Holby City series 12

The series deals with the repercussions of the death of ward sister Faye Byrne's son Archie, including the resignation of consultant Connie Beauchamp and the return of former registrar Thandie Abebe-Griffin.

Executive producer Tony McHale and actresses Rebecca Grant and Phoebe Thomas announced their intentions to leave the show during the course of the year.

It was criticised as presenting an inaccurate portrayal of real hospital life, and deemed a soap opera rather than a drama series by former Holby City writer Peter Jukes.

It attained strong ratings, however, and was regularly the most-watched show in the 8 pm Tuesday timeslot, frequently drawing a quarter of the audience share.

When he realises that Ric is behind people scrutinising his proposal, he punches him and swiftly loses not only his pitch for Holbycare but also his Director of Surgery role.

"[4] McHale was succeeded as executive producer by Belinda Campbell,[5] and as lead writer by Justin Young, who intends to introduce a more writer-led commissioning process from series thirteen onwards.

[7] The series continued the technique of using musical montage or "songtage" segments in each episode, originally introduced by McHale as a means of modernising the programme.

[11] The opening episodes alone, "The Hands that Rock the Cradle" parts one and two, utilised "Ben's Song", "Answer", "Angel" and "Dirty Little Secret" by Sarah McLachlan, "Sweet About Me" by Gabriella Cilmi,"Can't Speak French" by Girls Aloud, "Don't Bring Me Down" by Sia, The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II, "Golden Slippers" by Lester Bradley & Friends and "Svefn-g-englar" by Sigur Rós.

On a multi-strand series such as Holby, they are an excellent way of telling stories visually - a moment from each - to open or close an episode or create the passing of time in a concise way for the audience."

Kent deemed it unlikely that another Casualty@Holby City episode would be produced in the "foreseeable future", but hoped that characters from the two shows would begin to crossover two or three times a year.

[19] On 13 April 2010, Holby City reached its 500th episode with "Bette Davis Eyes", in which Jac (Rosie Marcel) offers to donate a kidney to her mother, who abandoned her as a child, and Chrissie (Tina Hobley) gives birth to a son.

After appearing briefly as Chrissie's one-night stand, Bob Barrett became a main cast member playing locum consultant Sacha Levy.

[32] Meanwhile, having made a one off appearance as surgeon Greg Douglas in February 2010, Edward MacLiam joined the cast on a permanent basis from June 2010.

Ginny Holder reprised her role as Thandie Abebe-Griffin, Ric's wife who last appeared in the show's ninth series.

Riann Steele appeared as nurse Lauren Minster,[41] and Rick Warden played locum consultant Toby Geddes, described as "hugely irritating" by Scott Matthewman of The Stage.

[42] On 29 June 2010, Jane Asher announced that she would be reprising her recurring role as Lady Byrne, mother of Joseph, for a storyline involving Faye's pregnancy.

[47] Tom Sutcliffe of The Independent reviewed a December 2009 episode poorly, finding it "astonishing" that any patients leave Holby General alive, as the staff are "so busy looking stricken or lovelorn at each other".

Sutcliffe criticised the themes of "bedside relationship counselling" and "intercollegiate rivalry", and commented: "Anyone in search of a comedy masterclass should watch, but, you know, I don't think this is meant to be a spoof either.

[50] Andrew Billen of The Times reviewed the show's 500th episode, noting that he had lost interest in the series following the departure of Anton Meyer (George Irving) in 2002.

[52][53] It was shortlisted in the "Best Television Continuing Drama" category at the 2010 Writers Guild of Great Britain Awards, with a group nomination for McHale, Young, Catley, Mitchell, Dana Fainaru, Martha Hillier, Chris Murray, David Lawrence, Veronica Henry, Peter Lloyd, Joe Ainsworth, Abi Bown, Andrew Holden, Ian Kershaw, Sebastian Baczkiewicz, Rob Williams, Al Smith, Claire Bennett, Jake Riddell, Nick Warburton, Sonali Bhattacharyya, Rebecca Wojciechowski, Tom Bidwell, Dan Sefton, Paul Mari, Nick Fisher and Sally Abbott.

[60] Heavy snowfall on 5 January 2010 led to a surge in TV viewing, and the Holby City episode "Talk to Me", which aired that night, received a higher than usual 6.8 million viewers.

[62] Holby City was again down in the ratings on 6 July 2010, when the episode "Swimming With Sharks" aired against the first 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-final match on ITV.