Yvette Rowland

Distant Shores is a dramedy first shown in the United Kingdom on ITV in January 2005. Like the similar fish out of water dramedies, Northern Exposure and Doc Martin, it focuses on the difficulties of an unwillingly-transplanted metropolitan doctor who is forced to adjust to a rural environment. The show's recurring cast is unusual for featuring major actors from three significant British franchises — Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and the James Bond film series. The programme itself is notable for being a rare example of a show to have an entire series shelved in its country of origin following the completion of post-production.

Quayside was a soap opera, based around the lives of young people living on the Newcastle Quayside produced by Zenith North Television and aired in 1997 on Tyne Tees Television in the North East England and Yorkshire Television in Yorkshire. Tyne Tees Television produced this soap opera as a venture into it becoming a regional soap opera alongside the larger soaps such as Coronation Street and EastEnders despite Tyne Tees not actually having a licence commitment to regional drama. Directed and produced by Matthew Robinson it starred Joe Caffrey, Emma Louise Webb and other North East actors, many of whom had appeared or went on to appear in Byker Grove and other local programmes. Despite receiving 40% of the audience share when it started, ratings began to fall primarily due to its position in the schedules. It aired once-weekly at 7.30pm, a slot which is traditionally dedicated to local programming and resulted being alongside EastEnders on BBC One.