Holby City has had the nation gripped by its dramatic tales of medical woe for 23 years.
The medical soap has enthrawled viewers with its brave storylines of tragedy, love and loss for over two decades.
But now we’re set to say goodbye to one of Britain’s best loved shows as it enters its final day of airing on BBC.
Holby City’s final curtain is due to be drawn this evening as fans mourn that Tuesday night telly will never be the same again.
Given the working title of Surgical Two, Holby City began on January 12, 1999, and has run for 23 series.
It was launched as a spin-off to the BBC’s hugely successful Casualty. It has been nominated for more than 100 awards – among its 10 wins was a Bafta in 2008.
Praised for tackling real-life issues, its cast were taught how to give realistic injections, monitor blood pressure and check a pulse, and were also allowed into hospitals to understand the real environment.
The final episodes were filmed in December and it will bow out today.
The show helped launch the careers of some of the biggest names in film and telly, including Letitia Wright, Olivia Coleman, Romesh Ranganathan and Nicholas Hoult.
Despite a petition of almost 50,000 names and a weekly audeince of two million, the BBC are set on ageing the much loved soap.
Here we look at some of the stars whose humble beginnings started in the corridors of Holby City and those who cameoed after finding fame.
Michael Fassbender
Hollywood royalty Michael Fassbender may be the last person you’d associate with Holby City, but the A-Lister came from very humble beginnings at the start of his acting career.
As a young actor, he played sick patient Christian Connolly, who had his spleen taken out in the episode ‘Ghosts’ in 2002.
He previously admitted that he actually fell asleep on the operating table during filming.
He told Radio Times: "The trouble was they were filming the scene over and over again and focusing on all the doctors operating on me and I was lying there with my eyes closed and I just drifted off.
"I woke to hear someone whispering, 'He's fallen asleep'".
The BAFTA-nominated actor has since starred in big budget films like Inglorious Basterds, X-Men, Macbeth and Jane Eyre.
Letitia Wright
The Marvel actress appeared in two episodes in series 13 back in 2011.
The talented Guyanese-born British actress played patient Ellie Maynard.
The Emmy-nominated actress went on to star in Top Boy later that year, and has since taken the big screen by storm in I Am Danielle, Small Axe, Black Mirror and opposite the beloved late Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther.
Jodie Comer
Jodie Comer is now hailed for her stellar performance as psychopath assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve , but the actress also starred on the BBC soap once upon a time.
She appeared in a 2010 episode as patient Ellie Jenkins, stealing the hearts of viewers.
It was the Liverpudlian’s second TV role at the age of just 16.
Paul O'Grady
Dog lover Paul O’Grady graced our screens back in 2013 when he joined the soap’s cast to play Tim Connor, a cancer patient, for three episodes.
His season 15 cameo saw him suffer with hypochondria for some time after as he admitted working on the show convinced him that he was ill.
Paul said: “I’d lie in bed all day with tubes on me, then I’d go in the next day and they would put even more tubes on me.
“They make you look ill. After 14 hours of that every day I came home and had to tell myself I wasn’t actually ill.
“I literally had to tell myself to stop it, to remember I was just playing a character.”
Olivia Coleman
Now an Oscar-winning actress and star of The Crown, Murder on the Orient Express, Broadchurch and Fleabag, Olivia was a relative unknown back in 2002 when she played a character called Kim Prebble for one episode.
Her glittering career had humble beginnings as she starred in the episode 'New Hearts, Old Scores'.
Helen Flanagan
Former Coronation Stree heartthrob Helen Flanagan made a guest appearance as new nurse Kirsty Brompton in 2014.
The role was her first in a TV drama since she left the Cobbles as Rosie Webster in 2012.
Romesh Ranganathan
Comedian Romesh Ranganathan also appeared Holby, playing patient Darren Harrison.
His episode ‘Never Let Me Go’ aired back in 2013.
The funnyman has since become and author and starred in his own telly series “The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan”.
Maureen Lipman
Soap royalty Maureen Lipman appeared in Holby as Bonnie Walters in 2011.
The actress has also appeared in Coronation Street, and in films such as Roman Polanski’s The Pianist.
Charlotte Riley
A fresh faced Charlotte Riley appeared in the medical soap in 2007, when she was just starting out.
Her role as patient Tanya Cusan in 'Someone to Watch Over Me' was one of her first in TV.
Charlotte has since married fellow actor Tom Hardy and gone on to star as May Carleton opposite Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders.
Kym Marsh
Kym Marsh starred in season 8 of the medical drama as Myrna Morrison in the episode ‘Brother’s Keeper’ in 2006.
She previously revealed she was relieved not to have been cast as a patient when she appeared on Holby in one of her first roles after making the switch from pop star.
She said: “The character I played was called Myrna. To be honest, she was a bit of a rough old bird.
“I’m glad I wasn’t the patient. Everyone tells me that after a while you really start to feel ill.”
Kym is now best known for playing Michelle Connor in Coronation Street.
Nicholas Hoult
As a child, Nicholas Hoult appeared in a 2001 episode of Holby City as Oscar Banks, having also been in Casualty aged six.
Nicholas went on to find fame in About a Boy a year later. He’s since starred in Kidulthood, Skins, The Favourite, The Great and X-Men.
Sheridan Smith
The Gavin & Stacey star, then still a teenager, appeared in six episodes of Holby in 2001.
The actor, singer and presenter played a young patient called Miranda Locke who ended up stalking a doctor.
She has gone on to a string of winning performances. She was a stage hit in the musical version of hit film Legally Blonde, a success in the gritty role of Mrs Biggs, wife of Great Train Robber Ronnie, and the choice to play Cilla Black in an ITV drama about her life.
Patsy Kensit
Patsy Kensit was already a big-name actress when she joined in 2007 as nurse Faye Morton.
She stayed in the role for four years – but found the workload gruelling.
The Lethal Weapon 2 star said: “I had a fantastic time. I miss the cast and crew… but not the long hours.”
Patsy left in 2010, going straight on to Strictly and reaching the final seven.
She's also starred in Absolute Beginners and Emmerdale and married a string of rock band frontmen, including Simple Minds' Jim Kerr and Liam Gallagher from Oasis.
Patsy was also a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother 2015.
