Mr. Gibson

Mr. Gibson is the widowed country doctor of Hollingford, a man of quiet competence and dry humour who has raised his daughter Molly largely alone. Sensible to a fault, he prizes reason over sentiment, keeps his household running on routine, and begins to wonder whether Molly needs a mother's guidance he cannot provide.

Bill Paterson plays him with a wonderful economy — a raised eyebrow or clipped remark doing the work of paragraphs. The writing trusts him to be intelligent rather than showy, a rationalist whose care for Molly is expressed through small, exact acts rather than declarations, which makes his private uncertainties, when they surface, land with real weight.