BeautifulNightmare11 Even from the earliest episodes, Casualty has always had the perfect mixture of drama, humour and brilliant character story lines.Each of the characters has unique background and a personality we can all relate to, and you manage to fall in love with them all at some point. The story lines given to them are always well-handled, whether it is abortion, domestic abuse, drug use, attempted suicide or just family issues it is always handled tastefully and with respect. Since Ruth's storyline a few years ago I have been hooked and have watched every episode, and I have even been keeping an eye on the channel Watch to see old classic episodes.In my opinion, Casualty is one of the few British dramas left which has retained its old glory.

imdb-18193 This programme started as a superb mould-breaking drama. Each episode was an exciting thrill-ride. Now it is just a silly soap.What made this prog so special was precisely that it was not a soap. Each week we had a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people who found themselves in the A&E department because of the accidents or illnesses that befell them. Each episode presented a whole series of accidents - from the bizarre to the mundane. As we were introduced to the casualties, we wondered how they had come to be there and how would their lives be affected by its new turn. Would they live, die or be left crippled. Would their infidelities and indiscretions be unveiled. By the end of the episode we had a snapshot of their lives.In the late '90s Auntie Beeb threatened to turn Casualty into a twice-weekly soap. In the face of an outcry they back-peddled on this and adopted the compromise of starting a new weekday drama set in the same hospital and "Holby City" was born.Unfortunately the script-writing team seem to have missed the point of the objection: casualty is not a soap. They have turned into a soap anyway.Now the series simply has an interminable and tedious focus on the increasingly implausible private lives of the permanent staff. Each episode focuses on one character. And now we even have that stalwart of the soap genre - the token gay. Toby does not work in this guise for me! We now seem lucky if a single accident occurs in an episode. Instead it is the hapless staff of the "ED" who have the illness and injuries. It is the department team who have their indiscretions exposed.It is to be hoped that this programme will return to its roots. Otherwise it needs to be pensioned off.JDD - 14 December 2008

Daynah Hunter I have found this scary at times and happy at times.There have been sad bits and death bits and lots of other bits.I have been watching it since I was 7 and am still watching it now at 16.Iwas frightened when Tess got drugged by Sam's girlfriend, and happy when Selena survived her illness. It was funny when Will got drenched in urine and even funnier when it's been the parties and people have got drunk.(I don't think i'll mention what happened.) Harry has found love again and again, but it has never worked out since Beth,(his wife that died.)Harry still manages to cope with 6 children and Ellen has been great with babysitting them for him.I wonder who Nina will chose Sarah or Abs,(I hope it's Abs because I don't want her to be a homosexual.)

samwise-1 When this show first began I was still a schoolboy and I loved it because my dream was to be a nurse in a casualty unit. Since that time I have realised that dream, and also realised what utter tripe this show has become. True to BBC drama form these days it seems that everything must be miserable or depressing to be considered good drama. Over the years I have seen the show deteriorate into the realms of nothing more than a political hobby horse. Bearing little resemblance to reality in any way all this show does for me is ensure I turn over stat!