TV DOC MOBBED BY FANS
Olivia Buxton 30th December 2000
Peak Practice heart-throb Joseph Millson has revealed how besotted fans bombard him with raunchy letters and X-rated photos.
The 26-year-old star's mail bag swells after he appears in love scenes.
Joseph, the Carlton show's Dr Sam Morgan, said: "One woman sent me an incredibly intimate Polaroid shot of herself with the message 'Help yourself' and her number."
Women even write pleading with the hunk to marry them, even though he's happily wed to actress Caroline Fitzgerald, 30.
Joseph was also terrified when he was mobbed by frenzied women after signing his autograph for a girl in a supermarket.
Another woman pinched his bottom in a crowded pub. "I didn't enjoy it," he said. "My bum's private."
Joseph makes a dramatic exit from Peak Practice on January 23rd when debt-ridden Dr Morgan is caught defrauding the practice.
PEAK PRACTICE GETS A TONIC
Teletext, by Derek Robins, 29/12/00
Peak Practice has been given a confidence-booster by ITV chiefs which will see it running until at least 2002.
ITV drama chief Nick Elliot said: "Peak Practice has been re-jigged with Simon Shepherd and Maggie O'Neill and it's stronger than ever. They both have long contracts of at least two years.
"One of the problems with the show was too many cast changes so they weren't the established stars."
The return of Shepherd as Dr Will Preston to Peak Practice in September has given the drama a tonic. An ITV spokeswoman said: "The ratings are regularly around 9m and Simon coming back has helped as fans really love him in the show. He's shown his long-term commitment by buying a place in the Peak District where his wife and four kids can spend time with him when he's filming. But he's still got his home in Bath."
While Shepherd and O'Neill have committed themselves to Peak Practice, Joseph Millson, who's Dr Sam Morgan, is quitting next year. Joesph, 26, became a Cardale medic in 1999. An ITV spokeswoman said: "We had four doctors ni the surgery as we knew Joseph was leaving. The third doctor, Tom Deneley played by Gray O'Brien, is staying for a while as he's very popular with fans. He's just come second in a sexy doctor poll, behind George Clooney."
The show has been one of ITV's ratings successes since it began in 1993 with Amanda Burton, kevin Whately and Shepherd. But with cast changes - Simon left in 1997 and returned this year and Gary Mavers left in the Summer - there've been fears about it's staying power. An ITV spokeswoman said: "It starts its 11th series in January but while stars have left I don't think it's ever run out of steam."
Maggie O'Neill was surprised by how much responsibility that came with her new part in Peak Practice...
As the daughter of much-loved Steptoe And Son actor Harry H Corbett, Peak Practice star Susannah Corbett knows she has a lot to live up to. She's doing a wonderful job. . .
"SESAME SEEDS CAN KILL ME"
source: allergy.net
Actress Shelagh McLeod was three months pregnant and on a visit to New York with her husband, Marek, when she had a severe allergy attack. The couple were enjoying a meal in a restaurant when Shelagh's mouth started to swell and her throat closed up.
Soon she was in terrible pain and realised that, inadvertently, she had eaten some sesame seeds - something to which she is allergic and that she knows will provoke a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. Shelagh and Marek rushed to the emergency ward of a Brooklyn hospital for the massive shot of adrenaline and antihistamine medication that would reverse the symptoms - and as suddenly as it had all begun, the drama was over.
PEAK PRACTICE LEFT WITHOUT A DOCTOR
Sunday Mirror Date ?
The Derbyshire village where TV show Peak Practice is filmed could be left without a surgery if they don't raise �175,000.
The two thousand residents of Ashover desperately need to build a new surgery to replace the present one that is situated in the first floor of a converted house, but they are struggling to come up with the funds to put towards it and are angered by the little help that Carlton TV have given them.
The television company who film the series have donated just �10,000 to the cause and Phillip Clark, one of the village fund trustees thinks this is insulting.
"Their attitude is shocking when you think how many millions they make out of us," he says, "The producers could write a cheque for �100,000 without noticing a dent in their profit."
But a spokesman for Peak Practice thinks that they have been very generous, "There was no requirement on us to give anything, but we made a donation as a token of appreciation."
