The Doctor Series consists of seven British comedies made between 1954 and 1970, based either on the "Doctor" series of novels written by the physician Richard Gordon, or the characters in them. The series follow the adventures of a group of young doctors at a London hospital, as they try to stay out of trouble while chasing the nurses. The early films featured Dirk Bogarde in the lead as Doctor Sparrow and Donald Sinden as Benskin. Later films centred around Leslie Phillips. In all of them, James Robertson Justice played the imposing chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt. The films later served as inspiration for seven different TV series between 1969 and 1991, totalling 157 episodes.