Holby City return

Holby City has been off air for a month now, after announcing it was taking an extended break due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

But when will it return and what will happen when it does? Here is everything you need to know...

What has happened to Holby City and why did it go off air?

Holby City confirmed last month that the show would be taking an extended break, with the last episode airing on Tuesday, April 14.

At the time, a Holby spokesperson told Digital Spy that this was to ensure an even spread of continuing dramas on the BBC over the summer

Back in March, BBC soaps Holby City, Casualty, EastEnders and Doctors were all forced to halt production because of the pandemic. ITV and Channel 4 soaps also had to suspend filming prior to the country going into lockdown later in the month, and haven't yet been able to resume.

Recent changes in government advice have suggested that the television industry may be able to safely and responsibly resume services over the coming weeks, but there's been no official announcement on when this would be – or what it would entail at the moment.

When will Holby City be back?

Holby's hiatus began in mid-April and is due to last approximately three months. Therefore, our calculations would suggest that Holby is due to land back on our screens in mid-July, with Holby's Instagram account confirming this as well.

There is currently no confirmed date for when exactly Holby will return, but watch this space and we'll keep you updated accordingly. However, both Holby and sister show Casualty do film up to four months in advance, meaning that there will be plenty of episodes in store when it does.

In the meantime, if you're missing your Holby fix, classic episodes of the show are being screened on Drama at 10am on weekdays. Casualty repeats air straight afterwards at 11am.

You can also catch up with all recent happenings on Darwin and Kellar over on BBC iPlayer, which has every episode from the past year ready to watch. And of course, Casualty is still airing regularly on Saturday nights on BBC One,

What will happen when Holby City returns?

The good news is that Holby will be picking up where it left off when it returns in the summer, with the aftermath of Zav Duvall's death set to take centre stage.

It's important to remember that show bosses didn't originally intend to park the show at this stage, leaving us with several loose ends that will need to be tied up upon Holby's comeback.

Other big stories to keep an eye on later in the year will be Essie and Fletch's cancer battle, Guy Self's return to the hospital and Jac and Kian's budding romance. Oh, and there's also the small matter of John Barrowman's guest appearance as well.

Is Casualty going off air, too?

Unlike the other shows, there's been no official line on what Casualty's scheduling plans are.

In the same way as Holby, Casualty also films up to four months in advance, suggesting that the show would have run out of new episodes around mid-July.

This would coincide with Holby's return to screens, but let's not forget that Casualty has been airing considerably intermittently since March, for various reasons, and is currently in the middle of a three-week break (returning on Saturday, May 23).

This could indicate that Casualty will have enough episodes to take us through to the end of the summer and therefore might not need to go off air at all.

Long-term viewers of Casualty may remember that the show often used to take a natural break between the end of one series and the beginning of another – a procedure which has been scrapped in recent years. This approach could possibly be brought back this year if a hiatus was needed, but there's been no official word on whether this will be necessary.

Holby and Casualty timelines – what will happen?

Fans of Holby and Casualty will know that the sister shows share the same universe, with organic drop-ins, references and crossovers historically reflecting that. In recent years, show bosses have really stepped this up a gear with increased and more complex character crossovers on a much more regular basis.

However, when Holby returns to screens in the summer, it's going to be airing episodes that are set back in March. Like we are seeing with other main soaps at the moment, this will mean that the episodes are no longer in sync with where we are in the year. This could spark major timeline issues when it comes to Casualty and raises questions about how the two shows will be able to reference each other again, without palpable plot holes exposing the gaps.

Given that this is an unprecedented situation, there's unlikely to be any word on how this will be resolved until the shows return to filming. There's also every chance that bosses find a way to work around this to ensure that the timeline differences are never an obvious issue.


Digital Spy

Just days after production restarted on Holby City, the BBC One soap is set to take another extended break and spend some time convalescing off-screen.

Although the cast and crew are now back filming, Inside Soap has revealed that Holby City will be airing its last episode for the time being next week (August 11) as it goes on hiatus again.

Holby will then be off-air until later in the year, after finally running out of episodes that had been filmed before the UK-wide lockdown that began in March.

The soap previously took a break back in April before returning on June 2 to ensure an even spread of continuing dramas on the BBC over the summer.

It's not all bad news though, as the team are already back in the studio to film an upcoming special episode that will see the hospital come up against the inevitable challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

The virus is set to be an ongoing theme when the series returns (with shorter, 40-minute episodes), which BBC Studios' Head of Continuing Drama Kate Oates has promised will be a "battle" for Maxine McGerry (Jo Martin) and her staff.

"It's with great pleasure that we open the doors at Elstree, to welcome back the exceptional cast and crew of Holby City," she said as the series resumed shooting.

"We have some compelling stories to tell as we explore how the lives of our characters have been changed since the start of the pandemic ? and how our heroes battle against the odds, come what may."


Digital Spy