A Young Doctor's Notebook

Sky's been on a bit of a role in terms of comedy commissions. While most of the notable ones have been on Sky1 and Sky Atlantic, other channels have been making their own shows, with this one coming from Sky Arts 1.

A Young Doctor's Notebook is based on a collection of short stories made by the Soviet novelist Mikhail Bulgakov, most famous for his book The Master and Margarita. The story's told via extracts from an old doctor in 1930s Moscow (played by Mad Men star Jon Hamm), about his experiences working in tiny village hospital in the middle of nowhere just after his graduation in 1917 (his younger self being played by Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame).

The opening story see the young doctor arrive at his new practice and dealing with his much more experience staff: Anna (Vicki Pepperdine), a midwife who is obsessed with the doctor's late predecessor Leopold Leopoldovich; fellow midwife Pelageya (Rosie Cavaliero) and the boring feldsher (Adam Godley). As the story goes on, the young doctor finds himself mysteriously in conflict with his older self, who keeps telling him what to do.

This opening episode was highly enjoyable. I've read some of Bulgakov's work before (i.e. Heart of a Dog) so I know a bit about his life and the book's in some ways based on his own experiences as a doctor in the Russian countryside. It does make you wonder exactly how much of it's based on stuff which occurred to him as there's quite a lot of gore. One of the most horrific yet funny scenes involves the young doctor trying to extract a tooth from a patient, which first leads him to drag the patient around the floor, before doing something I don't think it would be wise to mention now.

It's not just the slapstick which is good, but the characters too, especially the staff the doctor has to work with. The feldsher for example makes a study of how many things you can possibly fit into the young doctor's luggage (he counts socks individually).

Many people will be watching A Young Doctor's Notebook just to see the high-profile leads, but there's much more to this programme than just the cast.

From a visual perspective, A Young Doctor's Notebook may owe more to the latter school of casting than the former, given that Daniel Radcliffe played the younger self of John Hamm - or to put it in popular and no less incredible terms, Harry Potter grew up to become Don Draper. Yet strangely the combination worked, in no small part owing to the pair sharing the same scenes.

In this adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's autobiographical short stories about life as a country doctor in pre-revolutionary Russia, Hamm played the older conscience offering sage advice to the fresh-faced graduate. The tone was knockabout bordering on slapstick, and while neither actor is a born comedian, together they made an entertaining double act.

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."

Last night's viewing - A Young Doctor's Notebook

The stories have been made more comic and less grimly stark than the originals, Radcliffe playing the young doctor as an innocent out of his depth and keen to conceal the fact from the knowing nurses and medical orderly he notionally outranks. And, setting aside uncertainties, it's been very nicely done, with Vicki Pepperdine as an older nurse who fiercely protects the memory of the predecessor in the post, Leopold Leopoldovich, and Adam Godley as the hospital orderly, a man with a personality more numbing than chloroform.

Young Doctor's Notebook delivers Sky Arts' best ratings

Four-part comedy drama, starring John Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe, attracts an average audience of 252,000.

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.

Farce and pathos in equal measure

Best of all, it's laugh-out-loud funny. Attempting a conversation about geography while dealing with a tricky birth proved a stretch for the young Doctor. 'I'm new to the area. I don't know where anything is.' Not what an expectant mother wants to hear with her legs wide open.

Jon Hamm: Daniel Radcliffe was the perfect co-star

If there's ever a man to make Russian literature sound sexy, it's Jon Hamm.

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.