Malika

Former doctors Phil Hammond and Tony Gardner write and star in a new comedy for Radio 4.

Set in a typical GP surgery, struggling to cope with cuts, new NHS policy directives and an increasingly impatient set of patients, two disillusioned doctors battle with the stresses of their jobs and chaotic personal lives.

Doctors On Hold features a topical series of phone conversations between patients and various members of a GP team that reflects how much medicine is now dispensed over the phone in an overloaded and fragmented NHS, how frustrating it can sometimes be for patients and staff, and how funny and familiar it is for listeners.

Tony Gardner and Phil Hammond started their comedy careers on Radio 4 in the 90s, as junior doctors, with three series of Struck Off and Die. They won a Writers Guild Award for best radio comedy. They have since had very successful solo careers - Phil Hammond co-wrote five series of Radio 4's Polyoaks. He is Private Eye's medical correspondent 'MD'. Tony Gardner is an actor on stage and screen, whose recent credits include the hit show Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

Mina Anwar is well known to Radio 4 listeners from Fags, Mags and Bags.

Cast:
Tony Gardner as Dr Peter
Phil Hammond as Dr Mike
Mina Anwar as Malika Begum
Anna Crilly as Nelly and Sarah
with Alana Ramsey

Written by Phil Hammond and Tony Gardner

Producer: David Morley
Sound Design and Music: Chris O'Shaughnessy

A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4