List of Casualty specials
List of special episodes of British medical drama Casualty / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Casualty is a British medical drama television series that premiered in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 6 September 1986.[1] It is the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world,[2] and the most enduring medical drama broadcast on primetime television in the world.[3] Casualty is set in the fictional Holby City Hospital and focuses on the staff and patients of the hospital's emergency department (ED).[4] The drama was created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, while Geraint Morris produced the first three series.[5] The drama has aired for 36 series and a 37th series currently airs. Over 1,000 episodes have aired in total.[6] Holby City, a spin-off of Casualty, was commissioned in 1998 and began airing on 12 January 1999.[7][8] The two shows are closely related with several crossover events occurring between them. Some crossovers broadcast between December 2004 and December 2005 are styled as episodes of Casualty@Holby City.[9] A British police procedural drama and spin-off to Casualty, HolbyBlue was announced on 27 April 2006.[10] It began on 8 May 2007 and was cancelled in August 2008 after 2 series and 20 episodes were broadcast.[11][12]
Casualty has produced 19 special episodes, including the first webisode commissioned for a BBC continuing drama.[13] Belinda Campbell, who executively produced the drama between 2007 and 2011, thought that webisodes would be a "new [way] to add value for our loyal fans", something which the team constantly look to do.[13] Casualty filmed a sketch for charity telethon Children in Need in 2009, featuring charity mascot Pudsey Bear. In 2010, cast members on the show filmed a tribute to BBC soap opera EastEnders and Blue Peter presenter Joel Defries presented a segment of the show from the Casualty set. To celebrate Casualty's thirtieth anniversary, original cast members Derek Thompson and Cathy Shipton filmed a special episode, "Back to Ours", showing moments from their careers on the show.
Webisodes have been created to explore characters in more detail: "The Parting of the Ways" focuses on Alistair (Joe McFadden); "Under Fire" details Sam Nicholls' (Charlotte Salt) backstory; and "Scars and Nightmares" explores the backstory of Iain Dean (Michael Stevenson). Other webisodes are designed to help progress storylines on the main show: "Short Story" explores Ruth Winters' (Georgia Taylor) stay at the hospital's psychiatric ward; "Mistletoe and Rum" follows the secret relationship between Tess Bateman (Suzanne Packer) and Adrian "Fletch" Fletcher (Alex Walkinshaw); "Nurse Factor" supports the introduction of four new student nurse characters; "Gone in Sixty Seconds" gives an insight into a bus crash; "Mrs Walker-To-Be" explores the night before Zoe Hanna (Sunetra Sarker) and Max Walker's (Jamie Davis) wedding; and "On Call" starts a storyline featuring Caleb Knight (Richard Winsor) being told he has a daughter. Some webisodes have been standalone and not followed in the main show: "The Kids Aren't Alright" focuses on Jeff Collier's (Matt Bardock) estrangement from his children; "The Spirit of Christmas" and "The First Noel" are Christmas specials; and "Radio Holby" sees Noel Garcia (Tony Marshall) become the hospital's radio DJ.