[RhysJR]

Can’t check on this right now, but I think Thompson has appeared fairly high on the ‘BBC rich list’ of salaries in recent years. Can’t be the nicest place to be for someone not as high profile as Norton of Lineker or someone.

He did appear in the first version of the list in 2017 and was the highest paid actor on the list (on £350 000 - £400 000), but afterwards Casulaty, along with other BBC dramas and more, were moved off the list as part of BBC Studios becoming a sepearte commercial entity.

www.independent.co.uk 

BBC earnings: The highest paid actors from Casualty's Derek Thompson to Eas…
Figures from the corporation's annual report reveal Thompson earns between …
  Source: www.independent.co.uk

www.theguardian.com .

BBC pay list to shrink next year as earnings from BBC Studios is discounted | BB…
Decision to move programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing and EastEnders to new …
  Source: www.theguardian.com

[Brekkie]

Was referenced last night by the CA (into Pointless) he was leaving, which on air kind of felt like a spoiler - though no doubt his exit will be promoted at the time.

[James2001]

Sort of related, but I looked at the first episode on UKTV Play, and it began with a caption that said "Casualty 250: The First Episode" and had sped up end credits, so for some reason they must have plucked out a version that was repeated ien 1999.

Really don't think I can keep up with this repeat run though, even though I've been wanting to see the show from the start and through the 90s and early 00s at least for a long time. I watched when UK Gold started from the beginning a couple of times in the early 00s, but they only ever showed the first 6 series, and Drama have until now only ever started from series 10 so I've never seen any of those early-mid 90s episodes, at least since these were originally shown (I distinctly remember the series 9 finale with a suicide bomber, I think that one got repeated a couple of times on BBC1 during the 90s too). But I'm watching far too much right now to be able to easily fit is in on top, and it will be years until they catch up and potentially go back to the start again and I'll have another chance, if they even do.

Just like the early episodes of The Bill though, it all feels very dated and basic (in terms of the hospital equipment, uniforms, techniques as well as the production itself)- they felt that way even when I first saw them 20+ years ago, whereas the mid-90s episodes of both shows don't really feel to have aged much at all, even though they're twice as old now as the mid-late 80s episodes would have been when I first saw them.

[Alf Stewart]

It's annoying that this fresh run from the beginning has episodes being skipped too. I can understand to an extent them not being repeated on The Drama Channel but there's no reason they can't be added to UKTV Play with a warning about language/themes etc.

No-one's kicked up a fuss about the language and themes used in Brookside on STV Player and that's going great guns.

[James2001]

Or just put on late at night, like they've done with episodes of The Bill they considered unsuitable for daytime.

Though in one case it's down to rights issues with a character dressed as Spiderman, and that one was edited when the first series came out on DVD.

[James2001]

I seem to remember reading the first series was shot at TV Centre, only moving to Bristol itself in series 2. Certainly these early episodes look studio bound and multi camera compared to how it looked with presumably more permanent sets and single camera shooting we get into the 90s.

[James2001]

It's a bit like early EastEnders in how everything looks quite run down, which was really the point of both shows, how some places were being neglected, ignored and left behind- which feels as relevant again in the 2020s as it did in the 80s. By the time we get to the mid-90s, both shows were far too clean and polished, and it's only got worse since. It wasn't meant to be shiny sets with Hollywood-esque production values, imperfection and videotape is how it should be. Bringing back some of that 1980s aesthetic probably would better represent the state of the NHS in the 2020s.

[London Lite]

I really hope the final story for Charlie involves the same issues he dealt with in 1986 on the show regarding NHS underfunding.

[James2001]

Impossible to see these episodes without thinking of Meghan in Central Park covered in pigeon s**t....

[James2001]

Did a bit of reading that supposedly in the early 90s, the BBC were looking at turning Casualty into a year round, twice weekly half hour serial like ITV had done with The Bill, but in the end they commissioned Eldorado instead (and we all know how well that went). They did double the number of episodes in each series at that time though.