The Surgeon

In this first episode, we follow Daren Francis, one of the UK's leading bowel cancer surgeons, who works across three different hospitals in north London.

Retired nurse Doris has been admitted in great pain with a tumour, and Daren needs to operate fast. He suspects the tumour is cancerous and is blocking her bowel. If it's not removed, it could get bigger and eventually burst. It's now a race against time to remove it before that happens.

67-year-old Antonio is the head chef of a family-run Italian restaurant. The results are back from recent tests and Daren now has to break the news to him - he has a lump in his bowel which is cancer. Daren must operate on him to remove the cancer and prevent it spreading any further.

Daren's wife and children need the patience of saints to deal with the hours he works. Luckily, his wife is a GP and understands the score. But Daren's not just juggling long hours at work with making time for his wife and children - his father died of cancer 6 years ago and his mum has recently been diagnosed with dementia. Now, Daren faces the difficult decision of whether she might be better off in a care home.

At the Royal Free, operation day has arrived and Antonio will be having his tumour removed. Daren will be using state of the art keyhole surgery. Antonio's tumour is on the right side of his bowel and access is tricky, not helped by the fact that Antonio has scar tissue from an earlier operation. What should have been a relatively straight forward operation turns into something far more complicated, as Daren discovers the scar tissue is far more extensive than he anticipated.

This week, we follow consultant breast surgeon Sascha Dua working within one of the largest specialist breast units in the country - Broomfield Hospital in Essex.

As well as running a packed clinic and performing complex surgeries, Sascha is also a single mum to teenage daughter Athene. With long and demanding hospital hours, Sascha has a tricky juggle between work and home life.

Alongside her dedicated team, Sascha delivers results, compassion and reassurance in abundance to women going through some of the most vulnerable times of their lives, as well as inspiring the next generation of female surgeons along the way.

We follow Sascha as she breaks some difficult news to 36-year-old mum Jess who needs an operation to remove a cancerous tumour. Four weeks later, we follow the tricky operation itself, as Sascha operates to remove all the cancer whilst working perilously close to vital blood vessels.

Sascha offers breast cosmetic work as well as cancer treatment, in the belief that the way a woman looks and feels about herself after her operation plays a major part in her recovery. One of her patients is wife and grandmother Toni, who has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. In a complex operation, Sascha not only needs to remove Toni's two tumours, but also perform a dramatic breast reduction at the same time. Later, Toni and her husband discover whether all the cancer was successfully removed.

Following consultant brain surgeon Omar Pathmanaban at Salford Royal Hospital in Greater Manchester as he operates on Adyita, who has a rare tumour that has been growing in his brain since birth and Emmanuel who has a malignant tumour so deep in his brain that Omar will have to operate through the nose.

Following consultant heart surgeon Inder Birdi at the Cromwell Hospital as he performs open-heart surgery on 70-year-old retired engineer Mike and fixes 59-year-old Sara's leaking heart valve using state-of-the-art technology to operate through a 3cm incision.