Malpractice star on Line of Duty comparisons: ‘It’s its own thing’

“It felt very, very unique when I read it.”

By Abby Robinson

Published: Sunday, 23 April 2023 at 12:00 am

Malpractice, which arrives on ITV1 on Sunday 23rd April, is the latest drama from World Productions, the company behind a raft of ratings juggernauts including Vigil, Bodyguard and Line of Duty.

Helen Behan – who plays Norma Callahan, a doctor who is investigating fellow doc Lucinda Edwards (Niamh Algar) following the death of a patient in A&E – addressed the inevitable LoD comparisons that occur when people learn of the World Productions connection.

“I suppose the danger with World Productions is it being compared to Line of Duty, the Mecca of World Productions productions,” she told RadioTimes.com and other press. “But no, I didn’t feel that at all. It felt very, very unique when I read it. I didn’t think there was anything else like it. It’s absolutely its own thing.”

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Vigil star Lorne MacFadyen also appears in Malpractice, in which he plays Lucinda’s husband Tom, who is a very different kettle of fish to the character he portrayed in the BBC drama.

“As an actor that’s the dream,” he said of playing contrasting parts. “It’s very rarely your choice what roles you get offered but for sure, to be in a show which has a similar tension and pulse to Vigil but is completely night and day different, and the part is very different as well, it’s just great to be able to play that.”

MacFadyen also expanded on the series’ big question: what is Lucinda hiding?

“We meet them at a point where Tom is the house husband – not of his own choosing, his business plans got scuppered by COVID. And he’s been put into the less traditional gender role of being the house husband and Lucinda being the breadwinner, so there’s already a pressure from that shame that he is experiencing.

“And then there’s the external pressure of everything that’s going on privately for Lucinda, which has created a fracture in the family, in the household, and that’s widening the more the pressure builds. And Tom is in a place where he is very much in the dark about what’s happening with Lucinda and he’s trying to figure out how he can help her when he doesn’t know what the problem is.”