MALPRACTICE: MEDICAL DRAMA SHELVED BY ITV AFTER TWO SERIES

ITV have shelved medical drama Malpractice after two series.

An ITV spokesperson told The Sun: "We’re very proud of the two series of Malpractice and grateful to everyone who supported the show.  Commissioning decisions involve many factors and while there are no plans for a third series, we’d like to extend our thanks to Grace Ofori-Attah and the team at World Productions for producing two brilliant series." 

Malpractice series one had the most watched launch episode of a new drama on ITV1 in 2023 with 6.7m viewers based on 28-day viewing and was sold to more than 70 countries.

Niamh Algar starred in the first series as Dr Lucinda Edwards who's a smart, battle-hardened doctor, but we meet her on a nightmare shift that ends in the death of an opioid overdose victim, Edith Owusu. Despite the support of her medical supervisor, Dr Leo Harris, played by James Purefoy (A Discovery of Witches, Pennyworth, Sex Education), Edith’s grieving father Sir Anthony Owusu, played by Brian Bovell (Crime, Strike), demands an enquiry into Lucinda’s actions on the fateful night. 

Leading the medical investigation are Dr Norma Callahan played by Helen Behan (Holding, The Virtues) and Lucinda’s former colleague, Dr George Adjei, played by Jordan Kouamé (Megalomania). While George feels this was an unavoidable tragedy, Norma is suspicious of Lucinda’s behaviour and decisions in the lead up to Edith’s death. 

The second series saw the return of Helen Behan (The Virtues, Elizabeth Is Missing) and Jordan Kouamé (Scoop) as Dr. Norma Callahan and Dr. George Adjei of the Medical Investigation Unit (MIU), who are once again called in to investigate a doctor accused of malpractice.

When on-call psychiatric registrar Dr James Ford (Tom Hughes) finds himself caught between an anxious new mother’s postnatal check-up and the sectioning of a psychotic patient, no one could predict the tragic outcome.

Norma Callahan and George Adjei of the MIU are called in to investigate Dr Ford’s actions. His personal life is messy and his colleagues may find him arrogant, but Dr Ford appears committed to his vulnerable patients. Yet what appears to be a series of bad choices by one doctor spreads beyond the psychiatric unit to a hospital seemingly at war with itself. Is Dr Ford a doctor with a God complex, or a victim himself? 

With the investigation closing in, can Dr Ford save his already fragile career from a string of apparently damning mistakes? And can the MIU uncover the truth of what happened despite fierce opposition from all sides?

Malpractice is available now on ITVX.