Malpractice star Zoe Telford on ITV medical thriller’s importance and a new hobby that’s hard to beat

“I think I’ve found my instrument,” Zoe Telford says as she pans over her Zoom camera to reveal an electric drum kit sitting in the corner of the room.

The star of hit ITV medical drama Malpractice seems to be adding another string to her bow – or perhaps more accurately another stick to her cymbals – with her latest passion in a career that’s seen her go from a talented dancer to a familiar face on our screens.

“I’ve started quite slow with Yellow by Coldplay,” she says of her down-tempo introduction. “I’m putting pressure on my drumming teachers – I want more Queens of the Stone Age but I’m just not ready for it!

“This is a really surprising thing that’s just happened to me this year. My partner bought me a guitar. I like it, but it’s sat around and we haven’t really bonded. The drums, on the other hand…”

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While she’s not rocking the summer festival stages just yet, she has been banging the drum in a different way as part of Malpractice.

Creator Grace Ofori-Attah used the first series in 2023 as a vehicle to highlight pressure on our A&E doctors, and the second series shifts to a new hospital and straddles psychiatry and obstetrics.

Psychiatrist Dr James Ford, played by Tom Hughes, is coming to the end of a working day when he receives referrals for two patients.

The decisions made in those fateful hours lead to tragedy and investigators are brought in to unpick his work, life and the wider department.

The series draws from Grace’s real-life experiences as a junior doctor before becoming a psychiatric consultant like Zoe’s character Dr Kate McAllister, who leads the department but has a rather more personal relationship with Dr Ford.

“I would say that broadly speaking, it is a thriller,” Zoe says. “Really at its heart it is a study on moral ambiguities. Grace is also addressing the human cost of that working environment.

“I think everyone knows that the NHS is woefully underfunded, but what was the surprise to me was that the mental health sector gets the thin end of the wedge.”

Zoe comes armed with eye-opening stats to back it up, continuing: “Mental health makes up for something like 20% of the disease burden, but it only receives around 8% of the funding.

“You can see what a desperate situation it is and the human cost of that. It’s not only for the patients, who won’t be supported in the way they need, but also for the people working within the system. It’s a real own goal I think, because when psychiatry goes wrong it’s a catastrophe. It can end in very serious, tragic incidents.

“What does it say about us as a society that we’re willing to neglect our vulnerable in the way that we are?”

In recent years conversations around mental health have become more prevalent but shows like Malpractice, while fictional, highlight that the support services have a long way to go to match the demand.

“It’s on the rise and yet the funding is diminishing,” Zoe says. “It’s completely illogical and infuriating to me. This show should feel shocking. It’s a shocking set of circumstances for people to work in. The environment is shocking.

“I was listening to Adam Buxton’s podcast the other day with Doctor Javid Abdelmoneim, who works for Médecins Sans Frontières but worked for quite some time in the NHS during and post Covid.

“He was saying that it’s less stressful for him to work in war zones.

“He described it as a unique sort of grind; the relentlessness, the 10-hour shifts, the seven-hour waits, the system buckling under the weight of it all. It’s not sustainable.”

The hope is that Malpractice follows in the tracks of recent Netflix drama Adolescence, which shone a spotlight on young men and incel culture, as well as the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office in highlighting issues, starting conversations and driving change.

“Grace is asking such important questions,” Zoe says. “How much are we willing to tolerate as a society, how much are we willing to put upon people working in the environment and having to make split-second decisions daily?

“Everyone keeps their fingers crossed they’re the right ones but, inevitably, sometimes they’ll be the wrong ones.

“Tragically, sometimes things go very wrong indeed. They are rare occurrences, miraculously, but all the things that are in the show did happen.

“The piece is really looking at the system as a whole, which is broken.

“It’s a real privilege to be a part of it. I just want to be able to be a vessel for the conversation.”

© Peter Marley

The role follows Zoe’s parts in The Lazarus Project and Red Eye, but she started off her performing career as a dancer. She trained from the age of six until she was 20 across ballet, modern, tap and jazz.

“There was a local drama class happening but I guess at that time I just didn’t feel like that was the thing for me,” she recalls. “Dancing was the way I wanted to express myself.

“Oddly, I felt like drama was almost too vocal. There were lots of people coming in and out of the drama class, just being very loud. I was like: ‘That’s not for me!’”

Her current impressive list of acting credits shows that attitude didn’t last too long. Once she had done a play and was getting encouraged by teachers, acting gradually took over.

“I was still kind of not entirely committing to it as an idea,” Zoe, 51, says. “I did a bit here and there of telly and then it wasn’t really until I was about 27 and I did Men Only and Teachers and things like that when I really felt like something clicked for me.

“It really was a bit of a light-bulb moment and I felt like this was actually what I need in order to feel happy and whole. This is where I live.”

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Her dancing days aren’t over though and she’s still always up for a boogie – but maybe not Strictly any time soon.

“You never lose it,” she laughs. “I do like to cut the rug. I love dancing. You won’t be seeing me on any of those kinds of shows though!”

All eyes are on the next part, whatever it may be, and embracing projects that have strong writing at their core.

And, of course, there’s more drumming to do.

“My dad used to drum in a band,” Zoe adds. “That’s opened up a whole new conversation about all the old bands that he used to listen to, like Cream and Led Zeppelin. He’s sending me loads of drummers saying: ‘Look at this guy.’ That’s been lovely.

“I was watching a Ginger Baker solo the other day and that was mind blowing. Queens of the Stone Age are my current listen on repeat and I find it really hard to get beyond Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters, I just think he’s so amazing!”

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‘I have a real fire in my belly these days’

Malpractice is the latest in a line of recent high-profile roles for Zoe Telford.

Indeed, she’s played other doctors of varying specialities in astrophysicist Dr Kitty Gray in The Lazarus Project and medic Dr Amber Hurst in Red Eye.

And she took on a spin doctor when she was on the end of a Malcolm Tuckering in The Thick of It.

“Everyone wants Peter Capaldi to swear at them maniacally for five minutes,” she laughs, recalling her part as a reporter in the political satire.

She also has fond memories of a 2002 short film, Nine ½ Minutes, alongside the “lovely” David Tennant when they were both starting out. Twenty years later, they’d both work on the ITV drama Litvinenko.

“I feel so fortunate. The last few years have been really nice for me,” Zoe says. “My children are a little bit older now and my focus was really there.

“I was obviously working as well, but not quite with the same sort of fire in my belly that I have now in terms of pursuing and creating work.

“The last few years have just really felt like a kind of unfolding.

“I’m working with really nice directors and I get a real kick out of that.”

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Malpractice is available on ITVX and STV Player