Keep Casualty in Bristol

Casualty

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As the BBC locate more production outside of the M25, creating regional "super-hubs", Rob Champion is campaigning to keep BBC drama Casualty based in Bristol and brands the regional map "an utter nonsense for the drama genre".

This time last year the outgoing and much-loved senior associate producer of Casualty started to mention that we "should learn Welsh" as the programme was going to be relocated by BBC Strategy to a new site at Cardiff Bay, along with a new BBC Wales HQ. The existing Broadcasting House at Llandaff coming to the end of its useful life.
 
The timescale was unknown but may be in the region of two to three years, as there was not one sod turned in any plot which could conceivably be the proposed site.

There are many members of the Casualty crew, particularly in the design/props department who have been with the programme since it started as a Bristol-serviced London production under the legendary Geraint Morris. In recent years everything but casting has moved to the Casualty 'Warehouse', which creaks at the seams.

Long before that there had been rumours of it being moved to Elstree and in any case the channel only ever commits to one series at a time, so nobody has ever felt absolutely certain of their working future.

However, the Strategy department's rumoured diktat of a move to Cardiff at an unspecified time led to an overall feeling of gloom. No-one seemed prepared to raise their head over the parapet so yours truly wrote a four-page document anonymously in January as a basis for discussion and campaign.

Written as though to the BBC's director general, it is a personal delight that our BECTU organiser's suggestion that the union promote it on our behalf has led to such a high profile campaign - Keep Casualty In Bristol. 
 
What I find insulting is that Strategy wonks in their ivory tower seem to be playing monopoly with the TV map of Britain and shuffling around programmes and now - it would seem - genres, without any feel for the organic nature of this creative industry let alone for the workforce.

Of course natural history programme-makers cluster around a centre of excellence. Bristol also produces daytime factual entertainment spun off from the expertise of Antiques Roadshow: another cluster. Animation is of course the region's other forte, thanks to what started with a little lump of plasticene called Morph.
 
Insofar as Keep Casualty in Bristol is concerned, the civic leaders and MPs feel that without the critical mass of Casualty being produced 48 weeks per year, the attraction of the city for other drama productions with its native skill base may be diminished. The city's film office would also be in danger of being wound down in such a vicious circle (it is in my experience one of the country's best).

The regional map is an utter nonsense for the drama genre, when writers and producers should feel completely free to set their work wherever they please: eg Mistresses, Being Human, Bonekickers, Skins being set in Bristol/Bath whilst Waterloo Road, Shameless are set in Manchester.

Where else could Clocking Off and Queer As Folk have been set? Clearly all future dramas are not going to be set in Wales, so what is the point in trying to make it a drama production centre? Casting and artiste's agents aren't going to up sticks from the West End or Covent Garden that's for sure.
 
To give you another dimension of how clueless are the so-called strategy wonks, consider the following: Casualty is based close to the city centre and locations are sought within a maximum drive of 30min, preferably less. This gives a 360 degree scouting potential with a radius of up to 25 miles, providing city, suburbs, docks, canal, coast, cliffs, quarries, farms, forests, rivers etc, etc.

To relocate to Cardiff Bay halves the scouting potential: 180 degree of land, 180 degree of open sea! That's not what I call 'strategy'. I therefore mistrust any other scheme they might devise to justify their bloated salaries, as it sure ain't been devised by anyone who makes programmes or gives any sign of ever having done so.
 
Unlike Ford, who can decide to make Transits in Southampton and Mondeos in Cologne (or wherever) this industry isn't quite like that.

Rob Champion is location manager for the BBC's Doctors and Casualty