This Is Going To Hurt fans given first look at Ben Whishaw and new cast in Adam Kay’s BBC adaptation

Dame Harriet Walter, Alex Jennings and newcomer Ambika Mod will join Ben Whishaw in doctor-turned-writer Adam Kay’s TV adaptation of his own hilarious but heart-breaking best-selling 2017 memoir, This is Going to Hurt.

The book, which has sold over 2.5million copies, has been translated into 37 languages, follows Kay’s gruelling but life-affirming experiences as an NHS junior doctor on a gynaecology and obstetrics ward (or ‘brats and tw**ts’, as Kay and many doctors would have it).

The former doctor has created, written and executive produced This is Going to Hurt for the BBC and AMC, so chances are high that it will display the same trademark dark humour as it delves into the sometimes baffling, often amusing and other times traumatic world of patients, senior doctors and NHS bureaucracy.

The seven-part series stars Emmy and BAFTA award-winner Whishaw (Paddington, Mary Poppins Returns, Spectre), who is also an executive producer, as Kay, a doctor described as ‘junior enough to suffer the crippling hours, but senior enough to face a constant barrage of terrifying responsibilities’.

Real-life Kay worked as an A&E doctor from 2004 for around six years, and was fired up to publish a book loosely based on his clinical diary when clearing out his own notes in 2015, as he was officially removed from the medical register.

In first-look images, Whishaw is joined by newcomer Ambika Mod as Shruti, a young junior doctor just starting out who ‘has everything it takes to be a great doctor, but the job still finds ways to throw her into chaos and doubt’.

For fans of the book, Alex Jennings (The Crown, A Very English Scandal) is perfectly cast as pompous consultant Mr Lockhart, Adam’s domineering boss, and Killing Eve’s Dame Harriet Walter is playing Adam’s mother, Veronique.

The cast of characters also includes Tracy, a sharp-witted senior midwife (The Casual Vacancy’s Michele Austin); Adam’s professional rival, Julian (Chewing Gum’s Kadiff Kirwan); and Miss Houghton, a formidable consultant played by It’s A Sin’s Ashley McGuire.

Rory Fleck Byrne (Harlots, Ghosts) plays Adam’s boyfriend Harry, and Tom Durant-Pritchard (The Windsors, The Crown) plays Adam’s best friend Greg, the two who are most commonly forced to take the brunt of the pressures he faces at work.

Lucy Forbes (In My Skin, The End Of the F***ing World) and Tom Kingsley (Ghosts, Stath Lets Flats) split directing duties between them on the series, which has just wrapped filming.

Now as we patiently wait for the series to make its way to our screens, sit tight, behave, and gentlemen, avoid sliding down any lampposts…

This is Going to Hurt will air on BBC Two.

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