Holby City

Ah, where would we be without the joys of Holby City?? If you enjoy gory operations, pain-in-the-arse patients and the entire staff going for a drink in the bar at the end of the day and waking up in bed with each other the next morning then this may very well be for you.

Im a medical student, and surprisingly Holby City is not that far from the real world, if only Ed would put a tie on! Things may be a little OTT but the series is enjoyable, inspiring and not afraid to take on real issues of consent, racism, addiction and honesty in medical practice. It is most definately light relief from real-life hospitals and universally enjoyed by medics! A spin off of Casualty it has outgrown its predecessor and taken hospital dramas to new hights. For those of you who regularly watch ER this is similarly absorbing but there is slightly less of the completely impossible week-in week-out (ie helicopters don't fall on the consultants every other week)

Like any long running drama they do have the continual problem of killing off all the best characters and dragging story lines out for several months, but this show is definately worth a look on a cold rainy tuesday eve.

I watched Holby City since it came out and I have always loved it, but I found myself particularly enraptured with the series since the arrival of Connie Beauchamp, played by the sublime Amanda Mealing.

The episode where she drove in at the beginning bedecked in full scarf and sunglasses, femme fatale garb, only to crash into Will was one of my favourites.

I've heard people say her stuffs repetitive but I think it's great fun seeing her boss the boys around and dish out her scathing comments.

The storyline with Will is a joy to behold - it may just be me being insanely sad but every week I can't wait to see what she'll throw at him.

I only hope she stays for a long time.

'Holby City' has to be one of the most boring TV 'dramas' I have ever had the misfortune of watching. The plots are insipid, tedious, and cliched beyond belief. Does it possibly exist as some sort of retirement home for washed-up soap-opera actors ? Save yourself the pain and go and read a good book.

In its early years this show was essential viewing, it definitely took me away from Casualty, arguably it was the better show. The stories were engaging, the cast were excellent, the whole thing felt well made and tightly written, the early years of the show I'd class as an 8/10, however,

It its latter years, the quality crashed, it turned into a melodramatic soap opera, it was such a shame, the original tightly written storylines transformed into something more fitting of an early afternoon soap opera.

It was always well made and authentic looking. If you get the chance to see the earlier episodes, I'd say they're still worth seeing.

I was sad to see the show axed, but it's fair to say it was long since on borrowed time, it ran out of steam many years before it ended. The latter years I'd rate as 4/10.

Overall, 6/10.

As all the other comments have been made about only Series 1 and 2 and Holby is now near the end of its 4th series, I need to renew them. Of course I have grown up since the last comment I made ('mathewowen') and now realise that Holby City really isn't that realistic when you look at the hard graft and rush that goes on in real hospitals. It's true that a lot of the staff are more like counsellors than medical staff, and it's also true that a lot of the one episode characters (in every episode different patients are featured with their own storylines) come from soaps.

However, Holby City is still watchable stuff, and I think with the two new wards: Maternity and the Children's Ward, every episode is even more different, and there are so many new characters that are, for the most part, well played.

Holby is now viewed as a soap because of its all year round showing, and what with more staff storylines involving affairs and staff becoming patients, it's still good drama. Watch out for some eps where there are some scenes set in Casualty (Holby is a spin off of Casualty) with Casualty characters (likewise in a recent episode Mr Meyer was featured in Casualty being as arrogant as ever).

Okay, some could say that there are more staff storylines as the writers as exhausting the patient storylines. However, there are have been some pretty memorable staff storylines in the past 2 series, such as Mr Meyer being shot, Janice Taylor's (she's the consultant on the children's ward) husband having an affair with Sister Williams, Kath Shaugnessy playing victim to domestic violence, Liam Evans learning to cope with life in a wheelchair, Victoria Merrick being murdered (it was a classic 'whodunnit') and Danny Shaugnessy marrying an illegal immigrant who's first husband turned up though she thought he was dead, to name a few.

And the good thing about Holby City is that the whole set and atmosphere is like a real British hospital. You can almost smell the disinfectant!

Watch Holby City next time it's on and see for yourself. It's good drama.