After eight years and over 160 episodes, quirky medical drama House is coming to an end. John Byrne celebrates the show and its star, Hugh Laurie.
After eight seasons of medical conundrums, acidic wit, dubious management practices, drug addictions, psychiatric care and ill-fated romances – not to mention a prison sentence – Dr Gregory House is taking his place in TV heaven.
The final episode of House is screened on Sky 1 next Thursday night at 10pm, just three days after its broadcast on US TV. Neatly bookending the 2004 pilot ‘Everybody Lies’, the show’s swansong is called ‘Everybody Dies’, and sees House examine his life and personal demons as he treats a drug-addicted patient.
Plus, former House co- stars Jennifer Morrison (Cameron), Olivia Wilde (Thirteen) and Amber Tamblyn (Masters) return, alongside Kal Penn resuming his role as Kutner, who took his own life in season five.
Unquestionably one of the small screen’s most lovable curmudgeons, House made a global star out of Hugh Laurie, who also won a pair of Golden Globe Awards and a load of Emmy nominations while breaking two records.
He entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2010 as the world’s most watched leading man – at its peak, House enjoyed a global audience of 81.8 million – and he was also the highest-paid TV actor on the planet, rumoured to be banking a pocket-bulging $700,000 per episode. Ooh. He’ll miss those pay cheques!
Hugh Laurie recently confessed that filming the series finale of House had been “a troubling period” for him and although he’s a lot different to the character he plays, Laurie does share the odd characteristic.
“Generally speaking, I'm pretty hopeless at goodbyes”, he admits, adding: “and I'm mostly not very good at hellos, either. I think I'm all right with the in-between stuff, but this is a very long, protracted goodbye to a character and to about 300 people I've worked with for eight years. This has been very emotional, and it continues to be.”
The fact that the finale involved several late nights has, he feels, softened the blow. “Fortunately, it's been physically taxing, because that always distracts you from the emotional”, he maintains, “but it's what I hope will be a fitting end to what has been an amazing journey.”
Besides his music – there’s a tour on the way – it’s unclear where the 52-year-old is heading to next. “To be honest I don’t really have ambitions in an annual calendar, ‘August, invade Poland’ kind of way”, he insists.
“My ambition is really about the next scene and the next story, and how am I going to do that? If I ever feel, ‘I think I got that right, I think I hit that in the middle of the bat’, then yes, I do get real satisfaction from that.”
And as for the House finale? “I hope we will do justice to the last eight years”, he says. “It's obviously very important to us that we do that, so we're pulling out all the stops to do the best we can.”
