Doctors (BBC1)

THIS daily medical series has returned in a later, post-lunchtime slot and I wouldn't be surprised to see it promoted to peak time before long.

The BBC has often talked of turning Casualty into a more-than-once-a-week soap but never quite been brave enough to do it. Doctors fills the gap nicely - a mix of disease of the day and continuing stories about the doctors and nurses at the medical centre that provide the focal point for the series.

In yesterday's half-hour episode we had a mini medical story about an elderly Chinese man and his new girlfriend, who fears she's wearing him out in the bedroom department. She was of the opinion that "at our age if we stop moving for a second, they'll bring the undertakers in". No wonder the poor chap, who was 70 but looked nearer 50, collapsed with exhaustion.

Dr Maguire has a different sort of problem. To do with drink. "It's 8.45 in the morning and what I want right now is a drink," he confessed, before packing himself off to a clinic. He's played by Christopher Timothy, who gained valuable medical experience putting his hand up a cow's bum as vet James Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small.

The surgery seems to be a hotbed of passion, with staff snogging behind the examination cubicle curtains and another waking up at home to find the man she thought she'd killed sitting on the end of the bed. As medical recoveries go, this is a miracle. It's enough to send Dr Maguire back on the bottle.