent cocktail of budding and frustrated romances, regular medical and aviation crises, thorny social issues and copious amounts of red dust that produced more than 200 episodes of addictive, appointment viewing and almost persuaded me that a medical career beckoned (what really held me back was feeling squeamish whenever things got too visceral).

Yes, The Flying Doctors was the programme that as a teen I watched every week with my mum.

As it was in its final throes in the early 1990s, an attempt was made to update it by shifting the action from the fictional one-pub town of Cooper’s Crossing to the ‘‘big smoke’’ of Broken Hill. The result was a slicker, but soulless tale that felt tone deaf to the sometimes homespun charms of the beloved original. RFDS lasted just one season.

So, are the creators of a new eight-part series that revolves around a Royal Flying Doctors Service base at Broken Hill tempting fate by using that same name?

Fortunately, on the evidence of the opening episode (which debuts on TVNZ 1 tomorrow at 8.30pm, as well as streaming on TVNZ OnDemand) the answer is a resounding no.

This is a charming, compelling and surprisingly emotional drama that has managed to update the conceit, while still filling it with characters whom you’ll quickly fall in love with and care about their fate.

In a way their tight-knit nature and various troubled backstories reminds me of 9-1-1, which, despite its increasingly over-the-top scenarios, draws you back with the calibre of its cast and depiction of human frailties.

Here our guide is Dr Eliza Harrod (Mr Selfridge’s Emma Hamilton), a British doctor seeking a change from the pressures of London’s St Benedict’s emergency department, especially after a sex scandal involving her co-worker husband ruined not only her marriage.

Despite her CV though, her new colleagues have doubts about her stickability. Flight nurse Peter Emerson (Home and Away’s Stephen Peacocke) is convinced she’ll cut and run sooner rather than later, while fellow nurse Matty Harris (Jack Scott) gives her a month.

Despite initially overcompensating on selfhydration and subsequently being forced to do her bit for drought relief after being caught short in the back of beyond, Eliza soon proves her worth.

Cool thinking under pressure and no little skill with a scalpel results in her doing the equivalent of ‘‘scoring a hat-trick on debut’’. There won’t, though, be much time to celebrate and, as she’ll quickly learn, there will be days when her emotions and resolve will be severely tested.

There is something of a pilot-feel to RFDS’ initial adventure, as writer Ian Meadows (House Husbands, On the Ropes) tries to cram as much incident as he can into the 43-minute running time. That results in sometimes breathless action and little time for the characters to develop but, importantly, that doesn’t mean you won’t have the feels by the time the end credits roll.

RFDS certainly doesn’t have the pie-and-pint simplicity of the original (I’m not sure that drag queens would have been quite as welcome in Vic and Nancy’s pub the same way that they are part of the furniture here), but fans of The Flying Doctors and lovers of both contemporary Aussie dramas and medical soaps should definitely check this out.

RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service debuts on TVNZ 1 tomorrow night, Monday, at 8.30pm, as well as streaming on TVNZ OnDemand.

SOUND AND VISION

en-nz

2021-10-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282059100203804

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