Reversals (ITV1 2003, Marc Warren, Sarah Parish)

Wouldn’t you like to live as a member of the opposite sex, if only for a day? Well, Chris and Charlotte do. Reversals is a comedy drama, written by Tim Loane (creator and writer of Teachers) in which one couple’s personal and professional lives implode when they switch gender.

Chris Singleton (Marc Warren) is a highflier, a charming and extremely successful surgeon. Charlotte Woods (Sarah Parish) is his girlfriend, a talented doctor working as a medical teacher. She is bright and determined with a natural flair for medicine.

Both are equally talented but not getting equal career breaks – Charlotte can see the only thing standing in her way is her gender. So she steals from him the one thing she needs – his identity.

When Chris receives yet another golden career opportunity, Charlotte decides she’s had enough and turns the tables on him. Arriving ahead of him she strides into his new workplace but no longer as Charlotte, she is Chris. She has taken his name, his gender and his job title!

But the game is only just beginning, as Chris has to decide how far he is prepared to go to save his relationship and to really understand what his girlfriend has been struggling against.

production details
UK / ITV-1 / 1×100 minute episode / Broadcast 19 November 2003

Writer: Tim Loane / Executive Producers: Ian Gordon, Justin Thomson-Glover, Gub Neal, Patrick Irwin / Producer: Jake Lushington / Director: David Evans

cast
Marc Warren as Doctor Chris Singleton
Sarah Parish as Doctor Charlotte Woods
Anthony Head as Andrew Barton
Indira Varma as Kathy Irwin
Jeremy Swift as Owen Doherty
Nicholas Farrell as Edward Leitch
Claudia Harrison as Judith Hobart
Kirsten Hughes as Cynthia Barton
Michael Cochrane as Derek Barry
Clive Francis as Dudley Singleton
Elizabeth Bennett as Shirley Singleton