Rhod Gilbert lands his first major acting role

Playing father of the NHS Nye Bevan

Rhod Gilbert has landed his first major acting role, playing Nye Bevan, the Welsh socialist minister who masterminded the NHS.

He takes the role in a new audio drama, Getting Better, which is set in 1948, when the health service was being formed.

It begins with Westminster on tenterhooks after Prime Minister Clement Attlee unexpectedly appoints left-wing rabble-rouse Bevan to be Minister for Health. His infamous mouth during the war made him the ‘most loved and hated man in Britain’.

Gilbert said: ‘My own father was from Ebbw Vale (Nye’s parliamentary constituency) and quoted him often; as a result I grew up in a house that coughed, spluttered and sang with Nye’s words, his integrity and his intoxicating passion.

‘It is hard to put into words how it felt to read as ‘Nye' in a year in which the NHS has cemented itself as the lifeblood of the nation, been awarded the George Cross for its seven decades of service to us all, and the year in which my father died in its arms in a care home.

‘To think it faces an existential threat is heart-breaking. Thank you to the producers for giving me this honour, thank you NHS and thank you Nye.’

The drama, which has been released as a podcast to Audible subscribers today, charts Bevan makes enemies of the Tories, the British Medical Association and even his own party.

As things go from bad to worse, the reality sets in that Bevan’s new health service still doesn’t have any doctors with just a few weeks to go. Meanwhile, at home, his marriage is as fiery as the centre-stage politics, and we encounter the front-line medical staff and patients whose lives are at stake, with the factual historical drama from Westminster mixed with fictional tales of trauma and triumph at The Park Hospital in Manchester.

Kathryn Drysdale, who played Meghan Markle in The Winsdors, co-stars as doctor Eva Callaway, who faces poverty, sexism and homophobia on the front line.

The cast also includes Mark Gatiss, Rob James-Collier, Annette Badland, Mina Anwar and Neve Mcintosh.

Here is a preview: