First viewed : Autumn 1986
This TV phenomenon began life as a replacement for Juliet Bravo on a Saturday evening and has never relinquished its spot since. The genius of the show is that the setting lets the writers get away with melodrama every week and allows a regular parade of guest stars to check in and out ( sometimes permanently ). As well as their coping with each medical crisis the writers throw their way, the programme looks at the personal lives of the staff with story arcs developing over the course of a season. Both its creators, Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, were passionate left wing champions of the NHS but with The Monocled Mutineer drawing away most of the Tory fire , the launch of Casualty was uncontroversial.
I don't have a fascination with medical matters and didn't watch the opening episode but did catch at least one from the first series in order to see the lunatic over-acting of Christopher Rozycki as the Polish porter Kuba which seemed to be the main talking point. I became a more regular viewer in the second season when Kate Hardie joined the cast as a student nurse who had an affair with Charlie ( Derek Thompson ) although she wasn't in it for long and I dropped out again once she'd gone.
I became a regular viewer at the start of the nineties when Nigel Le Vaillant was the star as passionate registrar Julian Chapman. His interaction with the steadier Charlie was one of the highpoints of the series. Another favourite character from this time was Kelly Liddle ( Adie Allen ) a student nurse that couldn't hack it. Sadly Le Vaillant decided to quit in Season 7 and although I eventually warmed to his successor Mike Barrett ( Clive Mantle ) it wasn't quite the same without Julian.
The show's writers responded to the criticism of left wing bias in Season 8 by introducing a character , Rachel Longworth ( Jane Gurnett ) a nurse who actually supported the market-led reforms to the NHS. At first she was a bit of a joke, just an unlikely mouthpiece, but eventually they let her become a real character who had a fling with Barrett . That series also saw Tara Moran from recently deceased soap Families join as a nurse but she turned out to be a fly by night. Another favourite of mine Suzanna Hamilton came in as a young doctor with no bedside manner but she too departed before the end of the season, a great shame as her character could have been developed a lot more. Long servng nurse Duffy ( Cathy Shipton ) left towards the end of the series leaving Charlie as the only survivor from the original cast.
Season 9 introduced one of the most irritating characters in bolshie, stud-in-the-nose nurse Jude Kocarnik ( Lisa Coleman ) while Baz ( Julia Watson ) returned from the first series and became embroiled in a long running affair with Charlie.
I think I lost interest some time in Season 10 ( 1995-96 ). I came back to it briefly after I got married ( December 1997 ) noting lad's mag favourite Claire Goose in the cast but my interest was finally killed off by the scene at the end of Season 12 ( 1998 ) when the cast broke out into a version of "Everlasting Love" which was then released as a single. I just thought that was so naff and unworthy of the series.
Inevitably, it's been on in the living room since then and I've caught odd snatches but never been tempted to re-engage with the series.
Actually, Casualty was DEEPLY controversial upon its debut. Indeed, they were considered very lucky to reach a second season. Edwina Currie brought it up in the House, arguing it was 'propagandist' and resembled a 'Labour Council meeting', whilst one 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' made headlines by returning his TV set after the first episode! It also fell foul of the nursing union in its initial stages, as they feared a hatchet job at this more honest reflection of nurses as human beings.
ReplyDeleteSuzanna Hamilton's Karen Goodliffe was a great character, unfortunately Hamilton had to leave early on account of her pregnancy. Hasty rewrites saw her depart to be replaced by one of the most blandest doctors in the show's history, played by Martin Ball. It's amusing to see how they attempt to hide her bump in later episodes of that series!
Series 6-8 were undoubtedly for me the series highlight, but I last truly enjoyed a series twenty years ago, which was the twelfth series you refer to that ended on Charlie and Baz's wedding. It become increasingly soapy in the intervening years and much more melodramatic, casting failed Hollywood stars and wooden young soap actors in a move that saw it become known, by me at least, as 'HolbyOaks'. I've dipped in and out in the past fifteen years and whilst some things have been rather good (the move from Bristol to Cardiff saw a series that seemed to go back to square one, focusing less on the soap dilemmas and more on the patients and social issues) on the whole it's been decidedly average. Nowadays I just tune in for the 'big' episodes that usually top and tail each new season.
Happy to accept the correction. I was attending interviews in far flung places around this time and may well have missed the relevant headlines on any given day. Or perhaps I heard "Tories complain about BBC show " for the umpteenth time and mentally switched off.
ReplyDeleteI had completely forgotten Suzanna was pregnant ; it's a shame they couldn't have worked it into the plot.