Anthology Series 'Malpractice' Casts Tom Hughes for Season 2

The current TV season is awash in medical dramas. The "don't call it an ER revival" The Pitt is a hit on HBO, Doc is far less so on American broadcast; Pulse, a Grey's Anatomy knock off, is coming to Netflix, and over on Paramount, someone asked, "What if Sherlock Holmes, but sans Sherlock and medical?" an lo, Watson was born. The U.K. is more into the police procedural than the medical drama. Still, even ITV has looked at the landscape and decided the one thing that was missing from the world was "What if Line of Duty, but medical?" and lo, Malpractice arrived on ITV and ITVX in 2023, with a second season now on the way for 2025.

It is unclear whether the plan from the beginning was an anthology series. Season 1 featured Niamh Algar (Playing Nice) as Dr Lucinda Edwards, who has a very bad day at the ER office when a patient is accidentally given an overdose on the table. The incident causes Dr. Norma Callahan (Helen Behan) and Dr. George Adjei (Jordan Kouamé) of the Medical Investigation Unit, aka the MIU (the AC-12 of the series), to look into the incident. Critics didn't mind the concept, but the consensus was that Algar was miscast, and her character was an uncompelling center of the investigation.

So when ITV renewed the series, it announced the show would henceforth be an anthology, with the MIU characters as connective tissue between seasons. As for Season 2, the new doctor at the center of a controversial decision with tragic consequences is Dr. James Ford, played by Victoria's Tom Hughes.

Here's the Season 2 synopsis:

When on-call psychiatric registrar Dr James Ford finds himself caught between an anxious new mother’s postnatal check-up and the sectioning of a psychotic patient, no one could predict the tragic outcome. Norma Callahan and George Adjei of the MIU are called in to investigate Dr Ford’s actions. His personal life is messy and his colleagues may find him arrogant, but Dr Ford appears committed to his vulnerable patients. Yet what seems to be a series of bad choices by one doctor spreads beyond the psychiatric unit to a hospital seemingly at war with itself. Is Dr Ford a doctor with a God complex, or a victim himself?

With the investigation closing in, can Dr Ford save his already fragile career from a string of apparently damning mistakes? And can the MIU uncover the truth of what happened despite fierce opposition from all sides?

Behan (Elizabeth Is Missing) and Kouamé (Scoop) are officially listed as the starring roles of the series, with Hughes listed as the season's main guest star, a change from Season 1 where Algar was listed as the series' lead. Season 2 will also co-star Selin Hizli (Am I Being Unreasonable), Zoë Telford (The Lazarus Project), Hannah McClean (Blue Lights), Seraphina Beh (Top Boy), Rick Warden (The Jetty) and Ace Bhatti (Baptiste). 

Series creator Grace Ofori-Attah returns for Season 2 with Hannah K. Richards also co-writing an episode. Directors Anthony Philipson and Jennifer Sheridan split helming duties across the season's five episodes with Chrissy Skinns producing. Ofori-Attah also serves as executive producer alongside Simon Heath, Roderick Seligman, and Emma Luffingham for World Productions.

Malpractice Season 2 is expected to air on ITV and stream on ITVX by mid-2025. No American distributor has picked up the show as yet, but hopefully a second season with better reviews will convince someone to scoop it up.