''City Hospital'' was a medical documentary television series that aired on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

from 12 October 1998 until 5 January 2007. It ran over nine 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, format and presentation team.

Format

''City Hospital'' was first broadcast live from Southampton University Trust's teaching hospital,

Southampton General Hospital Southampton General Hospital (SGH) is a large teaching hospital in Southampton, Hampshire, England run by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was founded in 1900 as the Southampton Union Infirmary in Sh ...

but also featured Princess Anne Maternity Hospital. It then moved to London's flagship NHS Health Trust -

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

and

St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. It is one of the institutions that compose the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foun ...

in 2002. The show followed real patients and staff and featured daily live-to-air footage of actual surgical operations, as they were being performed. The show's theme tune was an instrumental version of

Bruce Hornsby Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions ...

's "

The Way It Is The Way It Is may refer to: Music * ''The Way It Is'' (Bruce Hornsby album), by Bruce Hornsby and the Range ** "The Way It Is" (Bruce Hornsby song), the title song * ''The Way It Is'' (Glenn Hughes album), or the title song * ''The Way It Is' ...

". Both ''The General'' and ''City Hospital'' were produced by Topical Television.

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. The programme had unprecedented BBC

Audience Appreciation The Audience Appreciation Index (AI) is an indicator measured from 0 to 100 of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by the B ...

(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."

Yvette Fielding's live proposal

In 1999

Yvette Fielding Yvette Paula Fielding (born 23 September 1968) is an English television presenter, producer and actress. She became the youngest presenter on '' Blue Peter'' aged 18, and one of her episodes was subsequently voted the "Favourite ''Blue Peter'' mo ...

's boyfriend, a cameraman on the show, proposed to her live on air. She accepted and the two later married.

Presenters

Presenters included: *

Gaby Roslin Gaby Roslin (born 12 July 1964) is an English television and radio presenter who rose to fame co-presenting ''The Big Breakfast'' on Channel 4 between 1992 and 1996. Roslin also presented the '' Children in Need'' charity telethons on the BBC ...

Matt Baker Matthew James Baker (born 23 December 1977) is a British television presenter. He co-presented the children's television show ''Blue Peter'' from 1999 until 2006, BBC One's ''Countryfile'' since 2009 and ''The One Show'' from 2011 to 2020, wit ...

Roger Black Roger Anthony Black MBE (born 31 March 1966) is a retired English athlete who competed internationally for Great Britain and England. During his athletics career, he won individual silver medals in the 400 metres sprint at both the Olympic G ...

Ainsley Harriott Ainsley Denzil Dubriel Harriott (born 28 February 1957) is an English chef and television presenter. He is known for his BBC cooking game shows ''Can't Cook, Won't Cook'' and ''Ready Steady Cook''. Early life Harriott was born in Paddingto ...

Matthew Kelly Matthew Kelly (born David Allan Kelly, 9 May 1950) is an English actor and presenter. Having been trained as a theatre actor, he first came to public prominence as a television presenter of ITV light entertainment shows such as ''Game for a L ...

Nick Knowles Nicholas Simon Augustine Knowles (born 21 September 1962) is an English television presenter, writer and musical artist. He is best known for his presenting roles on the BBC, including game shows ''Who Dares Wins'' (2007–2019), ''Break the Saf ...

Andi Peters Andi Eleazu Peters (born 29 July 1970) is a British television presenter, producer, journalist and voice actor, currently employed by ITV and known for presenting Children's BBC, roles on breakfast TV shows ''Live & Kicking'', ''GMTV'', '' Good ...

Nadia Sawalha Nadia Sawalha (; born 18 November 1964) is a British actress, television personality and YouTuber. She played the role of Annie Palmer on the BBC One soap opera '' EastEnders'' from 1997 to 1999 and Gina in ITV comedy Second Thoughts from 1992 ...

Sian Williams Sian Mary Williams (; born 28 November 1964) is a Welsh journalist, current affairs presenter best known for her work with the BBC, and psychologist. From 2001 until 2012, Williams regularly presented weekday editions of ''BBC Breakfast'' as ...

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

Transmission guide

Filmed at

: * Series 1: 50 editions from 12 October – 18 December 1998 * Series 2: 28 editions from 12 April – 21 May 1999 * Series 3: 64 editions from 6 September – 17 December 1999 * Series 4: 42 editions from 27 March – 26 May 2000 * Series 5: 51 editions from 4 September – 19 December 2000 * Series 6: 46 editions from 30 April – 6 July 2001 Filmed at

and

: * Series 7: 29 editions from 18 February – 28 March 2002 * Series 8: 40 editions from 2 September – 25 October 2002 * Series 9: 39 editions from 6 May – 4 July 2003 * Series 10: 30 editions from 1 September – 10 October 2003 * Series 11: 37 editions from 5 April – 28 May 2004 * Series 12: 40 editions from 6 September – 5 November 2004 * Series 13: 37 editions from 4 April – 27 May 2005 * Series 14: 40 editions from 5 September – 4 November 2005 * Series 15: 37 editions from 3 April – 26 May 2006 * Series 16: 40 editions from 11 September – 10 November 2006 * Winter Health Special: 5 editions from 1 January 2007 – 5 January 2007

References

External links

* 1998 British television series debuts 2007 British television series endings BBC television documentaries 1990s British documentary television series 2000s British documentary television series Television shows set in London Television shows set in Hampshire 1990s British medical television series 2000s British medical television series {{UK-nonfiction-tv-prog-stub