The Royal Today

The Royal Today
The Royal Today titles
Genre	Medical drama
Created by	Ken Horn
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	50 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes (including adverts)
Production company(s)	ITV Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV (ITV1/STV/UTV)
Picture format	16:9
Original run	7 January – 14 March 2008
Chronology
Related shows	The Royal, Heartbeat
External links
Website

The Royal Today is a British medical soap opera, a spin-off of the similarly themed drama, The Royal. The concept is that whilst The Royal is set in the late 1960s, The Royal Today featured the same hospital in the present day, with a new set of characters working in the same location. Each episode followed the events of a single day, and the show was broadcast daily (except for the weekends), so the series could be said to progress in real time. The first series of 50 half-hour episodes began on 7 January 2008 on the ITV network. Although there were a number of running storylines, the series generally eschewed the use of cliffhangers. The series was axed in March 2008 after poor ratings. On an average of 1.175 million viewers.

Cast and characters

Actor	Character	Role	Duration
Andrew Scarborough	Dr. Jonathan Ormerod	Consultant	1.01 - 1.50
Paul Nicholas	Mr. Woods	General Surgical Consultant	1.01 - 1.50
Kirsty Mitchell	Dr. Sarah Chatwin	Medical Registrar	1.01 - 1.50
Fiona Dolman	Pamela Andrews	General Surgical Registrar	1.01 - 1.50
Caroline Carver	Heather Dunstan	Staff Nurse	1.01 - 1.50
Ben Hull	Adam Fearnley	Charge Nurse	1.01 - 1.50
Mark Wells	Kieran Marwood	A & E Staff Nurse	1.01 - 1.50
Sophia Di Martino	Gemma Pennant	Student Nurse	1.01 - 1.50
Lucie Trickett	Carrie Jepson	Student Nurse	1.01 - 1.50
Jon Lolis	Kristaps	Porter	1.01 - 1.50
Steve Huison	Norman Dunstan	Porter	1.01 - 1.50
Libby Davison	Isla Watkins	Theatre Nursing Sister	1.01 - 1.50
Victoria Pritchard	Alana Sczumanska	Anaesthetist	1.01 - 1.50
Lisa Davina Phillip	Pearl McDonald	Nurse	1.01 - 1.50
Pal Aron	Dr Vijay Chohan	Radiology Registrar	1.03 - 1.50
Leah Bracknell	Jenny Carrington	Clinical Matron	1.03 - 1.50
Flora Nicholson	Lesley Goodrich		1.01 - 1.02 (Murdered)
Edward Peel	David Collingworth		1.01 - 1.25 (Transferred)
Vickie Gates	Maisy Spencer		1.40 - 1.47 (Discharged)
Laura Carter	Charlotte Winters	Patient	1.34

Episode list

Main article: List of The Royal Today episodes

Setting

There are two separate blocks at St. Luke's in Bradford used for shooting The Royal and The Royal Today. One of the previously unused blocks has undergone a makeover to transform it into a modern hospital, this also includes a bar area (seen in episode one) having been built. The last day of shooting the series was Friday 16 November 2007.^{[citation needed]}

Named wards include:

Ward	Opened by	Named After	Explanation
Middleditch Wing (General Surgery)	Unknown	Middleditch Family	Mr. TJ Middleditch was the Hospital's Secretary from 1948 until the late 1960s and his Grandfather was the founding member of The Royal when it was opened in 1886.
Woods - Koones Ward	Mr. Koones	Mr. Woods Mr. Koones	Woods - Koones ward is part of Middleditch wing. in 2008 millionaire Mr Koones was taken into surgery for a life saving operation. Mr Woods had a bet with Koones that if he got out alive he would fund a new ward. As Mr Woods convinced him to, Matron said his name could be on the ward instead of Koones'. But Mr Woods said that would be unfair and that both their names should be on it.
Middleditch Ward	Unknown	Middleditch Family	Middleditch Ward is housed in the Middleditch Wing and run by Charge Nurse Adam Fearnley.
Goodwin Ward	Unknown	Dr. Jeff Goodwin	Goodwin Ward is housed in the Middleditch Wing upstairs and as of episode one of series one is currently closed for redecoration as stated by Pearl.
Premature Baby Unit	Dr. Jill Weatherill	Dr. Jill Weatherill	Jill campaigned to open this ward in the late 1960s. However, the Maternity unit at The Royal was closed in 2006 (assuming TRT is set in 2008).
High Dependency / Intensive Care Unit	NHS	Nobody	Ward where critically ill patients are closely monitored and treated.
Radiology	NHS	Unknown	X-ray Department ran by Vijay

Trivia

• Former EastEnders actor Jack Ryder auditioned for the role of a radiology student but was later cast as charge nurse Adam Fearnley. However, feeling he was too young to play a charge nurse, Ryder withdrew from the role before filming started and was replaced by Ben Hull.
• It was rumoured that the show would feature an older version of Lizzie Hopkirk played by Helen Mirren
• The actor that played Brownlee / Capt. Kirk in TRT episode 01.05 was the same actor that played the part of the paparazzi journalist and photographer in The Royal episode 06.02 Home and Dry, the character in that episode was also called Brownlee who bribed Ken & Alun to gain him access to the private suites in order to obtain a picture of Dorcus.
• Fiona Dolman who plays Pamela played Jackie Bradley in Heartbeat (The idea behind The Royal and The Royal Today) for 3 series.
• Actor Luke Adamson who played Chris Bilson in Episode Eight appeared as Keith Gledhill in parent show Heartbeat in the 9th Christmas episode (Series Fifteen Episode Twelve) "Auld Acquaintance" alongside Todd Carty

External links

• The Royal Today at itv.com
• Show information and cast interviews
• itv.com