Children's Hospital (British TV series)

Children's Hospital is a British television fly-on-the-wall documentary series based at the Sheffield Children's Hospital, Birmingham Children's Hospital, and Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.[4] It was broadcast on BBC One between 19 October 1993 and 26 February 2003.

Children's Hospital
GenreDocu-soap[1]
Theme music composerDebbie Wiseman
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series12
No. of episodes114
Production
Executive producerJeremy Mills[2]
ProducersRichard Bradley[3]
Tracy Cook
Running time30 minutes
Release
Original networkBBC One
Original release19 October 1993 (1993-10-19)[3] –
26 February 2003 (2003-02-26)

Production

According to scholar Annette Hill, the series had "all the hallmarks of a docu-soap", saying its "personal, melodramatic stories appeal to viewers, with more than 8 million tuning into the first series, despite widespread criticism from the press."[5] Peter Lee-Wright observes that the series marked a transition in fly-on-the-wall documentaries by shifting the emphasis from the practical considerations onto the "human dramas being played out ... [capturing] the pain of the children ... and their parents' rollercoaster rides."[6]

Music

The theme music was composed by Debbie Wiseman. The music was released as a CD single in 1997, containing full orchestral and piano versions of the theme, alongside the shorter versions used for the opening and closing sequences.[7] The orchestral version was also released on the compilation album World of Sound.[8] A new solo piano performance, titled "Ray of Sunshine", of the theme was included on the 2011 album Wiseman: Piano Stories.[9]

Transmissions

Series
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
119 October 199321 December 199310
220 October 199422 December 199410
37 January 19973 June 199720
43 September 199710 October 19976
521 April 199817 June 199812
67 September 19989 November 199810
727 April 19998 July 199910
818 January 200029 February 20006
927 June 20001 August 20006
1013 June 200115 August 20018
1126 June 20027 August 20026
1222 January 200326 February 20036

Specials
Entitle Air Date
(Update)22 December 1997
Philadelphia8 December 1999
Russia with Jeremy Spake10 December 1999
Christmas Special20 December 1999

Further reading
  • Bradley, Richard; Cook, Tracy; Phillips, Mark (1993). Children's Hospital: The Book of the BBC-TV Series. BBC Worldwide. ISBN 0-563-36972-8.
  • Hill, Annette (May 2000). "Fearful and Safe: Audience Response to British Reality Programming". Television & New Media. 1 (2): 193–213. doi:10.1177/152747640000100205. S2CID 144757382.

References
  1. Born, Georgina (2005). Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC. Random House. p. 433.
  2. Kent, Simon (2001). Getting a top job in-- the arts & media. Kogan Page Publishers. p. 76.
  3. "CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL". BFI. Archived from the original on 23 December 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  4. "TV hospital that became a beacon of hope". The Telegraph. UK. 30 January 2001. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  5. Hill, Annette (2005). Reality TV: audiences and popular factual television. Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 0-415-26152-X.
  6. Lee-Wright, Peter (2009). The Documentary Handbook. Taylor & Francis. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-415-43402-7.
  7. BBC Worldwide, BMG, 743214758922
  8. Big George. "DEBBIE WISEMAN: TV & Film Composer Extraordinaire". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  9. Debbie Wiseman: Piano Stories, 2011, Warner Classics


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