Tonight, BBC America will be launching a brand new 14-part fantastic observational documentary series 24 HOURS IN THE ER (originally called 24 Hours in A&E when it airs in the UK). The series takes place in King’s College Hospital, one of London’s busiest Emergency Rooms.
Now here is what’s brilliant about the series, it was shot using 70 remote cameras strategically placed around the hospital to cause the minimum disruption to patients and staff. The filming lasted 28 days and would run 24 hours a day capturing 4200 hours of real live footage. It’s pretty incredible.
I’m not someone who usually will go out of my way to see these types of documentaries, but it had gotten such a big buzz in the UK, that my curiosity was peeked. All I can say is no wonder that there are so many doctor shows, these are some really, really fascinating stories and people. This really is life and death and if you are a writer on one of those “doctor” shows who needs inspiration, there it is.
Each episode follows 24 hours in King’s College Hospital during which we meet new patients and their family and get to see the interactions between doctor and patients. And even better, we also get to see some of these patients and their family later on who talk about their experience at the hospital.
There is one particular case that I was fascinated by. It’s a man who fell off his bike and had a concussion; it was so captivating to see the hospital staff engage with him and his reactions as he suffered from confusion due to the concussion.
If you think that real life cannot possibly be as interesting as the dramatically enhanced shows, well you would be wrong. 24 Hours in the ER is as dramatic and engaging as any scripted show and you will even find yourself relating to the hospital staff the way you would get drawn in by fictional characters. And what’s crazy here is that it’s all true!
I was really pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed 24 Hours in the ER and I hope you will give this wonderful documentary a chance when it premieres tonight, September 27th, with two episode back-to-back special at 9:00p.m. ET/PT on BBC America.
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