Casualty

Looks like the set changes associated with the production move to Cardiff from Bristol, are going to be explained by a another fire ripping through the emergency department. Also news that the new set will debut on 7th January 2012 and the show will have new opening credits:

http://bbc.in/tv0qAa

http://www.holby.tv/news/spoilers/item/499-sat-10/12-casualty

I assume that the photo shown in the link below is of the production complex and not the actual casualty set, interesting read though. While I was walking along the Cardiff Bay Barrage a couple of months ago I could make out the roofs of the new street set that is mentioned in the article. It includes local amenities including a bookies, estate agent and a pub for the ED staff to congregate after shift apparently.

http://www.holby.tv/news/present-news/item/501-new-year-new-look

Was kind of what I expected, although as usual I suspect nobody in Holby City will even mention a fire in the same hospital!

I can't believe Ruth and Jay are coming out of Casualty, I hope they come out the ED alive and happy.

Now really when was the last time a Fire ripped through a NHS hospital? even in Dick van dykes "DM" a mad bomber destroyed there hospital... cant the BBC come up with more original idea? like Flood? or Nice NHS rebuild as part of a merger with another CITY hospital?

Oh, not another fire/explosion.

Holby's ED must be the most dangerous place to work in the NHS. I'm surpirsed they don't have their own dedicated fire crew: the place must be a health & safety Assessor's nightmare!

Couldn't they have just moved the entire set to Cardiff, rather than go for yet another new one?

This must be the most reburbished department in medical fiction: they could've rebuilt the whole hospital for the cost of all this over the years.

How else can they explain changes to the exterior, without some kind of accident or major disaster? There isn't the opportunity of a big break in the filming schedule to do a refurbishment, or rebuild. And moving the show to a new hospital in the interim is not an option.

Floods would be impossible to film with the exterior, and it would affect Holby City also, which is not a viable option.

Explosions etc have the advantage of coming with insurance money to fund any repairs or rebuilds, so fits into the way the show is filmed and made.

It is also brings more excitement to the programme that most other possibilities. In the end Casualty is there to entertain.

Indeed ... and with it also being a fictional drama series, it isn't really meant to be entirely realistic. Like for instance,
as seen in a recent episode, how likely would two paramedics really end up being trapped in a ramshackle house,
away from main roads, with a cantankerous but badly injured old man inside, and two vicious dogs outside?!?

But in the good old days the programme was MORE true to life......

You have to go back a long way to think that's true. Since I've been watching Casualty since the late-90s, early-00s (when Max was Clinical Lead), the programme has been over-the-top with constant character deaths.

Behind the scenes look at the blowing up of the Bristol Casualty Set:



Saturday at 9pm on BBC One.

The fire does look impressive, but if the next episode is less than a month away, I am not sure if they can just open with the Emergency Dept fully up and running and rebuilt?