This week the series which raids the comedy archives of ITV brings us Comedy Classics: Doctor in the House.

The hit comedy – a whirlwind of nurses, mini skirts and medical mayhem – was inspired by a series of films from the 50s and was first screened on ITV in 1969.

It featured a group of trainee doctors as they muddled their way through medical school.

The producers of the series tell Comedy Classics how they became involved in making the comedy and some of the cast members share their memories of the series.

George Layton who played Dr Paul Collier says: “We were the ‘Friends’ of our day. It was something new, an ensemble comedy, five young, hopefully sexy, guys.”

Personalities such as Dr Hilary Jones and actress Sherrie Hewson reminisce about watching the comedy.

Dr Hilary Jones says: “Doctors have a long tradition of becoming comedians, I can think of quite a few. I think there’s a lot of material you come across as a doctor that is potentially funny.

“I thought, ‘Well, hang on, if I’m a medical student having as much fun as that, I’ll give it a try’.”

Sherrie says: “We all just loved those boys and you’d be in love with one of them one week and then you’d drop that one so it was like a whole relationship with all these men.

“I would say it was women who watched that show, that was the following. They all had girlfriends but they all split up with them – thank god.”

The programme looks back at the main characters in the first series, played by teen heartthrob Barry Evans and Robin Nedwell who played his sidekick.

Sherrie adds: “Barry was the one that we all wanted to have as a brother and Robin we didn’t want as a brother.”

Geoffrey Davies played the oldest doctor in the group, the debonair Dr Dick Stuart-Clarke.

Geoffrey tells the programme: “I remember meeting this chap once, quite a flamboyant character, and he said to me, ‘You know your character was written as me?’ and I said, ‘But you didn’t really get up to …’, ‘Oh yes’, he said, ‘Yes, we did get up to all those things’.”

Geoffrey also tells the programme how the cast were often mistaken for real doctors when they were out.

He says: “I used to go down the North End Road shopping with my wife and you got the old ladies saying, ‘Oh doctor, I’ve got a pain in my chest, come and give it a feel’.”

Comedy Classics: Doctor in the House explains how at the end of the series all the doctors had qualified, so when bosses decided to bring it back they had to change the format and make it Doctor at Large.

Robin Nedwell left the case, but Richard O’Sullivan joined as a new doctor and David Jason appeared in the series as a patient.

At the end of Doctor at Large, Barry Evans left the cast and Robin Nedwell re-joined, the sitcom returned yet again as Doctor in Charge.

When that run finished Richard O’Sullivan and George Layton left the cast, leaving Robin Nedwell to star in Doctor at Sea. Then in 1975 Doctor on the Go became the fifth and final doctor sitcom on ITV and Comedy Classics: Doctor in the House features clips from across the five series.

Tuesday 7th October 10:35pm – ITV1