The Royal

This article is about British medical drama. For the sportsman with the same nickname, see Mark King (snooker player). For the tram stop in Wolverhampton, see The Royal tram stop.

The Royal
The Royal intro.
Starring	Denis Lill Wendy Craig Michelle Hardwick Robert Daws Andy Wear Linda Armstrong Amy Robbins Kari Corbett Sarah Beck Mather Glynis Barber Gareth Hale Neil McDermott Diana May Sacha Parkinson Lauren Drummond
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	8
No. of episodes	87 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	ITV Studios
Original release
Network	ITV, STV, UTV
Release	19 January 2003 (2003-01-19) – 31 July 2011 (2011-07-31)
Related
Heartbeat The Royal Today

The Royal is a British medical drama series produced by ITV. The show comprised one-hour episodes which were normally first aired on ITV in the Sunday early evening slot.

The title of the series refers to the fictional "St Aidan's Royal Free Hospital", located in the rural seaside town of Elsinby close to Aidensfield and the actual towns of Whitby and Scarborough. The hospital served both the local farmers and townsfolk and visiting holidaymakers. The show was set in the 1960s and the outside scenes were filmed in the North Yorkshire holiday resort of Scarborough. It began as a spin-off from the other popular ITV show set in North Yorkshire, Heartbeat.

Stars of the show include Ian Carmichael, Wendy Craig, Robert Daws and Amy Robbins. The last ever episode of the show aired at 7.00pm on Sunday, 31 July 2011 on ITV.

Overview

The Royal was introduced in the 14th episode of the 12th series of Heartbeat entitled 'Out Of The Blue' and The Royal benefited from this connection to the extremely popular parent series; several Heartbeat characters appeared in the first couple of series of The Royal, most notably Bill Maynard as a bed-ridden Claude Greengrass, but as the series progressed it generally dropped its character crossovers with Heartbeat to become its own entity.

The majority of the plots centred around medical emergencies and the moral dilemmas created or exposed by the emergencies. Typically there are several on-going crises, each being confronted by one or more staff members. The show tends to avoid political topics on the whole although the Vietnam War was touched upon in one episode, the conflict between progressive and conservative social ideals is central to the show and these issues were addressed in greater detail in series 5 following the arrival of the black woman Doctor Joan Makori, who joined The Royal in episode 49. She later departed for Cameroon in episode 55 with Nkeshi the Biafran refugee. The ethical challenges and social changes faced by the hospital staff and their patients mirror those faced by the world in the 1960s.

The Royal appears to be set primarily in 1969 and includes references to events such as the coming of colour television and the Vietnam War. Like Heartbeat, all road tax discs bear the expiry date "31 DEC 69". However anachronisms sometimes appear, such as characters in the series 7 episode "To Love & To Lose" referring to "the new Beatles film" (there was no new Beatles film that year). Some such anachronisms are likely to be accidental, such as a reference in the same episode to a career "glass ceiling", a phrase not coined until some years later.

There is one on-going and as yet unsolved mystery in The Royal: Matron's real name. She has never used a name throughout the series, nor has she ever been referred to by one (even her niece Susie Dixon only refers to her as "Auntie"). All that is known is that her nickname during the Second World War, when she served as a nurse, was "Toffee".

Filming often took place at Scarborough South Cliff by Holbeck Clock Tower during the summer months. Many of the old cars used in the filming can be seen residing at the Motor Museum at Thornton-le-Dale just outside Scarborough. Interior scenes were filmed in the former Maternity Wing of St. Luke's Hospital, Bradford and The Leeds Studios. St Luke's was chosen because it had not been updated in many years, and was very similar to how a 1960s hospital would have appeared.

Cast

Name	Portrayed by	Occupation	Years
			'03	'04	'05	'06	'07	'08	'09	'11
David Cheriton	Julian Ovenden	Consultant	Main
Meryl Taylor	Zoie Kennedy	Senior Staff Nurse	Main
Dr. Gordon Ormerod	Robert Daws	Consultant	Main
Dr. Jill Weatherill	Amy Robbins	Consultant, General Surgeon	Main
T.J. Middleditch	Ian Carmichael	CEO	Main				Special Guest Star
Sister Brigid/Aisling O'Donaghue	Linda Armstrong	Ward Sister	Main
Mr. Rose	Denis Lill	Consultant, General Surgeon	Main
Lizzie Hopkirk	Michelle Hardwick	Receptionist	Main
Alun Morris	Andy Wear	Porter, Theatre Technician	Main
Matron	Wendy Craig	Clinical Matron	Main
Adam Carnegie	Robert Cavanah	CEO			Main
Susie Dixon	Sarah Beck Mather	Staff Nurse					Main
Jack Bell	Gareth Hale	Head Porter							Main
Jean McAteer	Glynis Barber	CEO							Main
Carol Selby	Diana May	Staff Nurse							Main
Dr. Ralph Ellis	Neil McDermott	Locum Doctor							Main
Faye Clark	Lauren Drummond	Student Nurse							Main

Actor	Character	Duration
Lisa Hogg	Moira O'Donaghue	2008 – 2009
Natalie Anderson	Nurse Stella Davenport	2005 – 2008
Scott Taylor	Frankie Robinson	2003 – 2008
Michael Starke	Ken Hopkirk	2003 – 2008
Sam Callis	Dr. Mike Banner	2007
Kananu Kirimi	Dr. Joan Makori	2006 – 2007
Paul Fox	Dr. Jeff Goodwin	2003 – 2007
Amelia Curtis	Nurse Catherine Deane	2006 – 2007
Rachel Leskovac	Marie Beattie	2007
Lauren Leake-Smith	Cassie Beattie	2007
Harvey Leake-Smith	Alfie Beattie	2007
Isabella Eades-Jones	Stephanie Beattie	2007
David Busfield	Ben Beattie	2007
Sophie Foster	Katie Ormerod #1	2003 – 2006
Daniel Feltham	Tom Ormerod #1	2003 – 2006
Helena Blair	Angela Deane	2006
Anna Madeley	Nurse Samantha Beaumont	2003 – 2005
John Axon	Mr Nigel Harper	2003 – 2005
Polly Maberly	Dr. Lucy Klein	2003 – 2004
Damian O'Hare	Dr. Nick Burnett	2008 – 2009
Kari Corbett	Nurse Marian McKaig	2007 – 2009
Chris Coghill	Bobby Sheridan	2008 – 2009
Matthew Hall (actor)	Sam Myerson	2009 – 2009

Doctors, Consultants and Surgeons

• Julian Ovenden as Dr David Cheriton 2003. Newly qualified from London, he was keen to impress at The Royal. He had a relationship with Nurse Taylor, which lead to her being possibly pregnant. He supported Dr Ormerod's claims for more medical equipment when going out on a call. In Series 3, Cheriton sadly dies from playing in a rugby match against Ashfordly General.
• Robert Daws as Dr Gordon Ormerod 2003-11. One of the leading Doctors at the Royal, he struggled in the earlier days to cope with his marriage break-down, especially when his wife is involved in a coach accident early in series two. His wife suffered from a coma as a result of this, which he had to accept that she would not recover. In Series 3, he and Dr Weatherill announce that they are going to end their relationship, despite being common knowledge. At the end of Series 3, the police launch an investigation into his wife's death, which he's furious about, which doesn't help when her father comes asking questions about him and Dr Weatherill's relationship. In Early Series 4, he and Dr Weatherill get married, despite being disrupted in the process. At the end of series 4, he has an accident, and he starts taking his medication, which affects his behaviour, until Dr. Weatherill finds out. Dr Ormerod continued working at The Royal, and in Series 8, his career is put on the line when a grieving family blame him for the death. In the final episode, Omerod is caught in the crossfire when violence outbreaks, leaving his life hanging in the balance.

Episode list

Main article: List of The Royal episodes

Ratings

Below is the list of ratings of The Royal, giving an overall result for each series.

Series	Year	Rank #	Average Audience Share
1	2003	10th	10.12 m
2	2003	11th	7.16 m
3	2003–2004	13th	9.17 m
4	2004–2005	12th	8.49 m
5	2006	10th	7.93 m
6	2007	11th	7.24 m
7	2008–2009	15th	4.91 m
8	2009–2011	15th	4.62 m (Incl. ITV1+1)

Overall Rating 2003 - 2011	Rank #	Average Audience Share
	12th	7.45 m

End of production

The production of both Heartbeat and The Royal has been completed. It was announced on 4 March 2009 because of job losses for ITV Yorkshire Studios, that the future of The Royal and Heartbeat was in doubt. ITV have now confirmed production of The Royal has ended. ITV showed the final episode on 31 July 2011.

HD availability

Episode 73 entitled "In The Air" was the first episode of The Royal to be shown in HD format. The episode was transmitted on ITV HD on 21 June 2009. Subsequent episodes are expected to be shown in high definition on ITV HD as well as being shown in standard definition.

The Royal Today

A daytime spin-off, The Royal Today, comprising fifty thirty-minute episodes featuring the staff of The Royal set in the present day aired in January 2008.

This is a list of media releases of the television series Heartbeat, which includes DVD & VHS.

DVD release

DVDs of the Series have been released by ITV Studios Home Entertainment. See table below for release dates. So far, Series 1 and 2 of The Royal have been released in the UK (Region 2). Series 1 was released in Australia (Region 4) on 5 December 2012 and Series 2 will be released on 6 March 2013. Some music has been partly changed or removed due to copyright grounds, however the tracks are consistent with those used for International broadcast.

	DVD Series	Ep #	Region 2 (UK)		Region 4 (Australia)
	The Royal Series 1	7	3 October 2011		5 December 2012
	The Royal Series 2	6	27 February 2012		6 March 2013
	The Royal Series 3	14	TBA		TBA
	The Royal Series 4	12	TBA		TBA
	The Royal Series 5	12	TBA		TBA
	The Royal Series 6	12	TBA		TBA
	The Royal Series 7	12	TBA		TBA
	The Royal Series 8	12	TBA		TBA

External links

• The Royal at itv.com
• The Royal at IMDb