"Equity and its membership are very disappointed that after 23 years, the BBC will bring to an end their long running and popular continuing drama series, Holby City. It comes as a blow to the cast who have worked extremely hard over the years and worked loyally through the pandemic. Whilst the BBC have confirmed the production will go out on a high, this will lead to a devastating loss of work for the cast. The timing of this announcement could not be more painful given that the BBC is looking to build alliances within the industry, including Equity, to support the licence fee, to support public service broadcasting and support the charter renewal. This will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of our members who are shouting loudly to support the BBC. We do not want this to be the beginning of the end of the much lauded and valued BBC production.
"Our members will be severely impacted by the loss of work and we urge the BBC to continue to work with Equity on any measures to assist our members.
"We will continue our discussions with the BBC as this cannot be a cost saving exercise and budgets for scripted content have to protected. The BBC must honour their public commitment to repurpose their budgets to other productions and particularly outside London and the South East."
