By, Rosa Doherty
2 min read
Viewers of prime-time BBC One hospital drama Holby City are being gripped by a storyline involving a Jewish doctor and a patient with a Nazi past, which the programme makers have included to put antisemitism in the spotlight. In the episode screened on Tuesday, the surgeon, Sacha Levy - portrayed by non-Jewish actor Bob Barrett - discovers that the patient was a guard at Majdanek and decides he cannot complete the surgery. As the story continues in coming episodes, Levy and the patient's granddaughter develop an unlikely bond.
Talking on set at Elstree Studios, Holby producer Simon Harper says that diversity is an important element of the show. "But people don't tend to talk about antisemitism and you don't have many Jewish characters on screen. And, to my mind, Jewish identity is not often explored.
"Kate Verghese, the story producer, said: 'What if a Jewish doctor was faced with a Nazi war criminal as a patient?' Then the German government announced they were giving it one last push to find people who committed atrocities. And it was totally plausible to depict a sweet old man who turns out to be something sinister".
It helps that Harper is "fascinated with the Second World War and 20th century history. I think it is because I'm British but grew up in Belgium and France, countries occupied by the Germans. I went on school trips to concentration camps."
