| HolbyBlue | |
|---|---|
Opening credits |
|
| Genre | Police procedural Drama |
| Created by | Tony Jordan |
| Starring | Cal Macaninch Richard Harrington Kacey Ainsworth Zöe Lucker Tim Pigott-Smith James Hillier |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 20 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Original run | 8 May 2007 – 5 June 2008 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Casualty Holby City |
| External links | |
| Website | |
HolbyBlue was a British police drama series that aired on BBC One from 2007 to 2008. Produced by the BBC, Red Planet Pictures and Kudos for BBC One, it is a spin-off of the successful BBC One medical drama Holby City, itself a spin-off of the long-running series Casualty.
The first series was broadcast between 8 May and 26 June 2007. A second series of 12 episodes broadcast from 20 March to 5 June 2008. The BBC announced in August 2008 that due to poor ratings, they had dropped the show and it would not be returning for a third series.[1][2]
Contents |
Broadcast of the first episode was postponed by a week.[3]
Actors spent some time shadowing uniform and detective officers at Surrey Police's Woking station, and following an in depth visit to the station's custody centre, it is rumoured that the Holby police station cell block is based on the real thing at Woking. The filming for the first series began in the last week of January 2007,[5] at an old MOD site near Longcross. It is also based at Brunel University, West London, where the external shots of the police station were filmed. Scenes were also filmed in Egham, Surrey. Shooting was also in Woking, Surrey, during the winter in the town centre.
The first series was broadcast on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m., in the regular timeslot of Holby City, which was moved to a Thursday timeslot for the duration of HolbyBlue's run. A second series of 12 episodes was commissioned in June 2007 for transmission in 2008, with filming running until March 2008.[6] The first episode is due to feature a crossover with the characters of Holby City, as the characters from that show are interviewed by the HolbyBlue police officers following a "major incident".[7] The BBC's Controller of Continuing Drama Series, John Yorke, has said of the crossover: "Loads of questions are asked in the Holby City episode that are answered in the HolbyBlue episode. That is exciting. It is something the Americans have done for years with shows like CSI and I really like it. You really believe it’s a world."[8] The crossover episodes will be co-written by Holby City creator Tony McHale, and HolbyBlue creator Tony Jordan.[7]
Series 1 had a regular villain, drugs baron Neculai Stenga, who died at the end of the series. Series 2 had a few long-running crime storylines: Episode 1 featured Jac Naylor from Holby City, who had been arrested for murder, although it turned out she was innocent. Three episodes were spent investigating the case of Sean Burrows, a youth worker who had beaten his wife and son. The most major villain was John's father, who John visited in prison and later appeared at the end of the series suspected of abusing prostitutes.
The show has come under fire from the public since the first episode. Containing swearing and sex scenes before the 9pm watershed, the BBC received many complaints from viewers and the show was featured on BBC One's Points of View almost immediately after the programme's debut. The show is very different from its parents, Holby City and Casualty, in that it aims to "push the boundaries" in pre-watershed television, according to creator and writer Tony Jordan. The second series had been toned down briefly, but there are still elements of upsetting and distressing scenes in the programme.
It was also criticised heavily by the Private Eye and other companies for being another TV drama based in Holby. <citation needed>
| Country | Network | Series premiere | Weekly schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Channel Seven | 30 November 2008 | Mondays, 12:30am |
| Israel | BBC Prime BBC Entertainment |
25 January 2010 |
Mondays, 9:45pm |
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