What's your doctor like? Sympathetic, kind, intelligent - or arrogant, condescending and incompetent? In a unique project stretching into the next century, "Horizon" sets out to follow a group of teenagers who will become the surgeons, cardiologists, general practitioners, obstetricians... of the future.

With unparalleled access to the usually closed doors of the interview room, the questioning, the discussion and the selection of the candidates was filmed. Then last September, the 100 lucky survivors were followed during their first week at
St Mary's Hospital Medical School in Paddington, the hospital where Fleming discovered penicillin. They were chosen from over 2,000 applicants.

Over the next five years, more than £100,000 will be spent turning each of them into a doctor. In the first of many reports we see how the people to whom we entrust our health are chosen and initiated on the long path to becoming a doctor.

FEATURE: page 17