Doctors | |
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Doctors opening title card (2009–present)
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Genre | Medical soap opera |
Created by | Chris Murray |
Written by | Various |
Directed by | Various |
Starring |
Present cast Former cast |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 18 |
No. of episodes | 3295 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Mike Hobson (Since 2003) (among others past and present) |
Producer(s) | Currently: Peter Eryl Loyd Mike Hobson Sam Hill Carol Harding Sandra MacIver Dawn Coulson Caroline Slater |
Location(s) | BBC Birmingham |
Camera setup | Video, Multiple-camera setup |
Running time | 30 minutes (With occasional longer episodes ranging from 30–60 minutes) |
Release | |
Original network |
BBC One (2000–Present) BBC HD (2009–2013) BBC One HD (2010–present) BBC Two (Episode 2943, 2978) |
Picture format |
16:9 576i (2000–present) 16:9 1080i (2009–Present) |
Original release | 26 March 2000 | – Present
External links | |
Website |
Doctors is a British medical soap opera which first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 26 March 2000.
Set in the fictional Midlands town of Letherbridge, defined [in the programme] as being in the city of Birmingham, the soap follows the lives of the staff of both a Doctor's surgery and University Campus Surgery as well as their families and friends.
Doctors is produced by BBC Birmingham and is screened on BBC One, with the first episode broadcast on 26 March 2000. It was created by Chris Murray, with Mal Young developing it and Carson Black the original producer. The show has been shown at lunchtime since its inception, originally at 12.30pm as a lead-in to the BBC's One O'Clock News. After it was temporarily moved to allow for extended news coverage of the 11 September 2001 attacks, its regular slot changed to 2:10 pm, following directly after Neighbours, after ratings rose to a 25% audience share. When the BBC lost Neighbours to Channel 5 in January 2008, it moved into the Australian soap's old slot of 1:45pm. For a brief trial period in Summer 2000, selected episodes from the first series were shown on Fridays at 7 pm and from 16 February 2009, the show began transmitting in high definition on BBC HD at 4:00pm the same day.
Doctors was originally produced and broadcast in blocks of episodes, ranging from blocks of 40 to 130 episodes in the first three years. For example, from season five in 2002 until January 2007, Doctors took lengthy breaks in transmission over the Summer, usually for six weeks, to accommodate the length of transmission. However, the series' audience has developed and increased, prompting the BBC to commission Doctors as a year-round continuing series. Currently, the show breaks in the summer for the Wimbledon Tennis matches held for two weeks, broadcasting of the Olympic Games, Christmas and Easter period holidays and for bank holidays.