# City Hospital (British TV series)

City Hospital is a medical documentary television series that aired on BBC One from 12 October 1998 until 5 January 2007. It ran over sixteen 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 and format, adding Gaby Roslin, Nick Knowles and Edwina Silver to the presenting line up.

## Format

City Hospital was first broadcast live from Southampton University Trust's teaching hospital, Southampton General Hospital but also featured Princess Anne Maternity Hospital. It then moved to London's flagship NHS Health Trust - Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital 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's "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 (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's boyfriend Karl Beattie, a cameraman on the show, proposed to her live on air. She accepted and the two later married.

## Presenters

Presenters included:
* Gaby Roslin
* Matt Baker
* Roger Black
* Yvette Fielding
* Ainsley Harriott
* Matthew Kelly
* Nick Knowles
* Andi Peters
* Nadia Sawalha
* Sian Williams
Numerous guest presenters, including celebrities, actors and musicians, made cameo appearances.

## Transmission guide

Filmed at Southampton General Hospital:
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
| 1 | 12 October 1998 (1998-10-12) | 18 December 1998 (1998-12-18) | 50 |
| 2 | 12 April 1999 (1999-04-12) | 21 May 1999 (1999-05-21) | 28 |
| 3 | 6 September 1999 (1999-09-06) | 17 December 1999 (1999-12-17) | 64 |
| 4 | 27 March 2000 (2000-03-27) | 26 May 2000 (2000-05-26) | 42 |
| 5 | 4 September 2000 (2000-09-04) | 19 December 2000 (2000-12-19) | 51 |
| 6 | 30 April 2001 (2001-04-30) | 6 July 2001 (2001-07-06) | 46 |
Filmed at Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital:
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
| 7 | 18 February 2002 (2002-02-18) | 28 March 2002 (2002-03-28) | 29 |
| 8 | 2 September 2002 (2002-09-02) | 25 October 2002 (2002-10-25) | 40 |
| 9 | 6 May 2003 (2003-05-06) | 4 July 2003 (2003-07-04) | 39 |
| 10 | 1 September 2003 (2003-09-01) | 10 October 2003 (2003-10-10) | 30 |
| 11 | 5 April 2004 (2004-04-05) | 28 May 2004 (2004-05-28) | 37 |
| 12 | 6 September 2004 (2004-09-06) | 5 November 2004 (2004-11-05) | 40 |
| 13 | 4 April 2005 (2005-04-04) | 27 May 2005 (2005-05-27) | 37 |
| 14 | 5 September 2005 (2005-09-05) | 4 November 2005 (2005-11-04) | 40 |
| 15 | 3 April 2006 (2006-04-03) | 26 May 2006 (2006-05-26) | 37 |
| 16 | 11 September 2006 (2006-09-11) | 10 November 2006 (2006-11-10) | 40 |
| Winter Health Special | 1 January 2007 (2007-01-01) | 5 January 2007 (2007-01-05) | 5 |