In celebration of its 35th year on air, the team have planned a competition to find a new writer with first hand medical experience.
Applicants will be tasked with writing part of a Casualty episode based on a brief about clinical Lead Dylan Keogh having a hellish day in the emergency department.
On a mild autumnal Saturday on 6 September 1986, the first week after the summer holidays, the nation collectively sat down in front of the telly. Viewers may have flicked between the four channels available, but most were curious about BBC One’s big new drama, Casualty.
Since the familiar, high-intensity theme tune played out that evening, those 1980s-tastic opening credits may have evolved into something more contemporary but, at its core, Casualty remains the same.
The Casualty spin-off medical drama has aired weekly since 1999, following the lives of the fictional Holby City Hospital staff.
"We sometimes have to make difficult decisions to make room for new opportunities,” said the BBC in a statement, “and as part of the BBC's commitment to make more programmes across the UK, we have taken the difficult decision to bring the show to a close in order to reshape the BBC's drama slate to better reflect, represent and serve all parts of the country.”
More than 40 broadcasters, production companies and industry bodies set up home for the day in the Business Design Centre, London, to dispense advice to 1,300 young people hoping to break into TV. A series of sessions – featuring expert panels from across the industry – cast light on television genres, skills and opportunities.
BBC continuing drama head of production Nikki Saunders revealed there was a huge number of entry-level jobs across her department, including runners, camera assistants and make-up artists.
The two showrunners talked about their work, from writing episodes of UK soap staples EastEnders and Casualty to the development of hit dramas This Life and Life on Mars, to their contribution to established shows Doctor Who and Shameless.
They described television as being a writer’s medium and how their writing credits for US multinationals opened the door to their current roles as producers.
Based on a first-hand account of the Windrush scandal in 2016, the drama follows Anthony Bryan (Robinson) who is classed as an illegal immigrant despite living in the UK for over 50 years.
After deciding to visit his mother in Jamaica, Bryan is shocked to discover that there are no records of him at the Passport Office, requiring him to prove his citizenship to the Immigration Office.
Bryan is later forced to leave his job without the ability to claim benefits and is forcibly removed from his home when he is detained as an illegal immigrant.
In March 2018, CBeebies pulled off a spectacular staging of The Tempest, a pacy version that preserved all the best “O brave new world” lines, while gripping its audience of under-sevens.
The hour-long episode will be filmed using a single camera all in one take to mark the special occasion.
To create this, the mobile camera covering A&E will be required to be cable free and will also have to cover action from inside a moving ambulance. The sound will be achieved with 40 hidden radio microphones and five boom operators, disguised as part of the set.
The episode will mostly focus on Duffy mentoring two teenage girls, Chloe and Diamond, who are being shown around the department for work experience, but will also include the series' regulars.
Rob Gittins has written for TV and radio for 30 years, and is currently the longest serving writer for hit BBC soap EastEnders.
He has also written a number of novels, as well as contributing scripts to numerous other TV and radio shows.
It is the question that British writers and commissioners perennially ask: which system works best – the UK’s single voice or the US’s showrunner model?
Former head of BBC Worldwide Productions turned independent producer Jane Tranter tried to answer this key question with a panel of writers, who outlined their experiences to see how they compared.
She pointed out that, during her seven years in the US, it was not a subject the industry there generally debated openly.
