Hospital Dramas: Case Study

‘Casualty’
 Casualty
Casualty is a weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the
longest running emergency medical drama television series in the world.[1]
Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6
September 1986,[2] and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The producer
was Geraint Morris. The programme is based around the fictional Holby
City Hospital and focuses on the staff and patients of the hospital's
Accident and Emergency Department. The show has very few ties to its
sister programme Holby City which began as a spin off from Casualty in
1999 and is set in the same hospital, but upstairs. The show's plots and
characters occasionally crossover between the two programmes, but this
is rare, and each show can be followed without having to watch the other.
Casualty is shown weekly, with the exception of a break in the summer
when the series ends. This break is usually anything between 3 to 6
weeks.
 Awards
• 2007 Casualty won its first major award, the
BAFTA for the best continuing drama. Long
serving Ian Bleasdale, who played the character
Josh accepted the award at the ceremony,
which took place at the London Palladium.
• There have been over 700 episodes of Casualty
broadcast since it began in 1986, surpassing by
far other medical dramas worldwide such as
E.R., Grey’s Anatomy, House or even M*A*S*H.
Casualty is filmed 4 to 6 months in advance of broadcast. Bristol landmarks,
including the docks and the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge, are regularly
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 a small
industrial estate, not far from the interior set of the hospital.
 Check out the websites for further
information on the programme…

http://www.solarnavigator.net/films_movies_act
ors/television/casualty.htm

www.bbc.co.uk/casualty
 Viewing Figures
High viewing figures
A wedding on BBC1's medical series Holby
City had nearly 6 million viewers tuning in to
see an old flame and a set of estranged parents
threaten to derail proceedings last night,
Tuesday, 9 June.
The saga had 5.9 million viewers glued to BBC1
in the 8pm hour, a 28% share of the available
audience. According to unofficial overnights,
this was 500,000 up on last week's episode.
 Types of TV Hospital Drama
Some of the TV Hospital/Medical Dramas
Emergency - Ward 10 (1957–1967)
Police Surgeon (1960)
Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1962–1971)
Doctor in the House (1969–1970)
The Doctors (1969–1971)
General Hospital (1972–1979)
Angels (1975–1983)
The District Nurse (1984–1987)
Casualty (1986–present)
Children's Ward (1989–2000)
Medics (1990–1995)
Doctor Finlay (1993–1996)
Peak Practice (1993–2002)
Cardiac Arrest (1994–1996)
Bramwell (1995)
Holby City (1999–present)
Doctors (2000–present)
The Royal (2003–present)
Doc Martin (2004-present)
Green Wing (2004–2007)
No Angels (2004–2006)
Crash (2009-present)
 ‘No Place like Home’
• An episode from Series 25.
• We will watch 20 minutes of this.
• As you watch. Look at the key character,
settings and plots and make brief notes.
• After watching, think about whether these
notes fit in with what we have discussed
about key conventions of Hospital dramas.
 Apply a theorist!
• Propp

• Barthes

• Todorov

• Levi-Strauss
 What is Disability?
Traditionally, in many cultures around the
world, people with physical, sensory or mental
impairments were thought of as under the
spell of witchcraft, possessed by demons, or
as penitent sinners, being punished by God for
wrong-doing by themselves or their parents.
 Types of disabilities…
• Physical impairments;
• Sensory impairments (deaf people, blind people);
• Chronic illness or health issues, including HIV and AIDS;
• All degrees of learning difficulties;
• Emotional, mental health and behavioural problems.
• The definition also includes people with hidden impairments, such as:
• Epilepsy;
• Diabetes;
• Sickle cell anaemia;
• Specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia;
• Speech and language impairments;
• Children labelled as 'delicate';
• People who identify as 'disfigured';
• People of diminutive stature;
• People with mental distress.
 From the BFI website
The history of attitudes to disabled people
Moving image media continually draw on attitudes and
representations of disabled people from the past, which have
been fossilised in myths, literature, theatre, folklore, biography
and history. Having a clear understanding of where thinking
about disability has come from is important in order to see that
underlying negative attitudes and stereotypes have been
reinforced by society and religion over many centuries. Here,
you can read about some of the historical attitudes to disability
which have shaped the prevailing attitudes of Western society
today. These attitudes have been perpetuated in many cultures
around the world.
• A notion of 'normality' was invested with great pseudo-
scientific significance. It was based on assessments of
impairments from a deficit point of view against
normality: what one cannot do, instead of what one can
do. This has been called 'medical model' (or 'individual
model') thinking by the Disabled People's Movement
over the last 30 years. This is not to deny the very
necessary role of medical science in keeping many
disabled people alive, and reducing their pain and
discomfort, but it is to argue that disabled people should
not be reduced to just their impairment
 Attitudes to disabled people…
• However, negative attitudes, stereotypes and
distorted portrayals of disabled people's lives
still predominate in commercial films. The
increasing capacity of the world media system
to recycle moving image media means that,
despite worthy legislation, negative views are
continually reinforced through film
‘Casualty’ and representation of disability

Courtesy of
http://beauchampmedia.ning.com/video/casu
alty-1