The story behind The Plight of Dr Tanky is a curious one. This little known late sixties sitcom is set around a village GP surgery where a newly qualified Dr Ivor Tanky has just joined the practise. The eight episodes that were originally broadcast were almost exclusively set in Dr Tankys room and the stories revolved around a procession of appointments with the village eccentrics. The exception to that rule was episode five: Home call where Dr Tanky takes the action to the homes of the various patients on his round. It was later revealed that budgetary constraints prevented many outside broadcast or location shots and so episode five has become somewhat of a collectors classic.

The series was not well received by the critics who found it profoundly unfunny and utterly pointless, it does, however, enjoy something of a cult reputation and there are regular new stories circulating that a remake is on the cards. Writer Godfrey Chesterton, whose career started in the music halls of Norfolk, died in 1982 so it would require someone new to take up the reins and revitalise what was, even for the sixties, a curiously stilted format.

The clips that you see here are the only surviving archive footage.

©Cheambeat Communications 2008 (less info)