FACTS

1. The part of Jack Kerruish was specially written for Kevin Whately.

 

2. Barbara Flynn and Zoe Wannamaker turned down the part of Beth Glover; Amanda Burton was third choice.

 

3. Peak Practice was created by Lucy Gannon, who also devised ‘Soldier, Soldier’. Before turning to writing Lucy worked as a nurse for the mentally handicapped.

 

4. The opening scenes of Peak Practice in 1993, which showed Dr Jack Kerruish working in Africa, were filmed in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

 

5. The original theme tune for Peak Practice was composed by John Altman to combine a British countryside feeling with an African element.

 

6. Soup is often used for vomiting scenes.

 

7. Amanda Burton did most of own stunts when filming the scenes when Beth was stranded on the moors trying to save the life of a woman involved in a car crash. Although a stuntwoman was on standby, Amanda thought it would look more realistic if she performed them herself.

 

8. Roy Barraclough has appeared in Peak Practice twice, playing two different roles. First time he played a factory electrician, Joe Wilson, and the second time he played Mayor Joss Brown whose tea was spiked with painkillers.

 

9. Actor Tim Dutton was rushed to hospital after knocking himself out while filming his role as Alan ‘Tommo’ Tomlins, leader of the care rescue team that Jack joined when a group of school children became stranded. He banged his head on a rock and suffered dizzy spells and a loss of memory. X-rays found that he was suffering from whiplash and delayed discussion.

 

10. Amanda Burton gashed her lip badly during the filming of a dramatic rescue of a farmer attempting suicide. She wrenched open a car door too quickly and it hit her in the mouth. It swelled up and needed to be treated with ice packs.

 

11. Susannah Corbett who acts as physiotherapist Kerri Davidson has appeared in Peak Practice before. She played Cystic Fibrosis sufferer Vanessa Machin.

 

12. Real medical attention was needed after guest star Billy Geraghty filmed his role as vasectomy patient, Harry Fielding. He was found to have a broken collarbone.

 

13. The birth of baby Emily (to Kate and Will Preston) was filmed at Derby Hospital and a baby of just 24 hours old was used to play the part of Emily. In later episodes, three eight-week old triplets were used for the part.

 

14. The real-life parents of Saskia Wickham (Jeffrey Wickham and Clare Stewart) play Dr Erica's adoptive parents in various episodes of Series 6; her brother Rupert Wickham plays a hospital doctor Dr Peter Cope in several episodes.

 

15. The filming of the car accident, which left Andrew with head injuries, an angina sufferer trapped in his car and a lorry driver dead, took place in Castleton, Derbyshire over 5 nights in a particularly bad Winter. Some of the actors wore thermal underwear and were warned not to expose themselves to the cold too much as hypothermia could set in quite quickly.

 

16. Gary Mavers’ seven-year-old daughter, Abby, appeared in one episode of Peak Practice as Toni Young, the daughter of Andrew’s best friend who was diagnosed as having a berry aneurysm.

 

17. Medical advisors ensure that procedures are carried out realistically and that symptoms match the disease’s being portrayed.

 

18. All medical equipment used is genuine.

 

19. In episodes where an umbilical cord is shown attached to a new-born baby it is made out of sausages.

 

20. Peak Practice did make one mistake that was picked up by viewers: Alice North was rushed to hospital in one series of PP for a gall-bladder operation, having already had it removed in the first series.

 

21. Saskia Whickham wore a hairpiece in 1998, which was specially made for her in Convent Garden, London.

 

22. Peak Practice was Britain’s most successful new drama of 1993 and attracted more than 14 million viewers by the end of the second series.

 

23. Peak Practice put the Derbyshire countryside on the television map.

 

24. The first episode of Peak Practice was a 90-minute episode and was screened at 8:30pm on Monday 10^th May 1993.

 

25. The eight episodes of the first series cost about £4 million in total.

 

26. Newspapers printed allegations of an affair between Amanda Burton and Kevin Whately.

 

27. The ITV network centre explored the idea of turning Peak Practice into a soap opera with half-hour episodes, but it came to nothing.

 

28. Amanda Burton turned down a reported £250,000 a year to stay with PP. Instead she left to film ‘Silent Witness’.

 

29. Critics predicted that Peak Practice would fail after the departures of Amanda Burton and Kevin Whately, but they were proved wrong.

 

30. Fiona Gillies was the first choice to play Clare Shearer but she was on maternity leave so they chose Yolanda Vazquez instead. When Yolanda Vazquez decided to leave, they considered writing the character out of the programme but they found that Fiona Gillies was now available.

 

31. Simon Shepherd didn’t want to appear in any of the fifth series, but his character Will Preston stayed to aid continuity and introduce a new doctor to the surgery, Dr David Shearer.

 

32. It was originally intended to introduce new characters played by Larry Lamb (Dr Richard Carey) and Jane Wymark (his wife) into Series 4. However there seems to have been a major falling-out in PP-land because the characters were dropped, the scenes re-shot or edited and the producer replaced by an earlier one, Michele Buck.

Do you know of any more facts that should be included on this page? Please Email Me with any more that you would like me to add.