Today was mentioned the old British TV Series Emergency Ward 10. This is not a show I recall, and I do not know if it ever made it to NZ, but a quick look turned up a little background information.
Emergency Ward 10 ran from 1957 to 1967, twice a week on Tuesday and Friday, on ITV. It was set in Oxbridge General Hospital.
According to BFI Screen On Line, there were 966 half-hour episodes, and 50 weekly hour-long episodes (or was this London only ?).
It was a spin-off from the six-week series Calling Nurse Roberts; and itself produced a spin-off Call Oxbridge 2000 (1961-62). There was also a feature film, Life in Emergency Ward 10 (black and white, released 1959).
Two hard-back Emergency-Ward 10 Girls’ Annuals were published by Purnell to tie-in with the series. Published in 1962 and 1963, they both ran to 128 pages.
I picked up this example of the second volume at a book fair a few years ago. It has the usual mix of picture-strip and text stories, articles on the lead actors and actresses, and articles on the real emergency services.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
What an unusual artifact from a TV series I certainly never heard of. Doctors and Nurses were so popular in the US back then, we had Dr Kildare, Ben Casey, Medical Center, etc. And apparently pretty much every TV series in Britain got its own Annual! SFZ
ReplyDeleteNZ got Dr Kildare and Marcus Wellby, M.D. Lots of American TV shows also got an Annual, if they were on British TV - even Dallas. So did some Australian shows.
ReplyDeleteMy mum used to watch EW10, I can recall it being a staple at home along with Coronation St, which is still grinding on today, from the fifties too!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean Anonymous ( blast Google blogger!) I never watched it as a kid, we didn't get a TV set until 1964. But it was in my childhood zeitgeist. The shows I do remember were Doctor Kildare, Dixon of Dock Green and Z Cars.
DeleteSurprised to hear it ran 'til 1967.
ReplyDeleteI do remember it, but thought it was a late 50s, early 60s show that disappeared around '63.