With 70 cameras filming round the clock, 24 Hours in A&E offers unprecedented access to one of Britain's busiest A&E departments, at King's College Hospital in London.
Each programme focuses on patients who were treated within the same 24-hour period, offering an intimate, powerful and sometimes comic insight into life - and death - on the frontline of the NHS.
But what was it like to make a major documentary series in such a challenging environment? Amy Flanagan and Anthony Philipson, joint series producers and directors on the series, explain.
What do you think the series does differently compared to other documentaries about A&E?
Amy: One big difference with the series was that it was filmed using a 'fixed rig' of 70 cameras. These are about the size of a small football, fixed in place and the team could control them by remote control from a mobile gallery parked outside to turn and zoom in any direction. They give you an amazing sense of intimacy and ability to follow stories across the department without camera crews getting in the way.
Anthony: The other aspect is that each programme features people treated at King's in a 24-hour period. That throws such different stories together - you might have someone clinging to life, while another person has sprained their ankle. But every story reveals so much about human life and that's what is so interesting.
What was the appeal of filming in King's College Hospital?
Anthony: The A&E department at King's College Hospital is an incredible place and a real privilege to experience first hand. It's one of the busiest hospital A&E departments in the country, with 350 people treated every day, and they see injuries from broken bones through to gunshot wounds.
There's an incredible team at King's A&E. We obviously spent a lot of time there and really got to know and respect them. They do an amazing job in very challenging circumstances and we were constantly struck by how hard-working and professional they were, as well as being incredibly caring to everyone. We all came away humbled by the job they do.
What was involved in filming a series like this?
Amy: We spent two months before filming even started researching in the hospital and observing, towards the end, 24 hours a day. The most important thing was to build trust with the core staff of 140 people who work in A&E, from porters, cleaners, nurses, doctors as well as the paramedics who come in all the time.
We wanted to find out how the department ran, what kind of patients come and where the real human stories lay - we also needed to know who amongst the staff was happy to be filmed and who we were most interested in.
Two weeks before the shoot, work started on installing the cameras. This was one of the most crucial parts of pre-production. We installed 23km of camera cable and 70 cameras were fixed to the wall. Work had to take place often in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning in a department that was fully operational day and night - including in Resus where the most seriously ill patients are treated - causing absolutely minimum disruption to patients and staff.
We filmed 24 hours a day for 28 days, capturing 4200 hours of footage. There were 168 members of the production team, ranging from sound mixers, gallery directors and a team in charge of consent.
Are there extra challenges filming in a hospital with busy staff, seriously ill patients and their loved ones?
Amy: Of course it's a pressurised environment and our first concern was to keep out of the way and respect people who were often in very difficult and emotional situations.
One of the key issues was getting consent from patients and families, so that we would know who to film and who to avoid.
During the shoot, several members of the team were based in every area of the department - one person in each area - 24 hours a day, asking patients for consent, changing radio mics and communicating to the mobile gallery, built in the hospital car park, who could and couldn't be filmed. They also liaised with staff, addressing any issues.
The consent team followed a detailed filming protocol, worked out over several months with the hospital, to ensure that patients' privacy and dignity was respected at all times.
What are the benefits of filming with fixed cameras?
Anthony: Filming with fixed cameras from a gallery allows you to follow multiple stories in the department at any one time without lots of camera crews and camera equipment getting in the way. It meant that we could be flexible, discreet and capture intimacy that would be impossible with a camera crew.
The rig allowed us to film amazingly intimate and heartwarming stories of real courage, love and dedication that captured our imagination. The drama which unfolded before us every day was far more powerful than any work of hospital fiction could hope to be.
Each programme is filmed over a 24-hour period. How was that different from a normal documentary?
Anthony: Filming in this way allowed us to capture an extraordinary snapshot of a place where somebody who's critically ill could be only 10 metres away from someone with a splinter in their finger.
We wanted to reflect the extraordinary range of human life and stories that come through A&E's doors every day. From the joyful to the tragic, and the moving to the frustrating, staff see it all. Like them, during the shoot, we had no idea who was going to arrive through the doors and when they would arrive. We just knew that there would be about 10,000 of them over the four weeks we were there.
Amy: We stuck to the rule that in each programme we would only include the stories of patients who were treated in A&E within the same 24-hour period. To tell their stories fully and more effectively we sometimes included treatment that happened before or after that period, and had to move the stories around, but the principle rule was always rigidly adhered to.
We use a clock in the programme simply to remind viewers that they are watching a single, confined period of time. The clock reflects the time of the story that follows.
