Life in Emergency Ward 10

Dee Gordon remembers television's first medical soap opera

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While Emergency Ward 10 was not Britain's first “soap opera” (this would be BBC's The Grove Family from 1954-1957) it was the first medical soap, airing on Tuesdays and Fridays on ITV from 1957.

Set in the fictitious Oxbridge General Hospital, the ATV production focused on the lives and loves of the staff and the pressure of their work. It progressed from an initial six-week run to become one of the nation’s best-loved programmes, with a million viewers for the first episode, reaching an average audience of an impressive 16 million during its 10-year run, peaking at 24 million.

Originally broadcast live, with rehearsals above a pub near Russell Square in London, Emergency Ward 10 was first produced at the former Wood Green Empire, moving to Highbury Studios, before settling at the Elstree Studio Centre. The exterior of King’s College Hospital in Demark Hill, south London was used when needed, especially for shots of an ambulance leaving in a hurry, but it was Charing Cross Hospital that the cast visited in 1958 to celebrate the 100th episode, meeting starstruck patients.

The idea had been conceived by Tessa Diamond who had been writing links for programme announcers. Having submitted her idea, it was commissioned immediately, no doubt due to its authentic research because, although born in South Africa, Tessa’s father was deputy medical officer of health at Kingston upon Hull, and her uncle a doctor. There is a suggestion that when Tessa’s agent mentioned a series about daily hospital life, he had meant a documentary, but she misunderstood and instead created a drama. A fortunate misunderstanding. She wrote many of the initial scripts, as well as scripts for Thames Television's short-lived soap Gems (1985-1988), and the script for the 1959 film Life in Emergency Ward 10. While this starred such luminaries as Wilfrid Hyde-White, several of its television stars featured. She also wrote a novel, published in 1960: Love in Emergency Ward 10.