The thirty-fifth series of the British medical drama television series Casualty commenced airing in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 2 January 2021 and finished on 7 August 2021. The series consists of 30 episodes, which focus on the professional and personal lives of medical and ancillary staff at the emergency department (ED) of the fictional Holby City Hospital. Loretta Preece continues her role as series producer. Sixteen regular cast members reprised their roles from the previous series and actor Michael Stevenson returned to the serial in episode fourteen as Iain Dean, a paramedic.
Production for the series began in September 2020 following a six-month hiatus in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To protect cast and crew in the pandemic, new production protocols were implemented, including two-metre distancing at all times. This meant new filming techniques were used, including the use of plate shots and green screens. Costume and makeup also presented a challenge; personal protective equipment (PPE) became part of the costume, but face coverings did not as producers believed they limited emotion. Cast had to apply their own makeup and makeup-created injuries were stopped. Despite the reduction in other areas of production, stunts continued to be arranged as they were deemed integral to the format of the show and were often easier to arrange than swapping props.
The series explores the impact of the pandemic on ED staff and to truthfully portray the topic, discussions about how political Casualty could become occurred with Tim Davie, the Director-General of the BBC. Producers wanted the series to reflect the new landscape of the National Health Service (NHS). A special episode examining the pandemic in detail was commissioned as the series opener. Preece wanted the episode to do those closely impacted by the pandemic justice. The early series continues to explore the pandemic with a regular character dying from the virus and also progresses stories from the previous series.
Production The series commences in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2021 on BBC One and airs on Saturday nights. It was produced by BBC Studios. Loretta Preece continues her role as series producer. The series consists of 30 episodes. Production for series 35 commenced in September 2020, following a six-month hiatus after production was suspended in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, the show took multiple transmission breaks during the previous series to spread episodes out across the year. Kate Oates, the head of continuing drama at BBC Studios, expressed her delight at resuming filming and to returning to transmission. Due to new techniques implemented in production, episode runtimes for the series were shortened from the usual 50 minutes to 40 minutes. Despite this, the opening episode airs for 54 minutes. Following new nationwide restrictions in November 2020, it was confirmed that Casualty would continue filming and would not pause production again.
Promotion The series was promoted through multiple trailers and each episode received a preview clip before broadcast. A promotional trailer for the series was released on 16 December 2020 and features segments from the early episodes of the series. As well as previewing new and continuing stories, the trailer revealed stunts featured in the series, including an exploded bomb and an ambulance crashing into a river. To further promote the new series, a Christmas-themed video of the cast, led by George Rainsford, was released on 17 December 2020. A mid-series trailer was released on 12 March 2021 featuring scenes from new and continuing stories. On 9 July 2021, Casualty released a promotional trailer for the final five episodes of the series. Megan Davies from Digital Spy thought the trailer was "action-packed" in the run up to an "explosive" series finale.
Filming
Production protocols were enforced to maintain the safety of the cast and crew. Additionally, the physical distancing measures enforced by the British government were adhered to. The measures require cast and crew to maintain a two-metre distance at all times. Preece told Sophie Dainty of Digital Spy that this was challenging as the show works on "close contact medicine, stunts and emotional exchanges", which was hard to film while adhering to physical distancing measures. To maintain distancing in scenes with multiple characters, plate shots were filmed. Each shot includes different actors, stood distanced, and in post-production, the shots were edited together to make it appear like one shot. Green screens were also used to make actors appear closer together than they were allowed to be. Producer Mat McHale confirmed that the difference would not be noticeable on-screen. Preece reiterated this and promised that the show had not "comprised" on its quality as a result of changes to filming.
During production, producers faced a challenge of face masks, which are compulsory in hospitals. Preece believed that after much exploration, these masks limited the emotion of scenes, so they were not worn all the time. Since the drama is set in a hospital, characters used personal protective equipment (PPE) as part of their costume. To avoid using NHS resources, Casualty sourced their PPE from an alternative supplier and despite this, it maintains effectiveness, allowing them to occasionally breach the physical distancing measures. Due to the protocols enforced, cast were required to apply their own makeup with verbal support from the makeup artists. The show regularly uses makeup-created injuries, such as cuts and bruises, but this was stopped due to the new protection measures. Additionally, to film kissing scenes, the show hired the partners of the actors to be body doubles. Oates was keen to not stop the stunts involved in the drama as she believed they were integral to its formula. Preece revealed that much "planning and innovative thinking" had gone into the stunts, ensuring that the show's "trademark stunts" were unaltered. Oates and Preece agreed that often, stunts were easier to arrange than swapping props, due to the time and money involved in them.
Storyline development Series 35 explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on staff in emergency departments, maintaining the drama's tradition of "[reflecting] the difficult realities of the NHS". Preece felt it was hard to reflect the pandemic from a planning perspective as they could not predict the impact it had on EDs. To accommodate the new stories, all pre-existing scripts were scrapped and the pre-planned stories were rewritten. Oates explained that the decision was taken as the previous material "[would not] have felt relevant". Oates was pleased to portray stories which "reflect the extraordinary times we are living through". She entered discussions with Tim Davie, the Director-General of the BBC, about how political Casualty could be about the pandemic, as it is one of his concerns; he permitted in-character political statements. Oates was pleased with this as she did not believe the show could be "truthful" without that and also feared it could make the show "boring". She wanted the show to reflect new landscape of the NHS and hoped that it would spark new topical conversations. She commented, "Hopefully, on shows like ours, we can make those social points at the same time as our heroes are seen in their best Avengers style embracing the same kind of life-or-death situations they always have."
A special episode examining the pandemic in detail was commissioned to open the series. The episode is billed as "one of [Casualty] most powerful episodes to date" and explores clinical lead Connie Beauchamp (Amanda Mealing) managing the department with support from senior nurses Jacob Masters (Charles Venn) and Charlie Fairhead (Derek Thompson), consultant Will Noble (Jack Nolan) becoming disillusioned with the NHS, and paramedic Fenisha Khatri (Olivia D'Lima) trying to protect her unborn baby. The episode is set between March and summer 2020, across the first wave of the pandemic. The episode was announced on 7 September 2020, with further details, including a promotional image, released on 10 December 2020. The story team worked with medical advisors to accurately portray the experiences of medics and front-line workers. Venn felt it was vital to reflect the pandemic through this episode. He told Joe Anderton of Digital Spy, "It would be remiss of us not to acknowledge that. I don't want to say we are paying homage, but for everyone who has lost loved ones during this time, it was a must. It would be very strange to ignore it." He dubbed the episode "a real tearjerker and a real rollercoaster". Preece was proud of the episode and felt it was important to showcase the impact on EDs. She commented, "We knew we had to do medics, COVID victims and survivors and their relations justice and I strongly believe that we have."
Writers concluded and progressed stories from the previous series. This occurs in early episodes, which were set in summer and autumn 2020. Preece noted that this allows Casualty to continue exploring stories including Fenisha's pregnancy, a love triangle between Dylan Keogh (William Beck), Faith Cadogan (Kirsty Mitchell) and Lev Malinovsky (Uriel Emil), and Connie and Jacob's romance. She added that writers wanted to explore the complications of Fenisha's pregnancy due to the baby's father, Ethan Hardy (George Rainsford), having Huntington's disease. Other stories further explored from the previous series are Charlie's grief, following the death of his wife, and nurse Jade Lovall's (Gabriella Leon) deafness. The latter was explored in a special episode in the previous series with focus moving to the challenges of lip reading with PPE and masks in this series.
Producers made the pandemic a recurring theme throughout the rest of the series, but were keen for it to not dominate stories. On this, Preece commented that Casualty "offers the audience a slice of Saturday night escapism". Mealing added that the audience have lived through it and do not want to revisit it weekly. In the series, the health impacts of COVID-19 were explored through the characters of Jacob and Dylan, who both contract the virus. Noel Garcia (Tony Marshall), a receptionist in the ED, also contracts the virus and is killed off, making it the first episode of a soap in the United Kingdom to portray the death of a character from the virus. Preece thought that his death would be "impactful" and felt it reflected those who have died from the virus: they all "have been treasured by colleagues and [...] have families who love them". While the death of a regular character had been announced prior to transmission, Marshall's departure had been embargoed. Writers used the character's death to set up new stories. Mealing explained that her character Connie would take "personal responsibility" for the death and would struggle in the aftermath, viewing it as "her failing".