City Hospital (British TV series)

Last updated

City Hospital
Genre Medical documentary
Presented by See below
Theme music composer Bruce Hornsby
Opening theme"The Way It Is"
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series16 + 1 special
No. of episodes655
Production
Production locations
Running time50 minutes
Production companyTopical Television
Original release
Network BBC One
Release12 October 1998 (1998-10-12) 
5 January 2007 (2007-01-05)
Related
The General

City Hospital is a medical documentary television series that aired on BBC One from 12 October 1998 until 5 January 2007. [1] It ran over sixteen series with over 360 hours of film broadcast every weekday from 10 am. It was the successor to The General and initially kept the same location and format, adding Gaby Roslin, Nick Knowles and Edwina Silver to the presenting line up. [2]

Contents

Format

City Hospital was first broadcast live from Southampton University Trust's teaching hospital, Southampton General Hospital but also featured Princess Anne Maternity Hospital. It then moved to London's flagship NHS Health Trust - Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital in 2002. [3] The show followed real patients and staff and featured daily live-to-air footage of actual surgical operations, as they were being performed. [4] The show's theme tune was an instrumental version of Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is". Both The General and City Hospital were produced by Topical Television. [5]

Ratings

A ratings success, the final series commanded a quarter of all the UK television audience at 10am every weekday - over a million viewers daily.[ citation needed ]

The programme had unprecedented BBC Audience Appreciation (AI) figures for a daytime broadcast. When viewers were asked which programme they would put at the top of all the BBC programmes they had watched that week, City Hospital consistently scored highly. During the last week of programmes, the AI figure was an almost unheard of 88%. The BBC reported: "Alongside the usual big hitters, the dramas and US imports, the daytime programme City Hospital always wins through with high AIs."[ citation needed ]

Yvette Fielding's live proposal

In 1999 Yvette Fielding's boyfriend Karl Beattie, a cameraman on the show, proposed to her live on air. She accepted and the two later married. [6]

Presenters

Presenters included:

Numerous guest presenters, including celebrities, actors and musicians, made cameo appearances.

Transmission guide

Filmed at Southampton General Hospital:

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
112 October 199818 December 199850
212 April 199921 May 199928
36 September 199917 December 199964
427 March 200026 May 200042
54 September 200019 December 200051
630 April 20016 July 200146

Filmed at Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital:

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
718 February 200228 March 200229
82 September 200225 October 200240
96 May 20034 July 200339
101 September 200310 October 200330
115 April 200428 May 200437
126 September 20045 November 200440
134 April 200527 May 200537
145 September 20054 November 200540
153 April 200626 May 200637
1611 September 200610 November 200640
Winter Health Special1 January 20075 January 20075

References

  1. "City Hospital (TV Series 1998–2007) - IMDb". IMDb . Retrieved 15 February 2025.
  2. "IMAGE: GABY ROSLIN: NICK KNOWLES: YVETTE FIELDING: EDWINA SILVER British TV Presenters Presenters of the BBC1 series 'City Hospital'". UPPA/Starstock. 28 September 1998. Retrieved 15 February 2025.
  3. "City Hospital: History of the programme". Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Archived from the original on 25 September 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2008.
  4. Francis, Pam. "Mum's watching over me - Interview with Gabby Roslin". TV Times (24-30 October 1998 ed.). Future plc. pp. 34–35. Retrieved 15 February 2025.(subscription required)
  5. "Topical Television:Our shows". Topical Television. Archived from the original on 18 June 2012.
  6. Smith, Laura (4 February 2024). "We saw a pair of legs walking up stairs with no body attached…we have never run so fast!: Most Haunted's Yvette Fielding on making a career out of ghost hunting". Sunday Post. Retrieved 15 February 2025.
  7. Woodward, Ian (28 April 2001). "The accident prone Mr Fix-it; On TV he's calm and collected, but Nick Knowles is still in inner turmoil over the loss of his father". The Mirror. Retrieved 29 June 2012.