Children's Ward

[beccabear67]

Been watching this Granada show with my parents for the last couple of weeks, seems to be a lot/all of them on Youtube. It started in 1989 and went on for many years (twelve series).

Any fondness or memories for this one? The characters Keely and nurse Mags seem to have stayed with it for a long run.

[George 1978]

Funnily enough, I have been looking at the Wikipedia page for Children's Ward in the past week although I didn't watch too much of it at the time - it was briefly called The Ward towards the end although I believed that it changed its name back due it being either too generic or too similar to Channel 4's The Word.

Granada have always had their own brand of actors as if they had an in-house agent themselves; looking at the IMDB many of them have only appeared in Granada series such as Coronation Street; Brass; Brideshead Revisited and so on. Children's Ward was one such example where a lot of the young cast members such as Chloe Newsome and Jane Danson went onto Coronation Street where they officially stepped into celebrity status. It's a series that Casualty could have done as a spin-off and put it in the Grange Hill slot, although we probably never saw the remainder of the hospital which Children's Ward was based in.

One similar series from Granada (which probably had the same producers due to its similarity) was Three, Seven, Eleven (written in "tom thumb" or "dinnerladies"-style small letters throughout) was supposed to be a "Grange Hill in a Primary School" series and lasted for two series. Some youngsters made it from there to Coronation Street such as Julia Howarth. Both were very similar series for viewers of a similar age as seen in the CITV slots.

Children's Ward lasted throughout the 1990s, and it did have some celebrity guests appearing as themselves such as Bruno Brookes - playing, not surprisingly, a hospital DJ. And either Ross King or Ross Kelly (I forget which one - I get them both nixed up) appeared either as himself or as a character.

[George 1978]

It was also, more or less, the spin-off of the Dramarama episode Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night which was based on the Beatles song. Writer Paul Abbott wanted the series to be based in a children's home rather than a hospital ward which made me think of how similar it would have been to the Tracy Beaker series in hindsight. Ross King played a DJ in the first episode, which made me think that he was actually a real-life DJ up in Scotland, wasn't he?

[beccabear67]

I definitely recognized a few faces from Coronation Street. Just watched the final ep from the first series and it was a surprise and also logical that one of the doctors was the hit and run driver who had put one of the kids in the hospital (in a coma yet), but of course he does the right thing when the girl ultimately recognizes him by turning himself in. Guess we'll have to start the next series to see if there is anything following on from that. The budget seems pretty low but the writing and most of the acting of the debut series is quite good, lots of soap style storylines percolating throughout and bits of humour too. I'm assuming a Manchester location but I don't think they actually say ever... would've been fun if it could've been tied in with 'Weatherfield' like The Royal was tied in with the setting of Heartbeat and occasional crossing over of characters/actors.

Being a kids' series I thought it might be good for my parents who were getting a bit worn out by deaths in the various adult series, plus my Dad was crazy about Follyfoot having worked at a stables as a teen for one of his first jobs.

There was supposed to have been a ten years earlier series titled Why Can't I Go Home but I don't seem to see any of it online... maybe missing presumed wiped even.

[George 1978]

The title "Why Can't I Go Home?" does ring a bell and I have seen it in an old TV schedule when it was shown in a 4.45 pm Children's ITV slot. I believe that it was about or was set in a children's home.

[beccabear67]

Watching series 8 presently and has Jane Danson as one of kids on ward... future Leanne Battersby.

[George 1978]

Jane came onto her own in Coronation Street - she was born in 1978 which I was proud of at the time. A signed photograph of Ms Danson graced my bedroom wall in the late 1990s, next to a Radio 2 picture of Terry Wogan.