History
Doctors is produced by BBC Birmingham and is screened on BBC One, with the first episode broadcast on 27 March 2000. It was created by Chris Murray, with Mal Young developing it and Carson Black the original producer. The show has been shown at lunchtime since its inception, originally at 12.30pm as a lead-in to the BBC's One O'Clock News. After it was temporarily moved to allow for extended news coverage of the September 11th 2001 attacks, its regular slot changed to 2:10 pm, following directly after Neighbours, after ratings rose to a 25% audience share. When the BBC lost Neighbours to Channel 5 in January 2008, it moved into the Australian soap's old slot of 1:45pm. For a brief trial period in Summer 2000, selected episodes from the first series were shown on Fridays at 7 pm and from 16 February 2009, the show began transmitting in high definition on BBC HD at 4:00pm the same day.
Doctors was originally produced and broadcast in blocks of episodes, ranging from blocks of 40 to 130 episodes in the first three years. For example, from season five in 2002 until January 2007, Doctors took lengthy breaks in transmission over the Summer, usually for six weeks, to accommodate the length of transmission. However, the series' audience has developed and increased, prompting the BBC to commission Doctors as a year-round continuing series. Currently, the show breaks in the summer for the Wimbledon Tennis matches held for two weeks, over Christmas and Easter period and for bank holidays.
On 26 March 2010, Doctors celebrated its 10th Anniversary and 1800th episode. Under the title Decade of Doctors, the BBC aired five-minute programmes about the show after each day's episode during the anniversary week. On 16 February 2011, Doctors aired its 2,000th episode, Quarantine, which was extended and ran for 60 minutes. From 17 September 2012 for 5 days, special red button episodes aired after the regular show, focusing on the conclusion of the Harrison Kellor storyline, exploring Elaine Cassidy and her dealing with Harrison's change of plea for Lauren Porter's murder.
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