Coventry Evening Telegraph – April 20, 2002

MEET telly’s two unlikely lads – James Bolam and Michael French as father and son.

Sunderland-born Bolam and Londoner French join forces for BBC 1’s new Sunday-night drama Born And Bred about a family GP surgery in 50s Britain.

It might seem a strange pairing at first sight, but the two actors declare they are bridging the north-south divide. “There are great pubs and the countryside is beautiful,” laughs Michael.

The family drama was filmed on location in the Lancashire village of Downhall on the edge of the Pendle Hills and follows the lives of the two village docs.

Of course, ex-EastEnder Michael French is a dab hand with a stethoscope and first demonstrated his bedside manner playing surgeon Nick Jordan in Holby City.

Born And Bred sees him as warm, caring family man Dr Tom Gilder trying to get on with his dad, Arthur.

“There are parallels in my own life with what is happening between Tom and Arthur,” says the 38-year-old. “I’ve gone into partnership with my own dad in a business and it is working out very well.

“I do like playing doctors, it brings out the more compassionate side of my own nature. I like to listen and I like to understand and help people. It’s also great to be able to play a happily married man and a father in an era when there were such strong family values.

“It is so refreshing to be in something that doesn’t really deal with the harsher realities of life. I think that the time is ripe for something with humour and nostalgia.”

James Bolam is also hopeful that the new series will prove as big a favourite with TV audiences as his past successes like The Likely Lads, Second Thoughts, When The Boat Comes In and Only When I Laugh.