Casualty (TV series)

Casualty (stylised as CASUAL+Y since 1997) is a British medical drama series broadcast on BBC One. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it first aired in the United Kingdom on 6 September 1986. The show was originally produced by Geraint Morris and has been a staple of British television ever since. Casualty is recognised as the longest-running primetime medical drama series in the world.

Initially, Casualty aired during the autumn for its first six series, before increasing to 24 episodes annually by 1992. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the episode count expanded further, and by 2004, the series was running 48 episodes a year, with breaks around Christmas and major events like sporting competitions and the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2020, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on television led to a temporary autumn break, but the series resumed its year-round schedule in the following two years. From 2023, Casualty introduced a regular autumn break due to rising production costs, settling on a schedule of 36 episodes per year.

The show is currently set in the fictional Holby City Hospital, focusing on the staff and patients in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department. It shared a close connection with its former sister programme, Holby City, a spin-off that aired from 1999 until its cancellation in 2022. HolbyBlue, a police drama set in the same universe, also spun off from Casualty and aired between 2007 and 2008.

On 20 May 2025, the BBC released a tender notice, inviting production companies to bid for the opportunity to produce the next three series of Casualty. The BBC emphasised the importance of adapting the show to reflect the Welsh NHS, necessitating a new fictional hospital setting in Wales.