INTERVIEW: Dr. Hugh Knight, played by Rodger Corser, makes his way to KCET
Photo: Rodger Corser stars as Dr. Hugh Knight on The Heart Guy. Photo courtesy of Alina Gozina / Provided by KCET with permission.
In recent years, American TV audiences have enjoyed a welcome onslaught of programming from Australia. Whether it’s murder mysteries, soap operas or comedy series, the content from the continent has been well received and acclaimed by fans who may never have the chance to set foot in the faraway country.
Now The Heart Guy (called Doctor Doctor in Australia) will premiere Thursday, June 18 at 9 p.m. on KCET in Southern California. The star of the medical drama is Rodger Corser, known for Rush and Underbelly.
On the series, Corser’s character of Dr. Hugh Knight has to leave his comfortable life in the city and move to the countryside where he serves as the community’s doctor. This isn’t any old community; it’s actually the place where he grew up. He not only has to deal with the medical challenges of the town, but he also must reckon with his past — forgotten friends, former girlfriends, distant family members.
Although the series will be new for many American audiences, The Heart Guy (Doctor Doctor) has actually been going strong in Australia for a few years.
“We’ve been lucky to be green-lit for a fifth season,” Corser said in a recent phone interview. “So there’s still plenty more to mine for Hugh and for the residents of Whyhope. We’re actually in the middle of writing season five now, and it sort of begs the question, which a lot of shows around the world are asking themselves, do we include the pandemic or post-pandemic in our storylines?”
Corser joined the project a few years ago because the creatives behind the show were so talented, and he wanted to work with them on the series. In particular, he relished the chance to collaborate with Tony McNamara, whose star has risen quite high since the first set of episodes premiered. McNamara, for the unbeknownst, was nominated for an Oscar for penning the script to The Favourite.
“The team behind this is incredible,” Corser said. “Tony McNamara we had to give to the world after season three because of his success with the Oscar-nominated film The Favourite, and now he’s got The Great, the TV series out on Hulu at the moment, which is a big hit worldwide. I’ve worked with Tony previously on some other shows called … Puberty Blues and Spirited, and he’s got a great history. He’s a playwright as well as a TV writer and showrunner. I really like his humor. It can be anywhere from broad to very subtle and dry, and when I read the first script with Hugh I just liked the absolute cheekiness of him, mixed with him also being a high achiever at the same time. … He wasn’t afraid to show a little bit of arrogance to Hugh, and that he was a high achiever. And with the cheekiness, I thought there’s going to be lots to mine with this character.”
Corser said the divide between city life and small-town life is apparent in Australia, much like rest of the world. There are communities, he said, that are quite cut off and deep in the outback, but in 2020, the world is getting smaller and smaller thanks to technology.
“We have a lot of mining closer to small towns, and we have what we call our fly-in fly-out workers,” he said. “So they’re based in the city, and they’ll fly into the small town and work for a 10-day stretch, and then fly back to one of the cities. So there’s more of a cross-pollination between city and country then there probably would have been even three decades ago. … The actual town we shoot in is called Mudgee, and that is a winery town. There’s probably 20 vineyards around the area, and they do have mining there. So even though there’s some old-school farmers there, you can also get a really lovely meal at a restaurant and a glass of wine, so it’s kind of got the best of both worlds.”
The medical knowledge needed for Corser to come off as believable is not that extensive. This is more of a dramedy that is heavy on the human relationships and light on the blood and guts, but still the actor has brushed up on the heart — both in a literal sense and a figurative sense.
“We’re not a fully-fledged procedural,” Corser said. “We’re a mix of a little bit of procedural, and then obviously we have a comedic element. Then we’re a relationship drama; elements of a rom-com as well in there. We’re a bit of a mix, but, yeah, we went along with the production team on the show — the showrunner, some other writers and producers — to a heart surgeon, and we got some other information from prominent surgeons. Our art department and medical team wanted to know about procedurally how we do things, but … it was more about the ego of someone that has people’s lives literally in his hands for a heart surgeon. He has his hand around someone’s heart when the chest is cracked open, and I suppose it’s exploring that God complex.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Heart Guy, starring Rodger Corser, will premiere Thursday, June 18 at 9 p.m. on KCET. Click here for more information.
