The film is based at the St Swithin's Hospital, with Leslie Phillips as Dr Gaston Grimsdyke, an accident-prone doctor and cad, more interested in the nurses than the patients. Grimsdyke is sacked from his job as a medical officer at a men's prison, for his misbehaviour with the Governor's daughter, so he enrolls in a refresher course with his old medical tutor Sir Lancelot Spratt, who is determined to make him a successful surgeon. Grimsdyke discovers that a plum senior medical post is shortly to become vacant, and starts scheming to be considered, instead of his cousin, who has already been unofficially offered the job. Spratt and the newly appointed hospital matron clash, leading Spratt to 'volunteer' Grimsdyke to romance her and 'soften her up'. But she mistakenly believes Spratt to be her admirer, and many funny and inevitable complications ensue. At a hospital dance, a 'rejuvenation serum' which Grimsdyke has accidentally injected into Sir Lancelot, causes the latter to run amok at the party and romance the new matron. She decides to resign and a new matron is appointed. But she turns out to be equally opposed to Spratt's ideas of how the hospital should be run.
The novel Doctor in Clover was published in 1960. Film rights were bought by the Rank Organisation whose head of production Earl St John announced the film for production in 1961. However it took a number of years for the film to be made. The film was formally announced in 1964, one of a series of comedies that Rank were making at the time. The film was shot in Carnaby Street, Wormwood Scrubs and Pinewood Studios. The opening credits include the following acknowledgement: We are grateful for the help and facilities given at Wexham Park Hospital by the staff of the Hospital, Humphreys Ltd. and The Windsor Group Hospital Management Committee. While the film was shown at its full 101 minutes duration in most other countries, the British Board of Film Classification ordered that the UK cinema version had to be cut down to 97 minutes in order to get an "A" classification, and that duration has remained in later British video releases.
"The title alone will go a long way towards selling this picture", noted Graham Clarke in Kinematograph Weekly, "and it backs this with a good ration of knockabout fun."
Box office
The film was among the 15 top money-makers at the British box-office that year.
