Image caption Holby City's executive producer said the show wanted to help "the courageous and selfless real-life medics"

The BBC medical drama Holby City has donated two fully working ventilators from its set at Elstree to be used in London's new NHS Nightingale Hospital.

The corporation shared the news in a tweet, with a photo of workers unloading equipment from a van.

Holby City executive producer Simon Harper said they wanted to help "the courageous and selfless real-life medics".

The drama, set in a fictional West Country city, has paused production.

The BBC confirmed that two new ventilators has been ordered for the production, but in a statement said they had asked their supplier to divert them to the NHS once the need for the equipment became clear.

A ventilator takes over the body's breathing when disease has resulted in the lungs failing.

The first of the government's emergency field hospitals to help fight the pandemic was created in just nine days, opening at east London's ExCel centre last Friday.

The BBC donated the ventilators to the London Nightingale as the drama is filmed at Elstree studios, in Hertfordshire.

Last month, Holby City and another BBC medical drama, Casualty, announced plans to donate protective equipment and other kit from their sets to the NHS.

London's temporary Nightingale Hospital is able to hold as many as 4,000 patients and is the first of several such facilities planned across the UK.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Timelapse captures the transformation of London's ExCeL centre into the Nightingale Hospital

There are also Nightingale hospitals in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate, with two more announced on Friday on Wearside and in Exeter.

The BBC's move follows a government drive to source thousands more ventilators to help ease the pressure on hospitals caused by the pandemic.

British manufacturers have answered the government's appeal by turning their operations to making novel ventilators.

An order has been placed by the government for 10,000 newly-designed machines from technology firm Dyson.

It came as the UK recorded its highest daily death toll since the outbreak began, with another 980 recorded hospital deaths, bringing the total to 8,958.

That death toll, which does not include those who died in care homes or the community, has now exceeded the worst daily figures seen in Italy and Spain.