C5 visits hospital for live operations

Channel 5 in the UK has commissioned a stripped event series that will allow viewers to watch one life-changing medical operation live each night over three nights.

Guy Davies

The Viacom-owned network will air Operation: Live (3×120′) later this year through a deal with The Garden Productions, part of ITV Studios.

Using the latest technology and with privileged access to two London hospitals belonging to Barts Health NHS Trust, St Bartholomew’s and The Royal London, the programme will be broadcast live each night from inside an operating theatre.

Each operation will be unmediated, with some of the UK’s leading surgeons performing the procedure, guiding the viewers through every incision in real time, C5 said.

The three operations will cover open-heart surgery, total knee replacement and the removal of the cancerous section of a bowel.

Guy Davies, C5’s factual commissioning editor, said: “With innovative new production techniques and fantastic co-operation from one of the country’s biggest NHS Trusts, Operation: Live will give more detail and insight into surgery as it happens than we have seen before.”