As the first block of filming for Channel Nine’s new drama series Doctor Doctor wrapped up in Mudgee this week, producer Claudia Karvan revealed she has a soft spot for the town. 

The much loved star of film and television has been a regular visitor to the region during her career. 

“I spent a lot of time in Mudgee about 20 years ago, have lots of fond memories but it’s certainly changed a lot,” Karvan said ahead of filming. 

“I’m really looking forward to getting back there … Saturday night we’ll all be frequenting the wine bars.” 

Best known for her career in front of the camera, Karvan has been producing since the award-winning Love My Way most recently working on House of Hancock. 

She’s been involved in the development of Doctor Doctor for several years, alongside colleague and producer Ian Collie (Rake, Jack Irish) and screenwriter Tony McNamara (Puberty Blues, The Secret Life of Us). 

“It’s kind of a comedy medical fish out of water drama about a narcissistic, egotistical heart surgeon who’s lived too much of the high life, falls on his own sword and gets struck off,” Karvan explained. 

“He has to return to his country home town with his tail between his legs to work as a lowly GP removing skin tags and doing things he believes are way beneath him. It’s about him dealing with his ego in quite a humorous way.

“It’s a very witty script written by Tony McNamara and the situations are excruciatingly humiliating for Hugh Knight who is the character that Rodger Corser plays.

“He is used to operating in high flying circles in Sydney, working in a state of the art operating room only dealing with people who are unconscious now he is forced to join the community and be available to listen and be a therapist and be all the things that GPs are.”

Karvan said Doctor Doctor is a story of redemption as Knight learns how far he has come as he accepts his relationship with his father and his brother’s marriage to the love of his life.

“It’s a good rural story,” Karvan said. 

“It’s fantastic to show a thriving community and a really healthy rural town but seen through the prism of Hugh’s eyes he thinks it’s depressing and it’s a backwater but he learns to appreciate it.” 

Rodger Corser (Underbelly, Rush, Puberty Blues, A Beautiful Lie) and co-stars Tina Bursill, Steve Bisley, Ryan Johnson, Nicole da Silva and Hayley McElhinney have been spotted during the filming in Mudgee’s main streets.

Karvan said it was those wide streetscapes and open landscapes that made Mudgee a great fit for the show’s fictional town of Whyhope. 

“[Mudgee] is picturesque, it’s so beautiful and it’s got the diversity of landscapes with the vineyards, you see so much sky,” she said.

“Also it’s convenient because it’s got the airport with two flights a day.”

The production has been well received with many locals appearing as extras in the ten-part mini-series that will air on Nine. 

Crews will return several more times through until August.