Casualty (1986– )

The everyday lives of the people frequenting the frenetic Accident and Emergency department of Holby City hospital.

Creators:

Jeremy Brock, Paul Unwin

Stars:

Derek Thompson, Ian Bleasdale, Suzanne Packer

7 wins & 21 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Derek Thompson	...	Charlie Fairhead (582 episodes, 1986-2013)
Ian Bleasdale	...	Josh Griffiths (435 episodes, 1989-2007)
Suzanne Packer	...	Tess Bateman (411 episodes, 1996-2013)
Jane Hazlegrove	...	Kathleen 'Dixie' Dixon (300 episodes, 1996-2013)
Matt Bardock	...	Jeff Collier (257 episodes, 1993-2013)
Charles Dale	...	Big Mac (236 episodes, 1995-2013)
Catherine Shipton	...	Lisa 'Duffy' Duffin (236 episodes, 1986-2006)

Storyline

Drama depicting the private and working lives of the patients, doctors, nurses and others attending a small but frantically busy accident and emergency department of the large Holby General hospital.

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Plot Keywords:

hospital | accident | nurse | doctor | death | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

BBC Online - Casualty & Holby City

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 September 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Front Line

Filming Locations:

BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Before the first series was shown, it was described as being a "northern Hospital", often thought of as possibly being similar to St. James' in Leeds, but never of course confirmed. Only really from the second series onwards did references to it being in Bristol start appearing in the media. However when a new producer, Peter Norris, was brought in for Season 4, he decided to play down the association between Holby and Bristol, and so Duffy's West Country accent disappeared and fewer recognizable Bristol locations were used. Despite this, some links to Bristol have remained, even after filming moved to Cardiff in 2011: in Casualty: Death and Doughnuts a patient's phone number was shown as starting 0117, the code for Bristol, though a fictitious district code 456 was used.

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Quotes

Charlie Fairhead: Now leave me alone or I'll call Security.
Colin Evans: I *am* Security.
Charlie Fairhead: Then kindly throw yourself out.

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Connections

Referenced in Absolutely Fabulous: Hospital (1994)

User Reviews

This excellent drama has been turned into a silly soap.

This programme started as a superb mould-breaking drama. Each episode was an exciting thrill-ride. Now it is just a silly soap.

What made this prog so special was precisely that it was not a soap. Each week we had a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people who found themselves in the A&E department because of the accidents or illnesses that befell them. Each episode presented a whole series of accidents - from the bizarre to the mundane. As we were introduced to the casualties, we wondered how they had come to be there and how would their lives be affected by its new turn. Would they live, die or be left crippled. Would their infidelities and indiscretions be unveiled. By the end of the episode we had a snapshot of their lives.

In the late '90s Auntie Beeb threatened to turn Casualty into a twice-weekly soap. In the face of an outcry they back-peddled on this and adopted the compromise of starting a new weekday drama set in the same hospital and "Holby City" was born.

Unfortunately the script-writing team seem to have missed the point of the objection: casualty is not a soap. They have turned into a soap anyway.

Now the series simply has an interminable and tedious focus on the increasingly implausible private lives of the permanent staff. Each episode focuses on one character. And now we even have that stalwart of the soap genre - the token gay. Toby does not work in this guise for me! We now seem lucky if a single accident occurs in an episode. Instead it is the hapless staff of the "ED" who have the illness and injuries. It is the department team who have their indiscretions exposed.

It is to be hoped that this programme will return to its roots. Otherwise it needs to be pensioned off.

JDD - 14 December 2008