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Tim Page reflects on Young Doctors’ success

“We were getting ratings of like 40%, which people would die for now," says veteran actor.

A bit of nostalgia for soap fans…

Veteran actor Tim Page, who starred in Nine’s 70’s soap The Young Doctors, has given an interview with 2GB’s Deb Knight.

The interview was to promote a box set of the series which is being released.

The Grundy drama set in the fictional Albert Memorial hospital was created by Alan Coleman, and ran for 8 seasons.

Amongst the cast were Alfred Sandor, Cornelia Frances, Alan Dale, Mark Holden, John Walton, Peta Toppano, Bartholomew John, Dave Gray, Gwen Plumb, Chris King, Bunney Brooke, Delvene Delaney, Joanne Samuel, Lynda Stoner and Paula Duncan.

“We were getting ratings of like 40%, which people would die for now … that was extraordinary, even at the time,” Page said.

“It was a five-nights-a-week format, so we were under the pump to pump it out … we didn’t have any overtime.”

Page said Young Doctors‘ popularity with the public only narrowly saved it from losing out to Nine favourite, The Sullivans.

“We actually got cancelled after the first 13 weeks!”

3 Responses

  1. They should have interviewed the writers. I was one of them. Poor Joy Grundy – a surgeon at the Albert – was married 5 times on the show – Her full title was Doctor Quinlan Porter Fielding Marshall Johnson. And after five marriages, she had to confess to Helen Gordon that she was still a virgin!! On her “days off” Doctor Joy would step in and do some typing for the head of the hospital, Michael Beecher. The AMA would not allow this now. It was a wonderful show to work on. We laughed all the time. Producer Sue Masters was a joy to work with and so was Betty Quin, our brilliant script editor.

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