Based on the 1986 TV Movie of the same name written by Jack Rosenthal, London's Burning is a British drama series about the lives of members of the London Fire Brigade, most notably those of Blue Watch, a team of Firefighters based at the fictional Blackwall Fire Station.
The series was broadcast on ITV between 1988 and 2002 for a total of 14 seasons. The early seasons (1-9) are generally considered to be the series' prime with the episodes consisting mainly of the camaraderie and high spirits of Blue Watch members and usually culminating in a "Shout" (A Brigade term for an Emergency Call)
In 1998 at the start of Series 10 the show went into a decline, with a change to the iconic theme tune of the show and introducing a lot of new characters and killing off favourites which started with John Hallam in Series 9, Georgiadis (Series 11), Sicknote (Series 12) and finally Recall (Series 14).
When they killed off Sicknote, he was the last character from the Pilot movie. Leaving George as the only character to remain in the show from the first series. Further changes included the direction of the show, taking the focus off Firefighting and the Job and by the end of series 14 it was more of a soap opera/melodrama of the characters lives with almost no shouts.
The ratings of the show which had been consistently high during the 1990's fell drastically and In 2002, after 14 years and 171 episodes, Blue Watch responded to their last shout. London's Burning had come to a rather disappointing end.
Popular and long running characters from the series include Station Officer Sidney Tate (James Marcus), Station Officer Nick 'Zorba' Georgiadis (Andrew Kazamia), Sub Officer John Hallam (Sean Blowers), Leading Firefighter Malcolm Cross (Rupert Baker), Leading Firefighter Geoff 'Poison' Pearce (Michael Garner), Firefighter Leslie 'Charisma' Appleby (Gerard Horan), Firefighter Bert 'Sicknote' Quigley (Richard Walsh), Firefighter Josie Ingham (Katharine Rogers), Firefighter Kate Stevens (Samantha Beckinsale), Firefighter Colin Parrish (Steve North), Mess Manager Mike 'Bayleaf' Wilson (James Hazeldine), Firefighter Stuart 'Recall' Mackenzie (Ben Onwukwe) and the longest running character in the show, Firefighter George Green (Glen Murphy).