Children's Hospital (British TV series)

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Children's Hospital
GenreDocu-soap[1]
Theme music composerDebbie Wiseman
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series12
No. of episodes114
Production
Executive producerJeremy Mills[2]
ProducersRichard Bradley[3]
Tracy Cook
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkBBC One
Release19 October 1993 (1993-10-19)[3] –
26 February 2003 (2003-02-26)

Children's Hospital is a British television fly-on-the-wall documentary series based at the Sheffield Children's Hospital, Birmingham Children's Hospital, and Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.[4] It was broadcast on BBC One between 19 October 1993 and 26 February 2003.

Production[edit]

According to scholar Annette Hill, the series had "all the hallmarks of a docu-soap", saying its "personal, melodramatic stories appeal to viewers, with more than 8 million tuning into the first series, despite widespread criticism from the press."[5] Peter Lee-Wright observes that the series marked a transition in fly-on-the-wall documentaries by shifting the emphasis from the practical considerations onto the "human dramas being played out ... [capturing] the pain of the children ... and their parents' rollercoaster rides."[6]

Music[edit]

The theme music was composed by Debbie Wiseman. The music was released as a CD single in 1997, containing full orchestral and piano versions of the theme, alongside the shorter versions used for the opening and closing sequences.[7] The orchestral version was also released on the compilation album World of Sound.[8] A new solo piano performance, titled "Ray of Sunshine", of the theme was included on the 2011 album Wiseman: Piano Stories.[9]

Transmissions[edit]

Series[edit]

Series Start date End date Episodes
1 19 October 1993 21 December 1993 10
2 20 October 1994 22 December 1994 10
3 7 January 1997 3 June 1997 20
4 3 September 1997 10 October 1997 6
5 21 April 1998 17 June 1998 12
6 7 September 1998 9 November 1998 10
7 27 April 1999 8 July 1999 10
8 18 January 2000 29 February 2000 6
9 27 June 2000 1 August 2000 6
10 13 June 2001 15 August 2001 8
11 26 June 2002 7 August 2002 6
12 22 January 2003 26 February 2003 6

Specials[edit]

Entitle Air Date
(Update) 22 December 1997
Philadelphia 8 December 1999
Russia with Jeremy Spake 10 December 1999
Christmas Special 20 December 1999

Further reading[edit]

  • Bradley, Richard; Cook, Tracy; Phillips, Mark (1993). Children's Hospital: The Book of the BBC-TV Series. BBC Worldwide. ISBN 0-563-36972-8.
  • Hill, Annette (May 2000). "Fearful and Safe: Audience Response to British Reality Programming". Television & New Media. 1 (2): 193–213. doi:10.1177/152747640000100205. S2CID 144757382.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Born, Georgina (2005). Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC. Random House. p. 433.
  2. ^ Kent, Simon (2001). Getting a top job in-- the arts & media. Kogan Page Publishers. p. 76.
  3. ^ a b "CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL". BFI. Archived from the original on 23 December 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  4. ^ "TV hospital that became a beacon of hope". The Telegraph. UK. 30 January 2001. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  5. ^ Hill, Annette (2005). Reality TV: audiences and popular factual television. Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 0-415-26152-X.
  6. ^ Lee-Wright, Peter (2009). The Documentary Handbook. Taylor & Francis. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-415-43402-7.
  7. ^ BBC Worldwide, BMG, 743214758922
  8. ^ Big George. "DEBBIE WISEMAN: TV & Film Composer Extraordinaire". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  9. ^ Debbie Wiseman: Piano Stories, 2011, Warner Classics


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