The Hello Girls was a British comedy-drama programme which originally aired on BBC One for two series from 5 September 1996 to 13 August 1998. It was inspired by the novel Switchboard Operators written by Carol Lake. The series was set in and around the Derby telephone exchange during 1959 and 1961 respectively. The Hello Girls was launched with much promotion aimed around former EastEnders actress Letitia Dean, who played Chris Cross, one of the 'girls' who worked at the telephone exchange. It performed very well in the ratings for both series. The theme tune Busy Line is performed by the main cast. Each episode is 30 minutes in duration..