Jane Elliott BBC News Online health staff

Dirty Den returned after a 14-year absence

How many doctors can claim to have resuscitated a man who has been dead 14 years - or helped shoot one of soaps most infamous characters?

In three years as medical adviser to the BBC soap opera EastEnders, Dr Tina Ambury has helped to revive Dirty Den Watts from the dead as well as scripting Phil Mitchell's shooting.

She has also helped script Kat Slater's overdose and Sheila Hancock's (Barbara Owen's) death.

Plots

Even scenes with someone getting thumped in the Queen Vic or former resident doctor Anthony holding one of his impromptu consultations would have written on the basis of expert guidance from Dr Ambury.

But, despite her great involvement in one of Britain's favourite soaps, the busy GP admits she never watches it herself.

At the end of the day I hope it makes good TV. Dr Tina Ambury

"It is always on when I am putting the kids to bed," she said.

That doesn't stop Dr Ambury's EastEnders-mad friends and relatives quizzing her about up-and-coming storylines.

But because she does not watch the show, she has to remain tight-lipped about plots until she is sure the episode she has helped has been screened.

"I do get to hear about storylines well in advances such as when Jamie Mitchell had his motorbike accident. I knew that was happening up to six months before it did."

Dr Ambury was even involved in soap's biggest plotline for years - was it possible, the producers wanted to know, for Dirty Den Watts to be shot, fall into a canal, and yet clamber out and disappear to a new life in Spain?

"I had a bit of involvement in the return of Dirty Den, because they wanted him to have a return that was realistic.

"They did not want it to be like a scene from Dallas with Bobby Ewing returning in a shower scene after a dream.

Advice

"But when there were rumours that Dirty Den was coming back people who knew I was involved with EastEnders used to ask me and I just used to smile and refuse to answer."

Dr Ambury first got involved with EastEnders when they contacted the Royal College of GPs, for which she is vice-chair.

Working for accuracy

They wanted someone to give medical advice and Dr Ambury's experience with ballistics following her time in the RAF helped her.

"After Phil got shot they started ringing me up on a regular basis and now I get involved if there is anything that even remotely has a medical angle.

"The big thing is making sure they are factually correct as near as they possibly can be.

"I try to put things into context and I try to get them to put things into context.

"I particularly consider it my duty to make sure the programme is not irresponsible and does not increase fear."

She said that over the years she had been able to introduce a number of topics including the campaign for all pensioners' to get their flu jabs, with Jim Branning having his.

But despite her three years with the show Dr Ambury admits that one of her big bug bears was the former Albert Square GP, Dr Anthony Trueman.

She said her GP colleagues had given her a lot of gentle ribbing about how unlikely his character was.

"Anthony would not have had a consultation in the pub or gone to the home of someone he had met on the street to do a home visit.

But she says that she has loved her work with the show.

'I shot Phil Mitchell'

"It is not an onerous job and is completely different from my GP work."

And she said she would be happy to keep on her role as long as the artistic licence does not stray too far from the truth.

"At the end of the day I hope it makes good TV."

Accuracy

A spokesman for EastEnders said it was important that medical advice was correct before broadcasting.

"The reason medical advice is so important on EastEnders is to ensure that the scripts and action on screen are accurate and within the realms of reality.

"The story lines are checked at the initial stages to ensure what we are planning can work.

"Problems are explored and solved at this stage. It is then key that the story lines work in the scripts.

"A medical adviser can help with the terminology and can point out where we are going wrong.

"They can guide us with dialogue that needs changing to incorporate the right medical terms.

"Without this help, many EastEnders episodes would be incorrect and it is vital to us that this never happens."