the audience applauded

Lack of good storyline.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This show is a credit to the BBC. From the incredible storylines (particularly in more recent years) to the outstanding acting from the likes of Holby's ice-queen Rosie Marcel to the wonderful Bob Barrett and Alex Walkinshaw, what's not to love about the show? More on its cast. With actors of different sexualities, nationalities, colours of skin and difficulties, such as autism, its incredibly diverse. All cast are put through medical training to ensure a realistic portrayal of medicine and surgery, and as anybody would expect, there is a medical team hired that ensure medical accuracy. The prosthetics used in Holby City also look rather realistic and gruesome to the viewer. Many member of the cast have also said this during interviews. The show is also known to deal with hard hitting themes, that never fail to move me. Personally, I have not found a medical drama more gripping or heart-breaking, and cannot find anything to fault in it (apart from perhaps the lack of Camilla Arfwedson nowadays.) I cannot recommend the show enough to anybody who is interested in watching it.

My favourite Characters in Holby City is Anton Meyer and Tom Campbell-Gore. Both men always tell the other staff what they think and always do what they want no matter what anyone says. I think Anton or Tom should come back and take over the Department. I was very surprised to see Alistair Taylor in the 2004 Christmas special because he left around the same time as Anton in 2002. I have Sky and they started showing episodes from 1999. Its funny because the only character I knew was Anton Meyer. I knew Michael French from Eastenders and Born and Bred as Character Nick Jorden but no else. Holby City has changed a lot since 1999. Now it shows more Depts in The Hospital. It seems to have more characters as well. I think it has done well with story lines considering Casualty started in 1986 so Casualty was more popular.

For the first two and a half seasons this was an extremely good show, with a small but strong cast and good (if clichéd) writing. During the third season, though, the show made the transition from drama to soap, eschewing medical storylines in favour of trotting out every detail of the characters' private lives.The show, which now airs every week all the year round, is now a shadow of its former self. None of the cast from the first season remains, and despite occasionally coming up with a reasonably good episode, more often than not it is just a case of mediocrity week after week, with some downright stinkers mixed in for good measure. By attempting to run storylines on four different wards, the writers have dilluted the formula, often introducing storylines for characters only to quickly forget them or end them abruptly with absolutely no consequences. A good example of this would be the character of Ric Griffin, who entered the show as a closet cannabis user. After a few months, this aspect of the character vanished and was never mentioned again.It is something of a bitter irony that one of the few characters who was at all interesting to watch was the clumsy nurse Sandy Harper, played excellently by Laura Sadler, who sadly died a few weeks ago.

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.