Malpractice

Gwyneth Hughes wins RTS Yorkshire award for Post Office script

Gwyneth Hughes stands holding her RTS Yorkshire award trophy

Niamh Algar, starring as a hospital doctor who becomes embroiled in a medical scandal in the ITV series, was named Best Actor.

ITV’s much-garlanded campaigning drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office picked up yet another award, with Gwyneth Hughes named Best Writer.

The ceremony, hosted by Bradford-born comedian, writer and actor Jessica Knappett, was held at Headingley Stadium in Leeds.

Grace Ofori-Attah on her Yorkshire set medical drama Malpractice

Malpractice won favour with both critics – “intricately plotted and beautifully, leanly written”, said The Guardian – and audiences: it was ITV1’s most watched drama launch episode of 2023 when it aired last spring. Ahead of filming starting on series two, the RTS talked to some of the talent behind the show, including its creator, former NHS doctor Grace Ofori-Attah.

She pitched an idea for a hospital-set thriller about medical malpractice to Simon Heath, CEO of World Productions, whose award-winning dramas include Line of Duty and Save Me.

ITV commissions medical thriller Malpractice

(credit: ITV)

Directed by Philip Barantini (Boiling Point) and produced by World Productions (Line of Duty, Save Me), the cat and mouse thriller tells the story of a damaged doctor caught up in a dangerous conspiracy.  

The series stars RTS-Award nominee Niamh Algar (The Virtues) as Dr Lucinda Edwards, a battle-hardened doctor whose career is derailed after a nightmare shift ends in the death of an opioid overdose victim, Edith Owusu.