London, Aug 26 (IANS): Actor Freddie Highmore, who plays the character of Dr Shaun Murphy in the series 'The Good Doctor', feels blessed to be safe in the pandemic.

In an exclusive conversation with IANS, Freddie said, "I feel very lucky to have remained safe and healthy. These moments have made us all very aware of the ways in which we're fortunate and aware of things that we might previously have taken for granted."

Elaborating on the Covid episodes in 'The Good Doctor' Season 4, he said, "In terms of what we were trying to achieve from the first two episodes of this season with regard to telling the story of our doctors going through the pandemic. The most important thing for all of us was really to pay tribute to the real-life health care professionals, and frontline workers who have been going through some incredibly tough times that is hard to imagine."

He added, "We only play doctors on television. We only pretend to do it, and it really has put that into perspective their true genuine heroism. And so, it would've felt wrong to not refer and use this opportunity to pay tribute to them."

"I think everyone in the world who's been going through this, this last year has learned to appreciate, or find these silver linings in life. You know, there's small gatherings with friends or things that we might've previously taken for granted, and I think that our doctors and our show seek to find that at the same time at the start of Season 4. And then beyond that, we won't be focusing on the coronavirus, that the show will, uh, move past that being the sole focus for the majority of the season, which also felt right."

The actor shared about the research he underwent to play a role with autism. "I think it was incredibly important, probably the most important thing of all when researching this part, was making sure that we portrayed autism as authentically as possible."

"I think, in terms of that research, we have a consultant who's onboard the show full time. Uh, there are people in my life that I know who have autism. And documentaries, you know, books, pieces of literature that David Shore and I would share back and forth as we tried to come up with this character of Shaun."

Freddie has been playing the lead role in 'The Good Doctor' from Season 1, on which he also serves as a producer and director. In 2017, he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in 'The Good Doctor'.

'The Good Doctor' Season 4 is streaming on Sony LIV.