Casualty surprised fans with an unusual episode to mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS.
Mixing documentary-style interviews of real-life NHS heroes alongside staged scenes of casualties with well-loved cast members, the episode showed the reality of what NHS workers deal with day in and day out.
The episode showed various stories that depict how life is made difficult for NHS workers.
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Some of the scenes included patients being abusive to staff after long A+E waiting room times, nurses juggling multiple mental and emotional tasks whilst dealing with death and stress, junior workers thrown in at the deep end, and ambulance drivers having to deal with extreme and gruesome injuries.
Much of the British population felt empathy for our frontline workers, and praised the BBC for its honest coverage.
Only five minutes in, one viewer took to Twitter to praise the programme: “Already tonight’s @BBCCasualty is standing head and shoulders above the rest of all Medical Dramas.”
(Image: BBC)
Another agreed, seeing the programme hit close to home, writing – “One thing #casualty always gets right is the waiting room harassment actually”.
More Twitter users also enjoyed the episode’s realistic style, writing, “Loving this episode already. It’s so real. Like watching Ambulance and 24hrs in A&E!”
However, not all viewers enjoyed the redesign of the episode, and missed Casualty’s usual style of naturalistic drama.
One Twitter user wrote, “This filming sucks, why do we need the camera moving all over the place”, whilst another added, “episode ruined”.
Another wrote a short thread on why they felt the documentary style inappropriate, penning, “We watch tv drama for escapism. If I wanted to watch a documentary about the NHS I’d watch one.”
The account added, “I love casualty I don’t want to turn over. I just think it’s jarring when you flip from the fiction to real life people being interviewed. I’m not attacking the NHS.”
(Image: BBC)
Another user agreed, stating, “Admirable attempt to mark the anniversary of the NHS but this technique doesn’t work as it takes you out of the drama.”
Nevertheless, the episode was flooded with overwhelming support for the NHS and emergency frontline workers.
One user summed up the BBC’s intentions, writing, “People not getting this episode of #Casualty need reminding the NHS is real, not a drama and is in real crisis.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
