Wednesday 2nd November

Holby City is a soap, it grew out of Casualty which was also a soap.  Although these two, ostensibly medical, dramas are only broadcast once a week unlike Corrie and EastEnders and the newer ones like Hollyoaks and Doctors which seem to be on almost every day, I still consider them soaps.  Or never-ending dramas.  There is never any real resolution to the stories, and though characters sometimes die or inexplicably seem able to leave overnight the story simply continues.

The difference with Casualty and Holby is the patients; as well as providing work for jobbing actors they allow different, often short-lived, little mini dramas to interrupt the real storyline, which is the personal lives of the Doctors and Nurses and Administrators who are the stars of the show.  For some inexplicable reason we used to look forward to watching Holby every week when we lived in London.  Having moved to France we don’t see it so much as Night markets and invites for drinks or dinner keep clashing with Tuesday nights (I know we could watch on i-player, but we just can’t be bothered).  And of course Holby is just as unreal as the other soaps, any visit to a real Hospital quickly demonstrates that; the Nurses do not get involved with the patients and you are lucky if you see the same Doctor twice.  But it satisfies our morbid curiosity surrounding illness, just as Emergency Ward 10 and all the other Medical soaps have done down the years.  And the great thing is that even if you miss it for a few weeks after five minutes you are straight back in and hooked again as you watch the ridiculous machinations interspersed with slimy rubber prosthetics as patients are operated on.  One thing for sure I will really worry if ever I am admitted into a real life Casualty department and someone says I am ‘Tachycardic’…..