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With Doctors airing all year round, we believe the viewer expects the show to feature relevant events such as Christmas and Halloween. It is these seasonal episodes that give the impression that the show is ‘real time’.

However, we film each series between January and November and because of the amount of post production required following shooting, before transmission, combined with the unpredictability of the British weather, we are out of sync. Letherbridge is something of a seasonal anomaly!

Episodes are shot in groups of threes – a 'block'. Each block has the same director, producer and crew and it takes seven days to shoot the three episodes.

Most of the time, there will be two blocks shooting simultaneously, but during some parts of the year, there are three blocks shooting (known as 'triple banking').

In these periods, our regular actors can be juggling up to nine different episodes simultaneously! Editing takes approximately two weeks after the end of the shoot and includes picture edit, music, sound etc.

We have no plans for a live episode at the moment.

Unfortunately the Â鶹ԼÅÄ has a policy of not releasing on-going series of current shows on DVD. However, there are a plethora of clips and videos in the – with more still to come!

No, we've mentioned and featured other surgeries in the area, particularly Sutton Vale. But yes, the surgeries do serve a very large patient database, but then – they have to supply us with 230 stories a year!

They are unique; we have a very talented costume department who make most of Heston’s bow ties and waistcoats, although they do sometimes buy items they think fit with Heston’s style.

Also some fans have been known to send them in, which is very flattering and some do get used in the show.

Due to a very heavy filming schedule, Doctors doesn't offer tours of the set.

However this year we did test run a Golden Ticket entrant system, where the public could enter their names into a virtual hat to win tickets for an exclusive one day only tour of the sets. This is soemthing we may repeat - keep an eye out.

We use experienced television writers for Doctors as we do not have the time or resources to train brand new writers. If you’re interested in writing, we recommend you take a look at the which has all kinds of insights and articles on the subject.

We would have more time. More time to write, more time to rehearse, more time to film and so on. Lack of time is our biggest obstacle on this show.

We’d also love to move around the country a little more and do some filming away from home – go to Weston with and ; follow to Tuscany; chase home to Botswana!

If our pot of gold had anything left, we’d have more extras – the surgery waiting rooms would always be full! And we would be able to afford more characters in an episode and more stunts such as explosions and crashes.

How do you come up with ideas?

Writers come up with ideas in a number of ways. Some want to write about a specific illness or condition; others start with a character story and find an illness that fits. There’s no right or wrong method, but in most cases, the writer will pitch us their story and we take it from there.

There are some long-running stories that we create in house: Ruth’s mental condition, ’s , ’s , Sam Reid’s declining health are a few examples.

It goes without saying that these are all carefully researched and we do our best to represent illnesses as realistically as possible given the parameters of the show’s format. Things do happen a lot faster in Doctors world; appointments, test results etc. These are necessary shortcuts for storytelling purposes. Imagine the alternative – we would just have a sequence of ten minute consultations and then nothing for a few weeks – not conducive to telling a story in one day!

I have to book weeks in advance at my Doctors, but in Letherbridge it seems much quicker - why?

We know that getting an appointment quickly is unusual, though we do make it clear that our surgeries have regular 'drop in' surgeries that work on a first come first served basis – real GP practices do use this.

Â鶹ԼÅÄ visits don't really happen in real life like they do in Doctors, why isn't it more realistic?

For home visits, in reality they are booked way in advance and can often be locums. But for story purposes we do cut this corner too – again, imagine the alternative: suddenly a new doctor we don’t know comes into the story half way through, or the patient has to wait a week for a home visit – not very satisfactory. We are constrained by the format – where each story happens over the course of a day, but we hope that the audience understand that taking such liberties makes for a better, more satisfying episode.

Why don't you have more episodes with recurring patients with complex medical conditions to show more real life experience of being ill long term? There are numerous fluctuating conditions that the show could highlight by using a specific character and showing them periodically through the good and bad stages of the illness/disability.

The simple answer to this is budget – we cannot follow every patient through the course of a long illness or condition simply because we cannot afford to employ an actor for this length of time. We have a large cast of regulars at the moment and we are at our limit.

However, we do try to follow some conditions over a period of time in the serial elements of the show – Sam Reid being the most recent example. But we also had Julia’s Lyme disease, Ruth’s mental health, Jimmi’s OCD etc.

We do our best to represent and utilise disabled actors and are always seeking new ways to represent them – in a positive and negative light, concentrating on their condition, or making that entirely incidental. It’s a continuing work in progress.

Visit our page to find out when Doctors is next on.

Watch the of Doctors and here, on our homepage.

If you're having problems, take a look at the section. If the Doctors website has a specific error, please email us.

The Â鶹ԼÅÄ provides signed cast photographs for free. To get your favourite actor's autograph, please follow these steps:

Write your letter to the actor.

Send your letter to:

Name of actor (e.g. Jan Pearson),

Doctors,

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Drama Production,

Archibald House,

1059 Bristol Road,

Selly Oak,

Birmingham,

B29 6LT

Mark the top left-hand corner of the envelope with the word 'Autograph'.

Make sure you include a self-addressed envelope - with your name and address clearly written.

If you want to write to more than one actor, you must write a separate letter to each cast member.

Please be patient when waiting for your reply as it can depend on the actors' schedules.

Sorry - the show only uses professional actors.

You can talk to other fans on the .

Any complaints about the Â鶹ԼÅÄ should be submitted via the .

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the show, you can write to us at:

Doctors,

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Drama Production,

Archibald House,

1059 Bristol Road,

Selly Oak,

Birmingham,

B29 6LT