The Royal Today

Well, I got to this show as I followed a link from the history of Paul Nicholas, I'm watching reruns of the excellent Just Good Friends, and checked on IMDB to see what else he'd been in (I'll do the same for the delicious Jan Francis in a minute!) .

So, I found The Royal Today, and I get the gist, the same hospital that had been in The Royal (filmed a few years before, BUT set in the 60s or early 70s, and with links to Hearbeat, a very popular show set just inland from there in Yorkshire, also set back then timewise).

BUT -- when was THIS show on?! I look at TV schedules, and even if I don't watch a show, I usually have some idea what's available. But THIS show somehow snuck by me, was it on ITV3 in the daytime? I just NEVER heard of it, couldn't even see it once to check it out! And 50 episodes or more, too, it's not like they did one pilot and stopped!! Bizarre!

I started watching this just after The Royal ended and I thought it might be in the same vein - but not.

I understand that it's supposed to be 40 years later - but the whole vibe is just - ewwwww.

The first episode has something that echoes that last episode of The Royal and it's never addressed.

The surgeon is awful, the radiologist is awful, the porters are about the same, but it's like they took the same show and threw it up in to the and put it back but the pieces are all wrong!

The story lines covering the staff of the present day fictional St. Aidans hospital in the Yorkshire region of the U.K. were well acted by a very good cast. The difference with the present day version of the hospital programme from the original The Royal programme with it's all star cast was that the present day programme was crammed into half hour shows. The rapid pace of each episode left many viewers to turn away from the show, and the fact that its cast didn't include the veteran actors that the original series had. The fact that the final episode had several cliff hangers is very sad. I really wish that the programme continued for a few seasons, but due to the lack of public support this potentially great series was ended. I shall not give any spoilers other than this, just watch the episodes and get wrapped up in the characters within the show. You'll be disappointed that the series ended after 50 episodes.