General Hospital (UK TV series) General Hospital (UK TV series) General Hospital is a British daytime soap opera produced by ATV that ran on ITV from 1972 to 1979. It was not modelled after the American drama of the same name. Rather, it was an attempt to replicate the success of its predecessor, "Emergency - Ward 10". The original theme music was "Girl in the White Dress" by the Derek Scott Orchestra which was used until 1975, when it was replaced by Johnny Pearson's "Red Alert" for the 60-minute episodes. In 1972, ITV started to broadcast programmes on weekday afternoons, triggering a new wave of
Soap opera opera parody programs "Echo Beach" premiered alongside its sister show, the comedy "Moving Wallpaper". Both "Echo Beach" and "The Royal Today" ended after just one series due to low ratings. Radio soap opera "Silver Street" debuted on the BBC Asian Network in 2004. Poor ratings and criticism of the program led to its cancellation in 2010. UK soap operas for many years usually only aired two nights a week. The exception was the original "Crossroads", which began as a weekdaily soap opera in the 1960s, but later had its number of weekly broadcasts reduced. Things started to change in 1989