Thread by @kingsley_tom

If you watched the final episode of This is Going to Hurt, then A) thank you, and B) here is a 🧵 of more behind the scenes facts:

1/17 - Our fake hospital was built in a former art college in Whitechapel. When we filmed the last scene, nearly all the set had been demolished:

On the last day of filming, the crew wore scrubs:
#ThisIsGoingToHurt 2/17

We couldn’t afford to film in a real supermarket so we made one out of a shelf, some greenscreen and a lot of cheese. Once we’d shot the scene, the cheese went straight to the local food bank

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 3/17

This is how we film caesarean operation scenes:
#ThisIsGoingToHurt 4/17

Filming a fake birth scene is complicated. So everyone would know what we were doing when, we stuck detailed shooting schedules on the wall. If you’re interested in technical details, there’s a lot of info here if you zoom in:

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 5/17

When we film very tight close-ups, only the tiniest clapperboard will fit in shot. Maybe you have to be on set to appreciate it, but when it’s brought out it looks so adorable that everyone involuntarily goes “awww”

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 6/17

Clapperboards usually only credit the Director + DOP. But this was a HUGE team effort, so we added new crew members' names every day:

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 7/17

Shruti’s gloomy flat was actually built in part of the hospital set. There isn’t even a bath in her bathroom - just Dan the focus puller

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 8/17

You can still have fun filming a very sad episode. eg: here’s @AmbikaMod filming the opening scene of ep6

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 9/17

The private hospital was filmed in Bethnal Green Town Hall hotel. We had to recreate part of the engagement party set inside, to film some extra lines for Adam’s speech at the end of ep5:

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 10/17

We had intimacy coordinators on set for all the birth scenes, and also for the imaginary sex scene in ep6. It was just five seconds long, but it’s good for the actors to know what they’re getting into, so I drew incredible diagrams to explain the plan:

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 11/17

Hiring and covid testing 80 background actors in a stately home is very expensive, which is why we shot half the wedding inside a photo booth in a garage:

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 12/17

In ep7, filming Ben running down the stairs while talking to camera involved... holding a heavy camera while running down the stairs backwards. Here’s DOP Nick practising the move. We did 30 runs the evening before the shoot, and shot 13 takes on the day

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 13/17

The series builds to a six minute long emotional climax, filmed in a lake. Despite the cold, Ben and Rory gave astonishing performances. Filming it was in my top 3 most stressful directing experiences, for the reasons in this picture:

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 14/17

We filmed two different versions of Adam’s GMC speech, and ultimately used a mix of the two in the edit. By the end of the first take, Ben’s performance had moved me to tears and I couldn’t speak to say “cut”

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 15/17

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 16/17

Yes: it is true that in the UK a doctor takes their own life every three weeks:
bbc.co.uk/news/health-45…

I’ll be eternally grateful to the NHS because when I broke my hip in a bike accident in 2019 (here’s my X-ray), they screwed me back together for free at the Royal London Hospital… which is 300 metres away from our fake hospital set.

#ThisIsGoingToHurt 17/18

18/18 - When you next go to a hospital, there’s a chance (pretty small chance) you’ll be treated by one of our medical advisors, who all work in the NHS right now. Here’s an amazing thread about who they are and what they do:

Here’s a bonus round of hospital filming secrets: