History of the National Health Service Emergency Ward 10 was first broadcast in 1957 on ITV and ran until 1967 and followed the life and loves of the staff and patients of the fictionalised Oxbridge General. ITV later followed this up with General Hospital which borrowed much from Emergency Ward 10 in terms of its themes and focus. The idea of a medical hospital as a suitable and popular setting for a soap opera continued to take root in the 1980s. Casualty, set in an A&E department, was first broadcast in 1986 and has since become the longest running medical drama in the world. At a
Soap opera primarily broadcast live, interspersed with short pre-recorded film clips and still photos to remind the audience of the previous week's episode. The first long-running prime time soap opera was "Peyton Place" (1964–1969) on ABC. It was based in part on the eponymous 1957 film (which, in turn, was based on the 1956 novel). The popularity of "Peyton Place" prompted the CBS network to spin-off popular "As the World Turns" character Lisa Miller into her own evening soap opera, "Our Private World" (originally titled "The Woman Lisa" in its planning stages). "Our Private World" was broadcast from May to September 1965.