Oh, Doctor Beeching!

Oh, Doctor Beeching!
Titlescreen featuring an LMS Ivatt Class 2
Created by	David Croft Richard Spendlove
Written by	David Croft Richard Spendlove John Stevenson Paul Minett Brian Leveson John Chapman
Directed by	Roy Gould
Starring	Paul Shane Jeffrey Holland Su Pollard Julia Deakin Stephen Lewis Perry Benson Paul Aspen
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	19 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Croft
Producer(s)	David Croft Charles Garland
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	14 August 1995 (1995-08-14) – 28 September 1997 (1997-09-28)

Oh, Doctor Beeching! is a BBC television sitcom written by David Croft and Richard Spendlove which, after a broadcast pilot on 14 August 1995, ran for two series from 8 July 1996, with the last episode being broadcast on 28 September 1997. The series is notable for being the last in a series of three comedies by co-writer David Croft to use many of the same actors, starting with Hi-de-Hi!, and followed by You Rang, M'Lord? and was also the last full series written by David Croft.

Oh, Doctor Beeching! focuses on the small fictional branch line railway station of Hatley, which is threatened with closure under the Beeching Axe. The programme was filmed on the Severn Valley Railway. Arley SVR station in Upper Arley was used as Hatley station.

Set in 1963, at a rural branch line railway station called Hatley, Jack Skinner (Paul Shane) the porter is acting stationmaster until a replacement is found. Jack deeply loves his wife May (played by Sherrie Hewson in the pilot episode, with her scenes re-recorded by Julia Deakin when repeated as the first episode of the regular series) who runs the station buffet, but is prone to becoming very jealous of her around other men. Without a station master the station has become rather disorganised: for instance the eternally miserable signalman, Harry Lambert (Stephen Lewis), is so underworked that he is running several sidelines from his signalbox – including hair-cutting, selling fruit and vegetables, repairing bicycles, and taking bets – seeing his signalling duties as a distraction; he frequently speaks of "ruddy trains". The station is part run by the eccentric, easily flustered booking clerk, Ethel Schumann (Su Pollard), who is always on the lookout for a new man in her life, and whose late-teenaged son Wilfred (Paul Aspen), the product of a relationship with a now deceased American soldier during the war, is the station dogsbody. Wilfred often comes across as stupid, but sometimes displays signs that he is brighter than he appears – for instance, in the episode "The Van", he finds Arnold's missing wife, Jessica.