In this article, we will explore the fascinating world of Doctor Foster (TV series) and its many aspects, from its origin to its impact on today's society. Throughout history, Doctor Foster (TV series) has played a crucial role in various areas, influencing culture, politics, science, and people's daily lives. We will delve into its origins, analyze its evolution over time and examine its relevance in the contemporary world. Additionally, we will explore different perspectives and opinions on Doctor Foster (TV series), as well as its ethical and moral implications today. Get ready to immerse yourself in an exciting journey through Doctor Foster (TV series) and discover all its nuances and meanings!
Doctor Foster | |
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Genre | Psychological thriller |
Created by | Mike Bartlett |
Developed by | Mike Bartlett |
Written by | Mike Bartlett |
Directed by |
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Starring | |
Opening theme | "Fly" by Ludovico Einaudi |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 2 |
No. of episodes | 10 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Running time | 60 minutes |
Production company | Drama Republic |
Original release | |
Network | |
Release | 9 September 2015 3 October 2017 | –
Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned is a British psychological thriller television series that debuted on BBC One on 9 September 2015. Created and written by Mike Bartlett, the series is about Gemma Foster (Suranne Jones), a doctor who suspects her husband Simon (Bertie Carvel) is having an affair. After she follows several lines of enquiry, she slowly begins to lose her sanity as her life unravels from what secrets she finds. The storyline was inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Medea, a wronged wife who kills her children and poisons her husband's new bride. Internationally, the series was brought to many countries by different networks (see Broadcast).
The second series of the show started on 5 September 2017 and concluded on 3 October 2017. A future third series has been played down by lead actress Jones, citing incompatibility of schedules. Bartlett has said while there is more to explore with Gemma Foster's story, he would bring the show back only if there were a vital story to be told, with no immediate plans for a return. He did, however, write a spin-off, Life, featuring the character of Anna Baker from the first two series.
Series one
Series two
Series | Episodes | Originally aired | Average viewers (millions),1 | |||
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Series premiere | Series finale | |||||
1 | 5 | 9 September 2015 | 7 October 2015 | 9.51 | ||
2 | 5 | 5 September 2017 | 3 October 2017 | 10.20 |
No. | Title | Director | Writer | Original airdate | Viewers (millions),1 | |
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1 | "Episode 1" | Tom Vaughan | Mike Bartlett | 9 September 2015 | 9.19 | |
Gemma Foster, a doctor at the Parminster Medical Centre, is happily married to property developer Simon, with whom she has a young son, Tom. One day, she finds a blonde hair on Simon's scarf and suspects him of infidelity, possibly with his assistant Becky. Rather than confront him, she confides in her colleague Ros. At work, she forces elderly doctor Jack Reynolds, who has become an alcoholic, to retire. She does a deal with a young patient, Carly, to give her sleeping pills and get rid of her abusive partner by threatening him and demanding he move out - in return for the patient following Simon. | ||||||
2 | "Episode 2" | Tom Vaughan | Mike Bartlett | 16 September 2015 | 9.19 | |
Gemma has discovered that Simon's mistress is Kate Parks, the daughter of one of her patients and that Ros knew of the affair but was bound by patient confidentiality rules. She also establishes that Kate is now pregnant. At a bar, Gemma meets another patient, Anwar, a married lawyer who is keeping the fact that he might have a brain tumour from his family. Encouraged by Jack Reynolds, whom she has reconciled with and talked out of suicide, Gemma confronts Simon but he denies having an affair. But his ailing mother Helen, whose own husband cheated on her, tells Gemma the affair has been going on for two years, and not three months as he had told Ros. Gemma makes an appointment with Anwar, who specialises in divorce. | ||||||
3 | "Episode 3" | Tom Vaughan | Mike Bartlett | 23 September 2015 | 9.26 | |
On Anwar's advice, Gemma acts towards Simon as if everything is normal, while investigating his love life and financial affairs through other people. She gets Carly to befriend Kate, and sleeps with, then blackmails Simon's accountant Neil. Neil reveals that Simon's big project, the re-development of a school, is a financial black hole and that their joint savings and home would be gone if it were not for a mysterious investor bailing him out. Simon's mother, who had been terminally ill and in pain, ends her life. Gemma decides against divorce because of Simon's distress and vulnerability. | ||||||
4 | "Episode 4" | Bruce Goodison | Mike Bartlett | 30 September 2015 | 9.35 | |
To Ros's surprise, Gemma stays with Simon, believing his affair is over after Kate had an abortion. However, her work life crumbles after negative comments about her get posted on the Internet, and the police suspect her of involvement in her mother-in-law's death. Carly's boyfriend has also filed a complaint about her for threatening him earlier. Gemma has a breakdown after discovering that Simon is seeing Kate again. She attempts suicide by drowning before finding new strength. | ||||||
5 | "Episode 5" | Bruce Goodison | Mike Bartlett | 7 October 2015 | 10.57 | |
Gemma contrives to embarrass Kate and Simon at an awkward dinner party with her family - where she exposes Simon's infidelity and his financial misdeeds. She also reveals that Kate's father, who knew nothing of the affair, is the mysterious investor in Simon's project despite having a conflict of interest by being a council member. She identifies the accountant Neil's wife as her mysterious online persecutor. When Simon refuses to leave their house Gemma loses control, picks Tom up from school, and drives off with him. Later, Tom and Carly return to the house but after giving Simon the impression that she has harmed Tom, it enrages him, and he slams her against the glass door knocking her unconscious. At a later time, Simon and Kate moved to London after Gemma successfully puts a restraining order against him. The episodes end with Gemma helping a victim with cardiac arrest while Tom assists her. |
This section's plot summaries may be too long or excessively detailed. (October 2017) |
The series was commissioned by Charlotte Moore and Ben Stephenson. The executive producers are Roanna Benn, Greg Brenman, Jude Liknaitzky, and Matthew Read. Filming took place in Green Lane, Croxley Green, Hertfordshire, Copse Wood Way, Northwood, London, Enfield and the Market Square in Hitchin in Hertfordshire. The surgery location shoot was at the Chess Medical Centre, in Chesham in Bucks, renamed Parminster Medical Centre for the show. The railway station featured in the show was Enfield Chase station. The scene that features Tom playing football was filmed at the Southgate Hockey Centre, Enfield.
It was announced at the end of Series 1 that the show would return for a second series, with both Suranne Jones and Bertie Carvel. At the 21st National Television Awards Jones announced that the new series began filming in September 2016.
The second series started on 5 September 2017 and concluded on 3 October 2017. The BBC is yet to confirm whether the show will return for a third series although writer Mike Bartlett does not dismiss the possibility.
In general, the show has received acclaim. The opening episode received generally positive reviews from critics, with Lucy Mangan from The Guardian calling it a "gripping portrait of a marriage slowly being poisoned," although Mangan expressed fears of the show descending into "melodrama in the not too distant future". In a review for The Daily Telegraph, Michael Hogan gave the drama four stars out of five, describing it as "an edgy nail-biter" that was "sparkily written by Olivier Award-winner Mike Bartlett", despite a soundtrack that was "overbearing".
Less enthusiastically, Victoria Segal of The Sunday Times wrote of the fourth episode that it "clattered unsteadily to its denouement ...this episode is as desperately uneven as the rest of the series, thrashing about between high melodrama and muted misery." Catherine Blythe of The Telegraph bemoaned its "absurd plot" and the lack of "emotional logic" in a series of "melodramatic contortions that required a character who was supposed to be brainy to act like an utter fool".
Year | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result |
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2016 | National Television Awards | New Drama | Doctor Foster | Won |
Drama Performance | Suranne Jones | Won | ||
Broadcasting Press Guild Awards | Best Drama | Doctor Foster | Nominated | |
Best Actress | Suranne Jones | Won | ||
Best Writer | Mike Bartlett | Nominated | ||
Royal Television Society Awards | Best Actress | Suranne Jones | Won | |
British Academy Television Awards | Best Mini-Series | Doctor Foster | Nominated | |
Best Actress | Suranne Jones | Won | ||
2018 | National Television Awards | Drama Performance | Suranne Jones | Won |
Drama | Doctor Foster | Won |
Internationally, the series premiered in Australia on 17 November 2015 on BBC First, in New Zealand on 17 January 2016 on TV One,[citation needed] in France on 15 June 2016 on C8, in Poland on 3 August 2016 on Ale Kino+, in Sweden on 15 August 2016 on SVT1, and in Finland on 28. February 2018 on Yle TV1.[citation needed] The series aired in the US on Lifetime in April 2016 as Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned and began streaming on Netflix in October 2016. In Spain, the series' first instalment was first broadcast on Nova in June 2018, and will air again on Antena 3 with two episodes per week as of 5 September and 6 September, respectively. and Brazil for SBT
In South Korea, Doctor Foster aired on KBS 1TV from 25 January 2016 to 9 January 2018. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the immense popularity of its local adaptation which aired on JTBC, the latter will re-air Doctor Foster following the end of the local adaptation. Graceful Friends, the drama that was supposed to air after the local adaptation, was pushed back to July 2020.
Country | Local title | Network | Original release |
---|---|---|---|
Arab World | Al Kha'en الخائن The Traitor |
MBC Group | 5 November 2023 – 8 March 2024 |
Colombia | Engañada deceived |
RCN Televisión | 2025 |
France | Infidèle Unfaithful |
TF1 | 7 January – November 2019 |
Germany | Ein Schritt zum Abgrund One Step to Abyss |
Das Erste | 23 March 2023 – present |
India | Out of Love | Disney+ Hotstar | 22 November 2019 – 14 May 2021 |
Indonesia | Mendua Between Two Hearts |
17 December 2022 – 4 February 2023 | |
Japan | 夫婦が壊れるとき Fufu ga Kowareru Toki |
NNN (Nippon TV) | 8 April 2023 – 30 June 2023 |
Philippines | The Broken Marriage Vow | Kapamilya Channel | 24 January – 24 June 2022 |
Russia | Скажи правду Tell truth |
Russia-1 | 11–14 March 2019 |
Sweden | TBA | TBA | |
South Korea | 부부의 세계 The World of the Married |
JTBC | 27 March – 16 May 2020 |
Slovakia | Zrada The Betrayal |
Markíza | 5 February 2024 - April 16 2024 |
Thailand | เกมรักทรยศ The Betrayal |
Channel 3 | 23 August – 12 October 2023 |
Turkey | Sadakatsiz Unfaithful |
Kanal D | 7 October 2020 – 25 May 2022 |
In 2020, BBC One broadcast the spin-off series Life, similarly written by Mike Bartlett and with Victoria Hamilton reprising her role as the character of Anna Baker, now known as "Belle Stone", living in a converted house in Manchester, England. The series also featured Anna's ex-husband Neil Baker (played again by Adam James).