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MY GRANDSON THE DOCTOR


Pia Chew
Also see Watching it live--and Staying Alive by Sherrie Lee Cheng.

THE DOCTOR IS IN

If you found the moralizing in Chicago Hope emotionally draining and and if you were simply unable to handle the highly-charged gritty atmosphere of the emergency room and the occasional on-the-spot vasectomy in ER; the light-hearted "My Grandson The Doctor"(debuting 3 Oct 96, 8 pm, TCS 5) is just the right medicine for curing an overdose of hospital dramas in local television.

Adapting the hospital setting popularized by Chicago Hope and ER, the writers have set the action in a neighbourhood polyclinic, the place to be for treating common colds and infections. A mixed cast of local stage actors, houshold names from TCS and some new faces will be making our trip to this closely-knit polyclinic community an enjoyable one. TCS has casted Nicholas Lee, (Ronnie from "Under One Roof") as the "Grandson" - Dr Benedict Wee. Having proven himself in comedy, Nicholas Lee is now given the task of carrying the entire sitcom.

But he will not be alone. Joining him are a cast of actors from varied backgrounds. Playing the Head nurse, sister Maureen Veerappan, is the Divine Ja. We hope her return to the screen playing a "real" character with a script would be a more successful venture than the dismally short lived run of "Ja's Court."

The supporting cast is further strengthened with the presence of Koh Chieng Mun, veteran Ra Ra regular. Cast as the bumbling wife of Ah Teck in Under One Roof, she proved her ability to play flakey characters. In "My Grandson the Doctor", she switches gears and plays Benedict's mother, a former PR manager and wannabe bestseller writer. A welcome change from her cloyingly domesticized Dolly, Iris Wee (Koh Chieng Mun) is a highly independent and savvy insurance agent - the Tai Tai of the nineties.

Appealing to the younger viewers is this new addition to the ever growing pool of TCS artistes who will be making her debut as well. Ex-Eric Khoo ingenue and the Mee Pok girl of Singapore, Michelle Goh, will be sufficiently exposed as the polyclinic's trainee nurse, Pamela Heng. Michelle is set to attract scores of male viewers with her form-fitting nurses uniform and her Betty Boop pout. Generally new to the strange world of sitcom acting, she has a magnetic presence on screen with virtually no acting experience on TV. The other newcomer, Susan Quah is no stranger to comedy having performed in Boom Boom Room as a stand-up comic.

Fans of Act 3 will also be treated to the comic talents of Jasmin Samat. Small in stature but brimming with pep and energy, Samat plays the highly neurotic fellow doctor, supermodel fan Jaffar Hussein. He will be sharing his many hang-ups with audiences while also working as a counterbalance to the more steady and down to earth Benedict.

"My Grandson the Doctor" will not give ER a run for its money, but it will prove to be a more relaxing change of pace with familiar faces and greater local flavour, and Nicholas Lee may not possess that George Clooney charm, but his pairing with the delectable Michelle Goh will probably keep viewers glued to the screen to catch glimpses of sexual tension between them.



Pia Chew is a little-known writer known only to her corner of the world as Ah Xiu, or "The Woman With Grass" in local dialects, fish phonetics and coconut beads.

The Flying Inkpot Rating System:
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.

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