Surgical Spirit was a highly successful sitcom first released in 1989, which then ran for 7 seasons. It centered around a female consultant surgeon, Sheila Sabatini, whose razor-sharp tongue, withering sense of humour and domineering behaviour made her a force to be reckoned with. Driven by a desire to succeed in this male dominated environment, her stand-offish behaviour also marks a soft centre, though few people get close enough to discover that. The show focusses on Sheila's work life and how she contends with this, a wayward son, her soon to be ex-husband, and boyfriend (in the later seasons). Nicola McAuliffe gives a very memorable performance as the spiky Sheila Sabatini, with Duncan Preston as Dr Haslam.