Did you know that Netflix has a stock of fireplace videos? You choose from the classic or birchwood editions, then have the image and sound of a cosy fire crackling away on your TV screen. Amazon Prime Video offers an hour-long film of a sunrise over the Bosphorus Strait. I tell you this because The Good Karma Hospital (ITV) can serve the same function.
The plot of each episode is immaterial, really. Just play it in the background, with its lovely music and gorgeous setting, and it will induce feelings of calm and wellbeing.
Think too much about the set-up, and this sense of comfort may dissipate a little. Why is the show filmed in Sri Lanka but set in India? Seems a bit of a snub to the Sri Lankans, if you ask me. How does this cottage hospital have such a gleaming operating theatre? Why does Dr Lydia Fonseca drive around in a convertible, when any sensible person living there would want a car with air conditioning?
Never mind. Just enjoy this agreeable series for what it is, which is Heartbeat with saris. The lead role is supposedly Amrita Acharia as Dr Ruby Walker, but really the main players are Amanda Redman as the hospital boss and Neil Morrissey as the ex-pat running a bar. Essentially, they’re playing the characters they’ve honed in various shows over the years – she is tough but fair, he has a roguish charm.
There are two new arrivals in this fourth series – Dr Samir Hasan (Harki Bhambra) as another Brit who could prove to be Ruby’s latest love interest, and Dr Nikita Sharma (Rebecca Ablack) as an over-confident surgeon’s daughter. They each had a storyline involving a patient, of the sort that appears in Casualty, Holby City and all other shows of this type – a small emergency or dilemma, neatly wrapped up by the episode’s end.
The best character remains Dr Ram Nair (Darshan Jariwala), officially the man in charge, prone to bouts of exasperation but fundamentally a good egg. The presence of a bona fide Indian actor also helps to give the show a note of authenticity. Really, though, we’re just here for the holiday vibes.
