House

*House is taking a break and will return in February.*

After six series, House is bedecked with glittering prizes – four Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...

It’s an unqualified success, even more improbable because the hit US drama stars Brit Hugh Laurie as Dr Gregory House, a misanthropic and unconventional medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians treating patients with mysterious illnesses.

Together with his Sherlock Holmes-style methods and flawless instincts, House and his specialist team of experts, including Dr Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), Dr Remy Hadley/Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and Dr Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) relish in solving the numerous medical puzzles and day-to-day challenges at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, New Jersey.

House is sarcastic, grouchy and short-tempered. He is constantly in pain due to an old leg injury and subsequently lacks any bedside manner leaving him to be largely friendless, save Dr James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard).

Hugh has said of his character: “I suppose I am drawn to people who worry, who are tortured. I find I am always faintly suspicious of happy people. I always think there is something going wrong or missing somewhere. They would probably argue that I am the one with the thing missing, and that may be so. But the fact that he is not happy makes a lot of his misdemeanours more forgivable…”

Due to his unconventional medical theories and practices House is often clashing with his colleagues, especially his boss hospital administrator Dr Lisa Cuddy. House and Cuddy have a complex relationship, which usually involves a high degree of sexual tension and innuendo. The two share a kiss in season five, but their relationship doesn’t progress any further throughout the rest of that series.

The end of series six saw House spiral into despair following the loss of a patient in the field and the unexpected news Cuddy was engaged. House considered treating his emotional anguish with Vicodin, potentially prompting a relapse into a cycle of drug dependency, before Cuddy reveals that she has called off her engagement because she loves him.

As series seven begins, House and Cuddy attempt to make their relationship work and discover whether their new situation will affect their ability to treat patients…