Children's Hospital (BBC TV series)

Children's Hospital
Genre Docu-soap[1]
Theme music composer Debbie Wiseman
Production
Executive producer(s) Jeremy Mills[3]
Producer(s) Richard Bradley[2]
Tracy Cook
Broadcast
Original channel BBC One
Original run October 19, 1993 (1993-10-19)[2] – early 2000s
Chronology
Related shows Children's Hospital (ITV 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 1993 and the early-2000s.

Scholar Annette Hill says that the series had "all the hallmarks of a docu-soap", saying its "personal, melodramatic stories appeal to viewers, with more that 8 million tuning in to 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]

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]

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Born, Georgina (2005). Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the Reinvention of the BBC. Random House. p. 433. 
  2. ^ a b "CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL". BFI. http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/498647. Retrieved 2011-10-24. 
  3. ^ Kent, Simon (2001). Getting a top job in-- the arts & media. Kogan Page Publishers. p. 76. 
  4. ^ "TV hospital that became a beacon of hope". The Telegraph. 30 Jan 2001. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1320227/TV-hospital-that-became-a-beacon-of-hope.html. Retrieved 2011-10-24. 
  5. ^ Hill, Annette (2005). Reality TV: audiences and popular factual television. Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 041526152X. 
  6. ^ Lee-Wright, Peter (2009). The Documentary Handbook. Taylor & Francis. p. 110. ISBN 0415434025. 
  7. ^ BBC Worldwide, BMG, 743214758922
  8. ^ Big George. "DEBBIE WISEMAN: TV & Film Composer Extraordinaire". Sound on Sound. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar98/articles/debbie.html. Retrieved 2011-10-24.