Chatham’s Historic Dockyard has been transformed into Victorian England for the filming of a new BBC comedy.

Quacks, from the creator of the Bafta award-winning Rev, is about four young medical pioneers fighting to make a mark on the world.

It stars Mathew Baynton (The Wrong Mans, Horrible Histories) as a fledgling psychiatrist, Rory Kinnear (Count Arthur Strong, Skyfall) as an arrogant showman surgeon, Tom Basden (Plebs, The Wrong Mans) as a hedonistic dentist turned anaesthetist, and Lydia Leonard (River, Life In Squares) as a headstrong social campaigner.

Rupert Everett (The Musketeers, St Trinian’s, An Ideal Husband) will also guest star.

The series has been created and written by James Wood, who co-wrote BBC Two hit comedy Rev, and produced by Lucky Giant.

The production team has been at the Historic Dockyard for the past week and spent three days filming on site.

Street scenes were shot outside the ropery and in other parts of the attraction on last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

One of the buildings was transformed into Mr Sui’s Emporium, with wooden barrels, boxes and baskets stacked up outside.

Other shots involved stringing washing lines between the buildings. Actors in period costume could be seen milling around among the crew.

James Wood says: “Quacks is a comedy series about three colourful, energetic, young Victorian doctors who enjoy a lurid social life of drink, drugs, and complicated relationships. In other words, they’re just like every other young doctor you’ve ever met.

"I couldn't be more excited about working with this incredible cast on a show set during a fascinating period of medical history.”

Shane Allen, from the BBC, said: “This is a dream comedy cast allied to a very dynamic period in British social history which lends itself well to raucous high adventure and inappropriate behaviour, all in the name of progress.

"We follow the often maverick doctors from one misguided cock-up to the next with the very occasional (and mostly accidental) success. It’s a timely comedy flag in the often po-faced world of period settings."

The comedy is set in the 1840s, when medical science as we know it was still in its infancy, when doctors were just as likely to kill their patients as cure them, when they experimented on themselves and each other, and when the operating theatre was just that – a theatre, full of spectacle and showmanship.

Justin Davies, managing director of Lucky Giant, said: “James Wood has done a masterful job of mining our gory medical past to create wonderful characters for this story.

"These are the would-be rock stars of the medical world, and while their intentions are sincere, the results are often brilliantly deranged and funny."