Casualty - just the facts

Casualty - just the facts Written May 2007.

Casualty is the longest running emergency medical drama series in the world, first broadcast in 1986 & transmitted in the UK on BBC One (with repeats on UKTV Gold). It was created by Jeremy Brock & Paul Unwin. The programme is based around the fictional Holby City Hospital, situated in Holby, a fictional city bearing a close resemblance to Bristol where the show is filmed. Casualty is filmed approximately 3 months in advance of broadcast, however this can vary. Bristol landmarks, including the docks & the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge, are sometimes glimpsed in the outdoor scenes. The exterior shots of the hospital were formerly filmed at the city's technical college, but are now shot on an industrial estate, not far from the interior set of the hospital.

The drama concerns a group of doctors, nurses & administrators who work in the Accident & Emergency department (since Series 18 termed the Emergency Department (ED)). At the centre of the action is Nurse Manager Charlie Fairhead (played by Derek Thompson), a dedicated & caring man frequently at odds with the demands of hospital management. This has been a recurring theme over the years, but especially in the early series, which were frequently criticised for endorsing criticisms of National Health Service management under the Conservative government of the day.

The programme has usually been transmitted on Saturday nights, although for a period in the late 1980s it switched to Fridays. Since 2001, popularity of the show forced a switch from a traditional seasonal format to an almost year-round production & transmission. Casualty has no fixed time slot, & usually airs somewhere in the 8.00pm slot on BBC1, however it is sometimes broadcast after 9.00pm, but never before 8.00pm. A spin-off show, Holby City, depicts life elsewhere in the same hospital. Due to the large number of episodes, some viewers have felt the storylines are becoming increasingly repetitive & predictable, although it remains one of the most watched television shows.

In December 2004, a 2-part special Casualty @ Holby City was broadcast, with the two shows combining to cope with a petrol tanker crashing into the Hospital. Most of the filming was done on Holby City's interior & exterior sets, as Casualty is filmed in Bristol whereas Holby City is shot at the BBC Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. A second special (with the same name, but shot in Bristol) was broadcast in August 2005 to promote organ donation; viewers were asked to choose between two patients waiting for a heart transplant.

During 2005, to draw more viewers over Bank Holidays & Christmas, two-part specials were shown, where the first hour is the build-up to a major accident. Past storylines for episodes like these have featured tunnel explosions, car pile-ups, a tanker crashing into the hospital, & assaults of regular staff. These events inevitably stretched the hospital to the limit & resulted in multiple deaths & injuries.

Susan Cookson (Maggie Coldwell) during filming

Filming for Casualty at a school in Yate near Bristol. The actress on the right is Susan Cookson (Maggie Coldwell in the series) who joined the cast on 29 January 2005. The four males are crew
The cast of the show released the single "Everlasting Love", which peaked at 5 in the UK in 1998.

Cast
Main article: List of characters in Casualty

Deaths
In recent years, the number of deaths of main characters has risen dramatically:

Series 2 - Sandra Mute - stabbed
Series 3 - Ewart Plimmer - heart attack
Series 6 - Kelly - suicide
Series 11 - Trevor - fell
Series 15 - Andrew - pushed; Tom - fell
Series 16 - Rachel - mugged; Patrick - sudden death (non-motorway incident, he died just shotly after he proposed to Lara Stone) ; Eddie - transplant operation
Series 17 - Jeff - heart attack; Beth - car crash; Jack Vincent - boat explosion
Series 18 - Anna Paul - train crash; Baz Wilder - car crash; Simon Kaminski - plane crash
Series 19 - Fin Newton - murdered; Jim Brodie - hospital fire; Claire Guildford - drowned (suicide)
Series 20 - Paul "Woody" Joyner - chlorine poisoning
Series 21 - Ellen Zitek - hit by motorbike

Episode list
Main article: List of Casualty episodes

DVD release

Casualty Series 1 DVD releaseCasualty was released on DVD (Region 2, UK) by 2 Entertain/Cinema Club. The first series was released on 10 April 2006, & the second on 10 July. Series three was released on 11 September.

There are currently no more releases planned at present but some people demand more DVDs being released. There is a possibility of future releases.

Theme music
The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

The Casualty theme music was composed by Ken Freeman, who would also compose the theme for sister show, Holby City. The closing music has usually been different to the opening theme, although in recent years there have been few differences.

1986-2001: The original theme music ran for fifteen years with few alterations, making it the longest-tenured, & most popular, version of the famous theme. In 2000, the opening theme was edited slightly, reducing its length by around ten seconds. Likewise, the closing theme was slightly shortened in the 1990s by editing out part of the introductory chords, but was significantly reduced in length during 2000, with only the final part of the original theme used. This shortened closing music was taken from a modified version of the original theme & had a slightly more hip beat to it.

2001-2006: The new series in September 2001 introduced a new version of the theme tune, far jazzier than the original. For the first time, the same track (minus intro melody) was used to close each episode as well, making the closing credits shorter still than the 40-second arrangement of the original closing theme introduced in 2000.

2006-present: Another new version of the theme tune which pays homage to the original rendition (ironic because by then, Casualty marked its 20th year on the air), & was developed by the original composer, Ken Freeman. The new track uses orchestral instruments for the first time lending it a haunting & classical quality. There was also the return of a "proper" sounding ambulance siren introducing the theme (performed by strings), the famous "ringing" backing track which cuts in at appropriate times in the song, & the "breathing" sounds (heard in the middle of the original theme) now heard at the final few seconds.

Although the closing theme is still essentially the opening theme (albeit with a slight alteration in backing beat), it is improved by the addition of elements taken from the original closing theme, such as the instantly recognisable seven-note sequence used as an addition towards the end of track. Incidentally, this element is also used to great effect, along with the "ringing" sound, in a specially composed backing track used occasionally as a recap tune before the opening titles to show already-broadcast highlights of a continuing storyline, or as a preview of the next episode (most notably on the Casualty section of the BBC website).

Opening titles & closing credits

1986-1989: The titles opened with an ambulance & police car pulling into the emergency bay at Holby City A&E department with their sirens & lights operating. Accompanying this introduction was a constantly moving heart-rate monitor graphic in blue overlaid on the screen. The sequence then cuts to a lengthy piece of footage following the unloading of the patient from the ambulance & the journey through the hospital to the Accident & Emergency Resuscitation room (commonly referred to as 'Resuss'), all viewed in a slightly blurred & distorted fashion from the patient's point of view in the trolley - thus the "deep breathing" noises that form part of the theme tune are attributable to the breathing of the casualty.

The patient's view takes in the nurse, doctor & paramedic who are accompanying the trolley & is accompanied by the same heart rate graphics which have now changed into streaking bolts of lightning which appear to be drawn to the walls of the hospital, the doors & the lights in the ceiling. The sequence ends with the doctor placing a gas mask over the patient's face & the screen darkens to reveal the Casualty logo, formed by the merging of the blue streaks.

The closing credits use stills taken from the opening titles, again in the same blurred vision, but without the blue streaks. The typeface is the same one used for the original Casualty logo & scrolls in blue for the most part of the sequence, but changes briefly to white as it scrolls up the top 3/4 portion of the frame, before returning to blue again.

1989-1992: A new sequence debuted after a few years & offered greater visual interest. The siren part of the theme tune accompanies an ambulance (now in daytime) driving towards the camera which zooms in on its flashing lights. The sequence then develops into a series of clips, including the ambulance driver at the wheel, hospital equipment, a patient being treated, blood pressure gauge etc. all separated by flashes of blue light. The titles continue as the ambulance reaches the hospital doors & the patient is unloaded & taken through to 'Resuss'. This part of the titles is in black & white, although the paramedics yellow jackets & the nurses' blue uniforms are shown in colour. The sequence ends as the camera zooms in on the nurse's back as she tends to the patient in 'resus', & the Casualty logo is formed.

1992-1993: A return to the same type of opening as the original series, although the introductory ambulance sequence is now in daylight unlike the original night-time shot & the entire sequence of being trolleyed through the department is new. Again, one of the show's creators plays the role of the doctor who puts the oxygen mask over the patient's face, & an unidentified Sister is shown with the paramedics instead of the original nurse.

The closing sequence is the same as the original, albeit with the stills taken from the new version of the titles & a revised typeface for the credits which are now typed permanently in blue (character) & white (actor).

1993-1997: The sequence again opens with an ambulance driving at night before a series of "accident" footage, showing the sort of medical emergencies the paramedics were travelling to (motorcycle accident, mugging, old lady falling down the stairs etc.) The sequence then develops into two layers - the base layer being the ambulance's journey back to the hospital, & the top layer showing a graphical grid & the superimposition of various pieces of patient/medical staff footage, again using unidentified actors in the roles. The sequence ends with the ambulance arriving at the front doors & a medical team greeting it, before the screen becomes blurred & the logo is formed. This entire sequence (save for the snippets of superimposed hospital footage) was decolourised & tinted with a dark blue hue.

The closing credits show a sequence taking the form of a near-birds-eye view of the ambulance on a journey through Holby at night with the screen gradually getting more burred as the closing develops, again tinted blue & with the same "technical" grid overlaid as the titles.

1997-2000: A new look again, now based around fragments of glass flying in & around a sequence utilising footage of medical staff, hospital equipment & patients' relatives. The sequence ends as all the pieces of glass that were shattered in the first few seconds of the sequence are re-formed into a single pane which spells out the new Casual+y logo. Minor edits were made when these titles were shortened in 2000 but they remained essentially the same.

The closing sequence used the same idea with the fragments of green glass flying in slow motion from the foreground to the background against a black screen & gradually all landing in the correct place to form a unified pane as the credits scrolled over the top. This closing was significantly reduced in 2000 due to BBC timing constraints.

2000-2001: A slightly more arty titles sequence for Casualty in 2001, utilizing a sped-up fast forward technique, featuring a clock ticking through the night, an airbag deploying, the ambulance speeding through evening traffic & patients arriving at reception. The latter half the sequence focuses on the ambulance's patient being treated in Resuss from a birds-eye perspective, with all this treatment done at high speed. The sequence ends in slow motion as the patient recovers, his relatives arrive & crowd around his bed, before the trolley, people & equipment disappear leaving the distinctive chequered flooring of the department & the Casualty logo.

The closing credits were now aligned to the left to allow for BBC End Credit Promotion to be adopted on the right half the screen should the need arise. The background of the closing sequence focused on an intravenous drip bag filled with liquid & catching the light as it ripples with movement - part of which is briefly seen in the opening titles. These were the first titles & credits broadcast in 16:9 widescreen; the previous titles were cropped to fit the ratio.

2001-2002: A new theme tune with a distinct change to the opening titles. For the first time ever, the focus is on the characters, they are presented posing to the camera against a blurred background of blue, black & purple. The only 'medical' references are the glimpses of an ambulance & a heart rate graphic in the opening seconds of the titles. The same logo introduced in 1997 remains at the end.

The closing credits utilised the same dark background as the opening, with the credits now rolling on the right with space for ECP on the left.

2002-2006: Again, the same theme tune as last year (albeit with altered effects) but a return to a more generic medical themed title. The focus is now on the international symbol of medical aid, the cross. It is shown at different sizes moving around the screen, often filled with footage such as paramedics, a patient being given cardiac massage etc. against a stark white background. This sequence was also filled with abstract graphics, elements of the Casualty logo & some footage of medical emergencies - e.g. a house fire, taken from actual episodes. Rather graphic is the depiction of blood at several points during the titles lending them a slightly more mature feel than previously. The logo is formed by the merging of the various crosses & abstract shapes at the end of the sequence.

The closing credits, again aligned to the right, roll against a white background with distorted green crosses floating across the screen.

2006-present: Brand new titles using stop-frame footage of the ambulance on its journey, followed by images of hospital staff (mostly characters of the show in fact) & equipment (x-rays, oxygen cylinders, paramedic clothing, nurses walking the corridors etc.) mixed in with footage of a patient being taken to Resuss & given treatment. The sequence is all tinted in a light turquoise hue & is interrupted at several points by a flashing amber coloured graphic, reminiscent of the heart rate line from the original titles sequence. The (slightly modified) logo appears on screen in the final frame. The Casualty BBC programme is still planned to go on for a while.

The closing credits are a black background with a selection of abstract footage taken from the titles displayed on the right hand side of the screen, gradually fading into the black towards the left of the frame. The cast & crew list continues to scroll on the right.

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