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 mid- to late 1970s. "Pobol y Cwm" was briefly shown in the rest of the UK in 1994 on BBC2, with English subtitles; it is consistently the most watched programme each week on S4C. Daytime soap operas were non-existent until the 1970s because there was virtually no daytime television in the UK. ITV introduced "General Hospital", which later moved to a prime time slot. In 1980, Scottish Television debuted "Take the High Road", which lasted for over twenty years. Later, daytime slots were filled with an influx of Australian soap operas such as "The Sullivans" (aired on ITV from 1977),