05 October 2023 , 11:47
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Dr Chris made a rare appearance on This Morning, to celebrate 35 years working on the show.
The TV doctor was visited by This Morning's Dr Zoe Williams at his home, to take a look back at the impact he has had over the decades. Dr Chris Steele MBE has been at the centre of the show's health campaigns since the beginning. The ITV show has been marking its anniversary over the past week.
They replayed a throwback clip of the first This Morning with Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegagn in 1988. Thursday saw the popular programme celebrate Dr Chris, who has been at the forefront of highlighting health issues and helped millions across the nation. Having joined the show right at the start in 1988, after meeting Richard and Judy as their family doctor, Dr Chris explained: “It’s a long time ago, it feels like a long time ago and it is a long time you know. When I went on the show, I actually said ‘Look, I’ll do this for about three months’ because I was a family GP, you know, full time.
This Morning's Dr Chris made a rare TV appearance (ITV)"It was quite exciting for the whole practice, especially the patients. The patients loved it, you know. They’d say ‘I was in Tesco and I told everybody, he’s my GP you know! I’m seeing him tomorrow morning’ and it was wonderful.”
Dr Chris’ first ever appearance on This Morning was to discuss the MMR vaccine. He explained: “That was information for the viewers and also to highlight the importance of the MMR vaccine, because there were doubts about it and I think that’s our job… nevermind treating patients… teaching them the causes of the disease, what the disease is and what the treatments will do.”
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Dr Chris Steele pictured for a This Morning promo shot (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Dr Chris Steele has been on our screens for decades (ITV)Dr Chris was involved in spearheading the first live breast examination on British television in 1989. He recalled the challenges faced in getting the examination shown on air.
Chris said: “The powers that be said ‘We’re not doing that, naked breasts mid-morning?’ and eventually they accepted it and the beauty of that is, women were just given leaflets on how to examine your breasts [previously]. You know what, there’s nothing better than image and so many women responded to these videos. The response from the viewers and the breast cancer that we detected, patients were so grateful [saying] ‘Thank you This Morning, thank you This Morning’.”
A decade after that groundbreaking TV moment, Dr Chris created history again by performing the first testicular examination on morning television in 1999.
“That was a taboo subject… ‘No way are we having a guy naked from the waist down on morning television’ and the programme just contacted an agency, a male model said ‘Yeah, I’ll do it. No problem at all’. That was a very interesting progression forwards and showing testicles, and how to examine your testicles, seeing it being done is better than reading a leaflet.”
Dr Chris was visited by Dr Zoe at his home (ITV)While Dr Chris also allowed cameras to film his own surgery to treat his skin cancer in 1996. He explained to Dr Zoe why he made that decision: “Just to let the viewers see exactly what it entails, what the skin cancer looked like but also, they’re watching it and seeing the results afterwards and the very good result that I did get. If it takes the fear of the surgery away from them… You’re not going to be disfigured hopefully, you’re going to be cured and of course, it gets them talking.”
Dr Chris was awarded an MBE for his services to medicine and broadcasting in 2010, which he said was a "great experience".