Bodies (2004 TV series)
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).
| Bodies | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Medical drama |
| Created by | Jed Mercurio |
| Written by | Jed Mercurio Rachel Anthony Richard Zajdlic |
| Starring | Max 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 composer | John Lunn |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 17 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | John Yorke Mark Redhead Gareth Neame |
| Producer | Jed Mercurio |
| Cinematography | Nick Dance |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company | Hat Trick Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Three |
| Release | 23 June 2004 – 13 December 2006 |
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".
The first series was released on DVD on 30 October 2006. The second series, including the finale, was released on 26 December 2006. A complete box set was released on 9 April 2007. The show was made available via the BBC iPlayer service on 6 April 2019.