Jon Hamm

There was a lot of gore which arrived later in the week courtesy of A Young Doctor's Notebook. Based on a collection of Russian short stories written by Mikhail Bulgakov, this four-part comedy drama gained much press coverage for its choice of leads, the former boy-wizard Daniel Radcliffe and Mad Man Jon Hamm. The latter plays the former's older self, reading the notebook he wrote as a newly qualified doctor, posted to the remote village of Muryovo. Radcliffe plays out the drama as the older doctor reads - though, curiously, Hamm also turns up in this "past" to advise his young self.

It's all very meta-playful, and Radcliffe is particularly good as the novice with not much of a clue as to how to deal with the ailments set before him; his training in reacting to green screens for eight Harry Potter movies means he can now choose from an excellent store of characterful glances that say as much as anything that comes from his mouth.

The bloodshed encountered in this first episode came courtesy of a rare feat of obstetrics, and a soldier with toothache (resulting in an extracted jawbone). One suspects there's rather more gore to come, given that Radcliffe is doing his thing in 1917 - at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution - and Hamm's office appears to be getting a good going over by Soviet officers in 1934.

Those with knowledge of Bulgakov will also enjoy drawing comparisons with the author's life - he himself was a doctor posted to the middle of nowhere before turning to writing - and will revel in the way he toys with his own reality in the retelling.

Starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men), A Young Doctor's Notebook is a new series on Sky Arts 1 based on short stories by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. Set mostly in 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, it follows the misadventures of a doctor whose first practice is in the remotest possible countryside. It's principally a comedy, although, as Russian comedy is near-indistinguishable from Russian tragedy (all pain, poverty, disaster and death), the label is perhaps superfluous. Let's just call it Russian.

Hamm was the doctor's older self, who keeps turning up from the future to give his younger self advice. As the other actors were British, and spoke in their normal voices, Hamm had to fit in, leaving him in the unusual position of being an American playing a Russian speaking like an Englishman. Or at least, an American actor's idea of the way an Englishman speaks, i.e., somewhere between Jeremy Irons and a supercilious ghost.

Radcliffe, beady eyes cutely twinkling, was the doctor's younger self. Even at 23 he looks 13, making him well suited to the role, as his character is routinely derided for his youthfulness. Anyway, he was good, which was a relief. I'd hate to have to say he was bad. It would make me feel horribly guilty, as if I'd trodden on a hamster's paw.

The action was a peculiar mix of silliness and gore, but there were some good lines.
Radcliffe (to Hamm, who's waving a scary surgical tool): "Careful, you could have an eye out."

Review: Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe shine

I wasn't enthusiastic about the prospect of a four-part adaptation of a Russian playwright's work, airing on a niche channel like Sky Arts. However, the best surprise of A Young Doctor's Notebook is how engaging, comical and unpretentious it is.

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Sky Arts has a bit of a coup here, securing Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe to star in a knockabout version of Mikhail Bulgakov's autobiographical short stories about a young doctor in pre-Revolutionary Russia.

Everyone has decided that the short stories are funny, so the tone is breezy and jokey from the beginning, as Hamm looks back fondly at his newly graduated younger self (Radcliffe) arriving to take up his very first job, at a hospital in the snowy Russian wastes.

The doctor is immediately confronted by his hatchet-faced staff of three: two grim nurses and a weird factotum prone to elliptical conversations. Soon the central conceit evolves to the younger doctor actually engaging with his older self as the two argue and get into fights. It's all very slight, but the skill - and in the case of Radcliffe, also the charm - of everyone involved keeps A Young Doctor's Notebook bubbling along.

Jon Hamm, Daniel Radcliffe and Mikhail Bulgakov may sound like a mismatch on paper, and this adaptation of the Russian dissident's semi-autobiographical short stories is oddly pitched as a knockabout near-sitcom.

Radcliffe is anxious and amiable as the titular medic rapidly drifting out of his depth in a remote Russian hospital staffed by oddballs, visited by yokels and sitting in the shadow of his revered predecessor; Hamm is a touch more complex and sinister as his older, morphine addicted self.

It's a little too episodic and uneven, but there's definitely promise here if the writers can seize on the innate darkness at the heart of the premise. And it's wonderfully atmospheric, particularly given an obviously restrictive budget. Neither misfire nor triumph just yet, but A Young Doctor's Notebook is exactly the sort of skewed experimentation in which Sky Arts should be dabbling.

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Heavily stylised and played almost for slapstick, it wasn't immediately easy to love, but with a lively script and intriguing cast - Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm play the doctor at different stages of his life, and even though they look entirely different it almost worked - I'd certainly like to see a more.

Playhouse Presents returns with a curiously unengaging story based on A Country Doctor's Notebook by the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov. The four-parter concerns a young doctor (Daniel Radcliffe) who in 1917 arrives, newly graduated from Moscow, at a remote backwoods hospital. Out of his depth, he struggles with his patients' ailments and the lack of confidence shown in him by his colleague, the feldsher (a sort of medical jack of all trades, played by Adam Godley). Flash forward 17 years and we see an older version of the doctor (Mad Men's Jon Hamm) reading a diary recalling those naive adventures and conversing with his former self. A shame the uninteresting script doesn't match the talent on show.

From the operating table to the screen

Russian literary giant Mikhail Bulgakov once penned a chaotic account of his earlier career in medicine. Writer Alan Connor on how he brought it to our screens, with a little help from Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm.