{"id":2375,"date":"2015-11-08T18:18:19","date_gmt":"2015-11-08T18:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelfrenchnet.fansitehost.com\/?page_id=2375"},"modified":"2015-11-08T18:18:19","modified_gmt":"2015-11-08T18:18:19","slug":"weekend-tv-born-and-bred-to-be-gps","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/?page_id=2375","title":{"rendered":"WEEKEND TV: Born and Bred to Be GPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coventry Evening Telegraph – April 20, 2002<\/em><\/p>\n

MEET telly’s two unlikely lads – James Bolam and Michael French as father and son.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Born And Bred sees him as warm, caring family man Dr Tom Gilder trying to get on with his dad, Arthur.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, … Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":257,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2375","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2376,"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2375\/revisions\/2376"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michael-french.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}