Great Ormond Street (TV series)

Great Ormond Street is a British television documentary series. It was first broadcast on BBC Two on 6 April 2010. Each episode focuses on a different department at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London.

For the hospital, see Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Great Ormond Street
Directed byRicardo Pollack
Simon Gilchrist
ComposerMiguel d'Oliveira
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes9
Production
Executive producerRoger Graef
Production locationGreat Ormond Street Hospital
Running time60 minutes
Production companyBBC
Release
Original networkBBC Two
Original release6 April 2010 (2010-04-06) –
12 August 2015 (2015-08-12)

A second series aired in 2012. A third series aired in summer 2015.

Background
The Great Ormond Street Hospital in Central London
Main article: Great Ormond Street Hospital

Great Ormond Street Hospital is a hospital specialising in the care of children in the district of Bloomsbury, Central London. It was founded in 1852 as the Hospital for Sick Children, making it the first hospital providing in-patient beds specifically for children in the English-speaking world. Today, the hospital still engages in pioneering work in children's medicine.

The hospital works with the UCL Institute of Child Health, and is the largest centre for research into childhood illness outside the United States and Canada, and a major international trainer of medical professionals.

This television series was filmed over the course of a year and features unprecedented access to health professionals as they make some of the hardest choices in medicine. In this series cameras followed Great Ormond Street Hospital's medical professionals into the meetings where they come face to face with the most difficult ethical dilemmas on a daily basis.

Episodes

The first series consisted of three one hour programmes and each episode focussed on a separate department within the hospital. The second series consists of six episodes, also one hour long. Series three (of three episodes) starts on 14 July 2015.

Series 1 (2010)
Episode Title Directed by Original airing date
1·1"Pushing the Boundaries"Ricardo Pollack6 April 2010 (2010-04-06)
The first episode looked at the work of the Cardiac unit.[1]
1·2"Caught in the Machine"Ricardo Pollack13 April 2010 (2010-04-13)
The second episode focused on the work of the intensive care unit.[2]
1·3"An Imperfect Cure"Simon Gilchrist20 April 2010 (2010-04-20)
The final episode follows the work of the renal department.[3]

Series 2 (2012)
Episode Title Directed by Original airing date
2·1"A Difficult Line"Shona Thompson8 May 2012 (2012-05-08)
A look at Great Ormond Street Hospital's oncology department, following doctors as they face challenging ethical decisions about treating children with some of the rarest and most complex cancers in the country.[4]
2·2"A Chance at Life"Marina Parker15 May 2012 (2012-05-15)
An intimate portrait of two surgeons in Great Ormond Street's General Surgery unit.[5]
2·3"Buying Time"Rob Gill22 May 2012 (2012-05-22)
This episode focuses on Great Ormond Street's heart transplant team.[6]
2·4"A Delicate Balance"Jonathan Taylor29 May 2012 (2012-05-29)
This episode follows the intensive care and respiratory doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital as they deal with difficult ethical decisions.[7]
2·5"Decisions For Life"Rob Gill12 June 2012 (2012-06-12)
This episode looks at the ethical dilemmas faced by the cardiothoracic team at Great Ormond Street Hospital
2·6"Experimental Surgery"Simon Gilchrist19 June 2012 (2012-06-19)
This episode looks at the experimental surgeries being performed at the leading children's hospital.

Reception

Great Ormond Street received positive reviews. Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent wrote that the series was "distinguished by the attention it paid to the limits of medical expertise".[8] Ceri Radford writing for The Daily Telegraph called the series "excellent" and added that "the sensitivity of [the] programme saved it from feeling voyeuristic".[9] John Crace of The Guardian said that the documentary "exposed us to the existential questions that doctors face on a daily basis – and which most documentaries avoid",[10] while Andrew Billen of The Times called it "extraordinarily frank".[11] Jane Simon for The Daily Mirror said that the programme was "made with great sensitivity" [12] and Paul Whitelaw, writing for The Scotsman called the series "A sensitive study of tragedy and hope".[13]

References
  1. "BBC Two - Great Ormond Street, Series 1, Pushing the Boundaries". BBC.
  2. "BBC Two - Great Ormond Street, Series 1, Caught in the Machine". BBC.
  3. "BBC Two - Great Ormond Street, Series 1, An Imperfect Cure". BBC.
  4. "BBC Two - Great Ormond Street, Series 2, A Difficult Line". BBC.
  5. "BBC Two - Great Ormond Street, Series 2, A Chance at Life". BBC.
  6. "BBC Two - Great Ormond Street, Series 2, Buying Time". BBC.
  7. "BBC Two - Great Ormond Street, Series 2, A Delicate Balance". BBC.
  8. Sutcliffe, Tom (21 April 2010). "Last Night's TV - Ross Kemp: Battle for the Amazon, Sky1; Blood, Sweat and Luxuries, BBC3; Great Ormond Street, BBC2". The Independent. London. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
  9. Radford, Ceri (6 April 2010). "Great Ormond Street, BBC Two, review". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
  10. Crace, John (14 April 2010). "Great Ormond Street and Olympic Dreams". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
  11. Billen, Andrew (7 April 2010). "Great Ormond Street; Touched by Frost: Goodbye Jack". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011.
  12. Simon, Jane (13 April 2010). "Great Ormond Street - BBC2, 9pm". The Daily Mirror. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
  13. "TV review: Starsuckers/Great Ormond Street". The Scotsman. 6 April 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
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