Children's Ward 35 years old
Children's Ward is a British children's television drama series produced by Granada Television and broadcast on the ITV network as part of its Children's ITV strand on weekday afternoons. The programme was set – as the title suggests – in Ward B1, the children's ward of the fictitious South Park Hospital, and told the stories of the young patients and the staff present there. Aimed at older children and teenagers, Children's Ward was a long-lived series for a children's drama, starting life in 1988 as a contribution to the Dramarama anthology strand, "Blackbird Singing In The Dead of Night", then first broadcast as a series 1989 and running from then until 2000. The series was conceived by Granada staff writers Paul Abbott and Kay Mellor, both of whom went on to enjoy successful careers as award-winning writers of adult television drama. At the time, they were both working on the soap opera Coronation Street, and had recently collaborated on a script for Dramarama. Abbott, who had been through a troubled childhood himself, had initially wanted to set the series in a children's care home rather than a hospital, but this was vetoed by Granada executives. During the course of its run, however, Children's Ward won many plaudits for covering difficult issues such as cancer, alcoholism, drug addiction and child abuse in a sensitive manner. The programme won many awards, including in 1996 a BAFTA Children's Award for Best Drama, won by an episode in which a serial killer lures children to him via the internet and is – highly unusually for children's television – not eventually caught.
Credits
Stephen Graham
Mickey Bell
Chris Bisson
J.J.
Danny Dyer
Tony
Alistair McGowan
Casualty Doctor
Ian McCulloch
Dr. McKeown
Cast
Name | Character |
---|---|
Stephen Graham He was 15 , now 51 years old | as Mickey Bell |
Chris Bisson He was 13 , now 49 years old | as J.J. |
Danny Dyer He was 11 , now 47 years old | as Tony |
Alistair McGowan He was 24 , now 60 years old | as Casualty Doctor |
Ian McCulloch He was 29 , now 65 years old | as Dr. McKeown |
Nikki Sanderson She was 4 , now 40 years old | |
William Ash He was 12 , now 47 years old | as Darren Walsh |
Rebecca Callard She was 12 , now 47 years old | as Fiona Brett |
Kieran O'Brien He was 15 , now 51 years old | as Lee Jones |
Ralf Little He was 9 , now 44 years old | as Robbie |
Paul Nicholls He was 9 , now 45 years old | |
Will Mellor He was 12 , now 48 years old | as Ben Rowlingson |
Anthony Lewis He was 61 , 85 years old when he died | |
Rita May | as Mags |
Crew
Name | Job title |
---|
Children's Ward (35 years)
Ended
- First Air Date: 1989-03-15
- Runtime: [30,25] minutes
- Number of Episodes: 143