LONDON - Production of daytime medical drama Doctors is to end, the BBC has announced. After running for 23 years, the TV show had been affected by “super inflation in drama production”, causing costs to rise significantly, the BBC said. It said it had faced a choice on whether to re-invest in the Birmingham site where the show is made or finance new shows in the West Midlands. The final episode will be aired in December 2024. The BBC said it would be “working closely with BBC Studios to give it the finale it deserves”. It also thanked all the cast and crew who had worked on the show, which was first broadcast on 26 March, 2000 and has since won 17 Baftas. More than 4,500 episodes of the show have been made. The soap follows the lives of staff and patients at a Midlands GP practice in the fictional town of Letherbridge. TV critic Scott Bryan, from the BBC’s Must Watch podcast, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the show had “been a training ground for many actors”. It has featured household names such as Eddie Redmayne, Sheridan Smith, Nicholas Hoult, Rustie Lee and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, he said. “For many of us, this is the show we would watch on our sick days,” Mr Bryan added. The Writers’ Guild called the decision “a terrible loss to the UK writing community, and to audiences”. It said it was essential the UK “continues to provide distinctive content and opportunities for our writers”. The cancellation of the show,18 months after another BBC medical drama, Holby City, was axed, “leaves a big hole in the drama slate”, it added. People who have worked on the show have also expressed their sadness on social media.