Emergency – Ward 10
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| Emergency - Ward 10 | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Calling Nurse Roberts |
| Genre | Soap opera |
| Ending theme | Silks and Satins |
| Composer(s) | Peter Yorke |
| Country of origin | UK |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 mins |
| Production company(s) | Associated TeleVision |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | 1957 – 1967 |
Emergency - Ward 10 is a British television series shown on ITV between 1957 and 1967. Like The Grove Family, a series shown by the BBC between 1954 and 1957, Emergency - Ward 10 is considered to be one of British television's first major soap operas.
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[edit] Overview
The series was made by the production company ATV and set in a fictional hospital called Oxbridge General. Growing out of what was originally intended to be no more than a six-week serial (entitled Calling Nurse Roberts), the series went on to become ITV's first twice-a-week evening soap opera. Although somewhat cosily genteel by modern standards, Emergency - Ward 10 was the first hospital-based television drama to establish a successful format combining medical matters with storylines centering around the personal lives of the doctors and nurses. To this end, the series was also British TV's first soap set in the workplace.
Emergency - Ward 10 attracted controversy for its portrayal of an interracial relationship between surgeon Louise Mahler (played by Joan Hooley) and Doctor Giles Farmer (played by John White), showing the first kiss on television between black and white actors in July 1964, some four years before Star Trek's more famous Kirk/Uhura kiss in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren".[1]
Emergency - Ward 10 was finally axed in 1967 when ratings began to slide after the show had been on air for ten years. ATV executive Lew Grade later admitted that cancelling the series was one of the biggest mistakes he ever made in his career.[citation needed]
The formula was subsequently revived with the afternoon series General Hospital (no connection with the American daytime soap General Hospital which began in 1963 and is still running) which was broadcast between 1972 and 1979.
Australia's Charles "Bud" Tingwell starred in the series as surgeon Alan 'Digger' Dawson, enjoying a heart-throb status because of his role.
Its haunting closing theme tune was Silks and Satins by Peter Yorke.
[edit] Emergency - Ward 9
In 1966, the BBC screened Dennis Potter's Emergency - Ward 9 as part of the Wednesday Play strand. Potter had praised Ward 10's gritty storylines and sense of urgency in his television reviews for The Daily Herald and was inspired to write a play that connected his experiences in a National Health hospital with events depicted in the soap. The play featured —specified in Potter's script— an "Alf Garnett-type" character who suddenly finds himself sharing a ward with a black man. The play was controversial for its unflinching depiction of institutionalised racism but was critically applauded. As the play was recorded "as live", it no longer exists in the BBC Archive.
[edit] Releases
In March 2008, Network released a DVD set containing the 24 earliest surviving episodes which date from 1959 and 1960. A second 24-episode volume was released in July 2008.
[edit] Cast List[2]
- Jill Browne ... Nurse Carole Young
- Charles 'Bud' Tingwell ... Dr. Alan Dawson
- Desmond Carrington ... Dr. Chris Anderson
- Peter Howell ... Dr. Peter Harrison
- Barbara Clegg ... Nurse Jo Buckley
- Frederick Bartman ... Dr. Simon Forrester
- Jane Downs ... Audrey Blake
- Richard Thorp ... Dr. John Rennie
- John Barron ... Harold de la Roux
- Stephen Hancock ... John Faulkner
- Robert MacLeod ... Dr. Whittaker
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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