The cast of Green Wing have reunited at the hospital they filmed at to show their support for junior doctors.

Dressed in their familiar green-blue scrubs, Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and Julian Rhind-Tutt joined doctors on the picket line at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, north-west London, where the medical comedy series was filmed.

The cast, carrying balloons spelling "NHS", were surrounded by junior doctors waving placards as the first day of the 48-hour strike got under way.

Greig joked that she had broken the NHS after accidentally popping the S balloon - a feat mirroring the awkwardness of her on-screen character, Caroline Todd.

Mangan said he had watched the negotiations be "completely botched" by Jeremy Hunt, and urged the Health Secretary to sit down and talk to junior doctors.

The actor, who played ladies' man Guy Secretan, said: "They're reasonable people, as far as I can make out. They're nothing like the characters we played in Green Wing - they seem to be quite intelligent and sensible most of the time.

"So get round the table and work this out. This is crazy. Nobody wants these strikes - least of all the junior doctors."

He said he realised during filming that "the NHS is run on goodwill", adding: "In order to provide a fair NHS and ask people to work longer hours, you have to treat them fairly, it's not rocket science."

Rhind-Tutt, who played the blond, mop-haired Mac Macartney, said he was protesting against "the devaluing of the NHS as a whole entity, really".

"It's about the gradual erosion of that and it's about where the profession of being a junior doctor stands in our society.

"I've had my life saved by the NHS, so we're pretty clued up on how valuable it is."

The trio were joined by Pippa Haywood and Oliver Chris, who also appeared in the award-winning series.