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Holby City series 1

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Holby City
Season 1
No. of episodes9
Release
Original networkBBC One
Original release12 January (1999-01-12) –
9 March 1999 (1999-03-09)
Series chronology
Next →
2
List of episodes

The first series of the British medical drama television series Holby City commenced airing in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 12 January 1999, and concluded on 9 March 1999. The show was created by Mal Young and Tony McHale as a spin–off from the BBC medical drama Casualty, intended to follow the treatment of patients from Casualty as they were transferred onto the hospital's surgical wards. McHale served as the programme's lead writer throughout the first series, which ran for nine episodes. Young cast actors who were already established names in the acting industry, particularly from a soap opera background. Several cast members shadowed real surgeons and nurses in preparation for their roles to increase the show's realism. The series received mixed reviews from critics. It was compared favourably with Casualty, but received negative reviews in which it was contrasted poorly with the American medical drama ER. The series première attracted 10.72 million viewers, falling to 8.51 million by the series finale.

The series focuses on the hospital's cardithoracic ward, Darwin. Department heads and consultant surgeons Anton Meyer (George Irving) and Muriel McKendrick (Phyllis Logan) clash frequently over patient care and division of beds. Tension arises between nurses Julie Fitzjohn (Nicola Stephenson) and Jasmine Hopkins (Angela Griffin) over the position of Darwin ward sister. Registrar Nick Jordan (Michael French) clashes professionally with his estranged wife Karen Newburn (Sarah Preston), and pursues relationships with registrar Kirstie Collins (Dawn McDaniel) and theatre sister Ellie Sharpe (Julie Saunders). Ward clerk Paul Ripley (Luke Mably) resigns after being caught kissing a comatose patient, and house officer Victoria Merrick (Lisa Faulkner) begins taking amphetamines to cope with the pressures of work. In the series finale, Jasmine is stabbed by thieves, and Nick endeavours to save her life in theatre.

Production

The hospital set, at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood.

Holby City was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin–off from the long–running BBC medical drama Casualty.[1] Young wanted to explore what happened to patients treated in Casualty once they were taken away to the hospital's surgical wards.[2] While Casualty's scope is limited to "accident of the week" storylines about patients entering hospital, Holby City allowed the possibility of storylines about long–term care, rather than immediate life and death decisions.[3]

Although both shows are set in the same hospital, the Casualty set in Bristol was not large enough to encompass the surgical ward and operating theatre required for Holby City, so the series was produced at the BBC's Elstree Studios in north London. As a result, some crossover scenes had to be shot twice, first on the Casualty set and then again at Elstree, with cast members travelling between the two locations.[2] McHale wrote the series' first episode, and served as the show's lead writer.[1] Holby City premiered on 12 January 1999 on BBC One.[4] Its first series ran for nine episodes of 50 minutes in length,[5] which were broadcast first in the 8.10 pm, then 8 pm timeslot on Tuesdays.[6][7]

Cast

Overview

The first series of Holby City featured an ensemble cast of characters in the medical profession, who worked on the hospital's Darwin Ward.[2] Phyllis Logan and George Irving played consultants Muriel McKendrick and Anton Meyer. Michael French and Dawn McDaniel appeared as registrars Nick Jordan and Kirstie Collins, while Lisa Faulkner played senior house officer Victoria Merrick. Sarah Preston and Angela Griffin played ward sisters Karen Newburn and Jasmine Hopkins. Nicola Stephenson appeared as nurse Julie Fitzjohn, and Ian Curtis played senior staff nurse Ray Sykes. Julie Saunders played theatre sister Ellie Sharpe, and Luke Mably appeared as ward clerk Paul Ripley. Logan, Saunders and Mably all departed from Holby City during the course of the series.[8] The series also included walk–on performances by Casualty cast members, including Derek Thompson as nurse Charlie Fairhead, and guest appearances by characters first seen in Casualty, whose treatment was continued on Holby City.[3]

In casting the first series of Holby City, Young—who had previously worked on the soap operas Brookside and Family Affairs—selected actors who were already established names in the acting industry, particularly from a soap opera background.[3] French had starred in the BBC's EastEnders, while Stephenson and Faulkner had starred in Brookside.[2] Griffin had also appeared in ITV's Coronation Street.[3] Young explained: "Some of the best performances on screen have come out of soaps in the past few years. There is a fantastic amount of talent on those shows."[2]

Cast members observed the staff at real hospitals in preparation for their roles. Stephenson and Griffin spent time at Watford Hospital,[6] where they underwent a crash course in nursing basics, including handling bed pans and learning to make beds with hospital corners.[2] Irving observed coronary artery bypass surgery performed at Papworth and Middlesex Hospital,[9] while French shadowed a consultant and registrar at Papworth Hospital, observing a heart bypass and lung biopsy procedure.[10] Young explained that viewers believe in Casualty and trust the show to be realistic, and that he wanted Holby City to be the same in that regard.[11]

Reception

"In this pale British imitation [of ER] you can almost smell the stench of hospital food and disinfectant. Like an NHS training film, the camera spins round, ER– style – and lo, frames a shot which cuts off one of the lead actor's noses. The medicine is way too graphic, showing full–screen open–heart surgery; the characters are too unsympathetic, with not a heartthrob alive or dead in sight; and the story lines are so drawn out and laborious that on the medical drama scale, Holby City is a flatliner."

—The Sunday Herald, contrasting Holby City with ER.[12]

The series received mixed reviews from critics. Graham Keal of the Birmingham Post wrote of the first episode: "Heretical as it might seem, I liked Holby City more than Casualty, not least because the formula is so much more flexible and unpredictable."[3] Peter Paterson of the Daily Mail praised the series for breaking away from the "dreary sameness" of Casualty, and for presenting "a less hopeless view of the NHS." His only concern about the series was its continuation of patient storylines from Casualty, writing: "if that happens too often, the new programme will soon lose its freshness and sparkle."[13] The Mirror's Charlie Catchpole wrote that he was "sick of the sensitive, hand–wringing, non–judgmental do–gooders who mope around the A&E department in Casualty", praising in comparison the "pushy, ambitious, cynical and generally thoroughly unpleasant surgeons" in Holby City.[14]

Sam Wollaston of The Guardian received the series positively, writing: "Holby City has everything you want from a hospital drama: good–looking staff, a bit of love interest, a dishy doc, the odd current issue (no beds, badly–paid nurses) and bits where you have to look away", deeming it: "Pretty good, really."[15] Stan Hey of The Mail on Sunday observed that on the strength of the opening episode, the series' success seemed "fairly assured". He noted that: "characters are only skin–deep as yet, being subsidiary to the plot, but a successful graft should be achieved during the series."[16] Kathleen Morgan of the Daily Record praised the casting of French and Griffin, writing: "It will take a couple of episodes before both actors shake off their soapy history, but with some decent plots and good lines, they should make the grade." Morgan deemed Irving the star of the show, and commented: "With Irving in the driving seat, Holby City looks like it is on the right track."[17]

Andrew Billen of the New Statesman also found Irving as Meyer the series' "most compelling character", though deemed Holby City mediocre and its storylines "safely unoriginal". Billen compared Holby City negatively to the American medical drama ER, opining that the former show has a meandering pace in comparison to the latter's briskness, and that ER has a higher calibre of actors.[18] The Sunday Herald also compared the series unfavourably to ER, writing that Holby City served to highlight ER's "true sophistication".[12] Morgan refuted these negative comparisons, however, writing that: "The sign of great drama is when a scriptwriter and director can make a symphony out of a few notes and Holby City's creators have done that. It doesn't have the budget of ER, but it is proving just as compelling."[19]

Episodes

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11"Whose Heart Is It Anyway?"Martin HutchingsTony McHale12 January 1999 (1999-01-12)10.72 22"Happy Families"Nigel DouglasJoe Turner19 January 1999 (1999-01-19)10.40 33"Kill or Cure"Nigel DouglasJames Stevenson26 January 1999 (1999-01-26)9.42 44"Love and Death"Martin HutchingsJoe Turner2 February 1999 (1999-02-02)8.80 55"Never Judge a Book..."James HawesTony McHale9 February 1999 (1999-02-09)8.75 66"Brave Heart"Paul WroblewskiTony McHale16 February 1999 (1999-02-16)9.77 77"Take Me with You"Paul WroblewskiAndrew Rattenbury23 February 1999 (1999-02-23)8.86 88"Staying Alive: Part 1"James HawesJeff Povey2 March 1999 (1999-03-02)8.65 99"Staying Alive: Part 2"Nigel DouglasJeff Povey9 March 1999 (1999-03-09)8.51

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References

  1. ^ a b Green, Kris (14 December 2009). "'Holby City's exec producer stands down". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Taylor, Jim (2 January 1999). "Life's sweet off the Street". Daily Record. Glasgow, Scotland: Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e Keal, Graham (8 January 1999). "Drama that gets right to the heart of the matter;". Birmingham Post. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  4. ^ Smithies, Sandy (12 January 1999). "Television Tuesday". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
  5. ^ "Holby City". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 15 May 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
  6. ^ a b Convey, Olivia (27 January 1999). "Post Style: Television - We just live in actress land, nurses are in the real world". Birmingham Post. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 23 April 2010. [dead link]
  7. ^ Fulton, Rick (26 January 1999). "Last Night; Scotching the myths about the man, not the legend". Daily Record. Glasgow, Scotland: Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  8. ^ "Holby City – Year by Year – 1999 Series 1 & 2". BBC Online. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  9. ^ Duncan, Andrew (2 October 2001), "I'm capable of all Meyer is, but I don't have his certainty", Radio Times, BBC Magazines
  10. ^ McMullen, Marion (9 January 1999). "Cutting edge of drama". Coventry Telegraph. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  11. ^ "'Don't fall on top of the patient'". The News Letter. Belfast, Northern Ireland: Johnston Publishing. 9 December 1998. Retrieved 23 April 2010. [dead link]
  12. ^ a b "Nurse! The screams! Soap opera is out of surgery and thriving in Cook". Sunday Herald. Glasgow, Scotland: Newsquest. 7 February 1999. Retrieved 23 April 2010. [dead link]
  13. ^ Paterson, Peter (13 January 1999). "Shot in the arm for Holby". Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers. p. 55. Retrieved 14 March 2010. [dead link]
  14. ^ Catchpole, Charlie (19 January 1999). "Charlie Catchpole: TV column". The Mirror. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  15. ^ Wollaston, Sam (13 January 1999). "Last night's TV". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  16. ^ Hey, Stan (17 January 1999). "What The Doctor Re-Ordered; Television". The Mail on Sunday. Associated Newspapers. Retrieved 23 April 2010. [dead link]
  17. ^ Morgan, Kathleen (13 January 1999). "Last Night; Spin off is a real tonic for fans of doc dramas". Daily Record. Glasgow, Scotland: Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  18. ^ Billen, Andrew (29 January 1999). "Weak medicine". New Statesman. p. 41. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  19. ^ Morgan, Kathleen (3 February 1999). "Last Night; Slick Nick is smoothest operator on the ward". Daily Record. Glasgow, Scotland: Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 23 April 2010.

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