Frank Stirling

The new Friday morning comedy on Radio 4, Polyoaks, is about the revolution soon to come when general practitioners take over from Primary Care Trusts in handling funds. Co-written by David Spicer and practising medical satirist Dr Phil Hammond, it has closely observed character types in Dr Roy (Nigel Planer) and his brother Dr Hugh (Tony Gardner) who pursue their father's old medical practice in the house they were born in. They have a canny manager in Betty (Celia Imrie) who has taken on the retraining of Dr Jeremy (famous from TV but recently involved in scandal) because the fee the state pays for doing this is so big. While the writers are careful to indicate that much of what is happening now began under the Blair-Brown governments they are scarily predictive about the dangers of putting large budgets into the hands of people not trained to handle them. Listen and learn. Frank Stirling, sharp as a hypodermic, directs for independents Unique.