The Indian Doctor: Season 1

In 1963, answering the call of health minister Enoch Powell, Indian doctor Prem Sharma arrives in the Welsh mining village of Trefelin to replace the late Dr. Elwyn. Many of the miners, being socialists, welcome him but others are resentful that he is not Welsh and his snooty wife, Kamini, used to tea with the Mountbattens, makes it clear that she loathes the place and wants to move to London. Fortunately, trusty receptionist Gina shows him the ropes and he starts to win over the locals, firmly announcing to Kamini that he likes the place and wants to stay. One local whose welcome routine is purely superficial, however, is colliery manager Richard Sharpe, who is at great pains to retrieve an incriminating diary from the doctor's surgery.

Sharpe gets local urchin Dan to try and steal the diary from the surgery but he gets caught. Kamini, whilst still anxious to move to London, develops a bond with Dan and gives him reading lessons. Gina locates the diary and gives it to Prem but it is in Welsh and needs a discreet person to translate it so Prem asks kindly shop-keeper Megan Evans to oblige. He also, following a misunderstanding with a local farmer, finds he has bought a car.

Dan steals Sharpe's car in an effort to escape his drunken father Owen and track down his mother in Cardiff, but meets Kamini who, when Sharpe tries to have the boy arrested and put in care, claims that she was the thief, so that no action is taken. She brings Dan home, an action which brings her closer to her husband. Megan learns from the diary that Dr. Elwyn believed Sharpe's plans for the mine seriously jeopardised the colliers' health, but Sharpe is reluctant to allow Prem to conduct chest X-rays. For Megan's husband it is too late, as he passes away, with his son Tom and Gina in the room below losing their virginity together. Tom, however, accuses Prem of spending too much time with his stepmother Megan and indirectly blames him for the death.

Megan tells Prem that the diary reveals how Sharpe has broken numerous safety regulations but,when Prem arranges for a Mobile X-Ray van to come to Trefelin, Sharpe blackmails Dan's father into getting the miners to refuse to have tests. They are, in any case, naturally resistant,wrongly believing that Prem is working with Sharpe to get the mine closed and Tom's hostility does not help as gossips are claiming that Megan and Prem are having an affair. Fortunately Megan gets the men to see that Sharpe has been misleading them and that Prem is on their side and leads them all down to the van. Gina believes she is pregnant by Tom.

Sharpe learns that he has been promoted to area manager in Nottingham but turns on his wife Sylvia for asking Prem for advice over his impotence. Prem and Kamini, despite learning that the miners submitted to X-rays, also consider moving - back to India - as they believe they do not fit in in Trefelin. However, when Dan runs off with the diary, Kamini locates them and brings them home and Prem persuades Dan's father Owen to back up the diary's contents by telling a local journalist of Sharpe's transgressions at the village fete. Other miners are quick to testify and Sylvia broadcasts her husband's little problem to the whole village. Gina tells Tom that she is pregnant and is not rejected. Prem suggests to his now totally supportive wife that they should stay in Trefelin - at least until they get the X-ray results.