Casualty (TV series)
Casualty (stylised as CASUAL+Y) is a British medical drama series that airs weekly on BBC One.[4] Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 6 September 1986. The original producer was Geraint Morris.[5] Having been broadcast weekly since 1986, Casualty is the longest-running primetime medical drama series in the world.[6][7]
For the current season, see Casualty series 38.Casualty
United Kingdom
English
38
1,308 (list of episodes)
40–50 minutes
60–90 minutes (special episodes)
BBC Bristol (1986–2011)
BBC Cymru Wales (2012–present)
BBC Studios Continuing Drama Productions
6 September 1986 –
present
The programme is set in the fictional Holby City Hospital and focuses on the staff and patients of the hospital's Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department. The show had forged strong ties to its sister programme Holby City, which began as a spin-off series from Casualty in 1999,[8] set in the same hospital, with the final episode being broadcast in March 2022, following its cancellation in June 2021.
Creation[edit]
The series was created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin.[9] According to writer Susan Wilkins, it was meant to be a response to the Margaret Thatcher era, and Unwin said that as young socialists, they wanted to create a "television revolution" that would be feminist, anti-racist, pro-NHS and anti-Conservative.[10]
Production[edit]
Location[edit]
Casualty and Holby City are both set in Holby City Hospital,[11] in the fictional county of Wyvern, in the south-west of England.[12]
From the show's inception to series 26, episode 16, the city exterior was represented by Bristol,[13] including well-known landmarks such as the floating harbour and Clifton Suspension Bridge often visible in outdoor scenes.[14] Allen House on College Road of the Ashley Down Centre campus of the City of Bristol College was used as the location for most exterior shots of the hospital A&E entrance from 1986 until 2002, when a new exterior set was built in Lawrence Hill Industrial Park in the city.[15] Back in 1997, Casualty also filmed at Chavenage House.[16]
Casualty's exterior shots were mainly filmed on College Road outside Brunel House (now Loft House) and Allen House of the Ashley Down Centre in Bristol from 1986 until 2002, when they moved to the centre of Bristol. In 2011, Casualty celebrated its 25th anniversary and moved production to the Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff, where it is currently filmed.
Following plans to switch filming to Birmingham, it was confirmed on 26 March 2009 that filming of Casualty from 2011 would move to a purpose-built studio and backlot set at the BBC Roath Lock studios in Cardiff, South Wales.[17][18] Episode 16 of series 26, in which a fire destroyed the department, marked the final episode filmed in Bristol. The first episode from Cardiff,[19] broadcast on 7 January 2012, was an 80-minute episode.[20] Most exterior shots of the city of Holby are now shot within the city of Cardiff and the wider area of South Wales. Railway scenes are shot on location at various preserved railways, which from the start of shooting have centred around the West Somerset Railway, the Avon Valley Railway and more recently the Barry Tourist Railway. In May 2018, filming for the premier of series 33 was shot in Bristol and Yate.[21]