Stars of screen & theatre

New medical dramas start on our television screens every few months. The most recent in the United Kingdom were Grey's Anatomy and Vital Signs. It's difficult to remember a time when television listings did not feature medical dramas. In fact, the popularity of this genre can be traced back almost to the birth of television in the UK.

One of the first drama series to be shown on British television was the hospital drama Emergency Ward 10, which began in 1957. It portrayed the NHS in a glowing light and its doctors and nurses were depicted as angels of mercy. Emergency Ward 10 also had an incredibly low mortality-deaths were apparently strictly limited to five a year. The BMA praised the show for allaying the public's fear of hospitals, and it became one of the most successful programmes of its era, enjoying a 10 year run before finally coming to an end in the late '60s.

Current schedules show that our appetite for medical drama has not dwindled in the slightest. Today's audiences, however, demand a much greater level of realism and authenticity. Just showing an ailing patient being wheeled into the theatre then waking up happy and grateful in recovery, as might have happened in dramas of the past, is no longer acceptable. Blood and gore it seems is now the order of the day. Viewers expect to see dramatic yet credible stories played out against the backdrop of a realistic hospital setting, staffed by characters that they can believe in and care about.

Holby City is one of the BBC's highest rated shows: more than seven million viewers tune in each week. Along with its sister show, Casualty, …