Bodies (2004 TV series)

Bodies
GenreMedical drama
Created byJed Mercurio
Written byJed Mercurio
Rachel Anthony
Richard Zajdlic
StarringMax Beesley
Patrick Baladi
Neve McIntosh
Keith Allen
Susan Lynch
Tamzin Malleson
Preeya Kalidas
Simon Lowe
Hattie Morahan
Vicky Hall
Nicholas Palliser
Saskia Reeves
Mary Stockley
Theme music composerJohn Lunn
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes17 (list of episodes)
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Production
Executive producersJohn Yorke
Mark Redhead
Gareth Neame
ProducerJed Mercurio
CinematographyNick Dance
Running time60 minutes
Production companyHat Trick Productions
Original release
NetworkBBC Three
Release23 June 2004 (2004-06-23) –
13 December 2006 (2006-12-13)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Bodies is a British television medical drama produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. Created by Jed Mercurio, the series first broadcast on 23 June 2004, and is based on Mercurio's book of the same name. The series is centred on specialist registrar Rob Lake (Max Beesley), who starts in a new post in the Obstetrics and gynaecology department at the fictional South Central Infirmary, under the guidance of consultant obstetrician Roger Hurley (Patrick Baladi).

The series differed from most other archetypal British hospital dramas, in that the surgical scenes were notable for their graphic nature, offering intimate detail of various procedures, and the operational complications dealt with in explicit detail. As a result, the themes were also often dark and depressing, including negligence, manipulation and death. Bodies has been described as a "dark, sometimes funny" take on a genre that had been made popular through shows such as Casualty and Holby City. In December 2009, The Times ranked Bodies in ninth place in its list of "Shows of the Decade", and in January 2010, The Guardian ranked Bodies number twenty of "The Greatest Television Dramas of All Time".[1]

The first series was released on DVD on 30 October 2006.[2] The second series, including the finale, was released on 26 December 2006.[3] A complete box set was released on 9 April 2007.[4] The show was made available via the BBC iPlayer service on 6 April 2019.[5]

  1. ^ Lusher, Tim (12 January 2010). "The Guardian's top 50 television dramas of all time". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
  2. ^ "Bodies - Series 1". 30 October 2006 – via Amazon.
  3. ^ "Bodies - Series 2 & Finale". 26 December 2006 – via Amazon.
  4. ^ "Bodies : The Complete BBC Collection". 22 October 2007 – via Amazon.
  5. ^ "BBC - Jed Mercurio's Bodies available now as a boxset on BBC Three - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2019.