Oh, Doctor Beeching! is a BBC television sitcom written by David Croft and Richard Spendlove which, after a broadcast pilot on 14 August 1995, ran for two series from 8 July 1996, with the last episode being broadcast on 28 September 1997. The series is notable for being the last in a series of three comedies by co-writer David Croft to use many of the same actors, starting with Hi-de-Hi! and followed by You Rang, M'Lord? and was also the last full series written by Croft. Introduction Oh, Doctor Beeching! focuses on the small fictional branch line railway station of Hatley, which is threatened with closure under the Beeching Axe. The programme was filmed on the Severn Valley Railway. Arley SVR station in Upper Arley was used as Hatley station. Plot Set in 1963, at a rural branch line railway station called Hatley, Jack Skinner (Paul Shane) the porter is acting stationmaster until a replacement is found. Jack deeply loves his wife May (played by Sherrie Hewson in the pilot episode, with her scenes re-recorded by Julia Deakin when repeated as the first episode of the regular series) who runs the station buffet, but is prone to becoming very jealous of her around other men. Since the retirement of the previous station master the station has become rather disorganised: for instance the eternally miserable signalman Harry Lambert (Stephen Lewis), is so underworked that he is running several sidelines from his signalbox – including hair-cutting, selling fruit and vegetables, keeping turkeys, pigs and chickens, repairing bicycles and taking bets – seeing his signalling duties as an unwelcome distraction; he frequently speaks of "ruddy trains". The station is part run by the eccentric and easily flustered booking clerk Ethel Schumann (Su Pollard), who is always on the lookout for a new man in her life and whose son Wilfred (Paul Aspden), the product of a relationship with a now deceased American soldier during the war, is the station dogsbody. Wilfred often comes across as stupid, but sometimes displays signs that he is brighter than he appears – for instance in the episode "The Van", he finds Arnold's missing wife Jessica. Also present are Vera Plumtree (Barbara New), who has no particular role, but seems to do various jobs around the station and acts as Mr Parkin's housekeeper. Her late husband used to work on the railway, as she frequently reminds the other