[Brekkie]

Not really - it's already happened with it off air most of last autumn and the same again this year. If anything it's just a rolling back to where it was - it only used to be on air from September to May anyway and it's only in more recent years it's been year round.

They have still aired double episodes a number of weeks (including twice in the last month) so they could reduce the count further by axing those (and not commissioning episodes for nights they know it won't air). In addition the BBC have been putting a bit more drama out in the 9.15pm slot so creatively at least losing 6-8 episodes a year to reallocate funds to something new is not a bad thing.

[James2001]

I don't think it's ever been entirely year round anyway, it's always taken a break over the summer at least, even if that break got reduced to only 3 or 4 weeks, and in more recent years it's quite frequently taking weeks off.

And of course when it began, it wasn't on for that much of the year, the first 6 series were between 10 and 15 episodes, went up to 24 in series 7 and slowly grew until it peaked at 48 in the 00s.

[London Lite]

It used to be commissioned for 48 episodes before the pandemic.

In any case, I like the fact Casualty is preferring to go for quality over quantity, episodes were much better when it had a 13 episode run in the winter (and I think another of the same in the Spring) rather than padding it out for most of the year with soapy plots.

[Brekkie]

I was quite surprised they went back to 50 minute episodes really - the 40 minute episodes actually seemed to work well for them with the tighter time frame and also made it slightly easier to accomodate in the Saturday schedules too.

[RhysJR]

A few weeks ago it was confirmed that Sunetra Sarker will return for the last few episodes of Charlie Fairhead

www.instagram.com 

BBC Casualty on Instagram: "The secret is out! Dr Zoe Hanna returns to the …
13K likes, 722 comments - bbccasualtyofficial on September 8, 2023: "The se…
  Source: www.instagram.com

[RhysJR]

Charlie's departure begins this week and climaxes on March 16th.

twitter.com 

www.digitalspy.com 

Casualty – Charlie's final episode date confirmed
Casualty spoilers - Charlie Fairhead's final scenes will air on Saturday, March…
  Source: www.digitalspy.com

As I noted over on the iPlayer thread at the time, since the start of the year, episodes are now released on iPlayer at 6am each Saturday. An on iPlayer, the episodes are now grouped in 'chapters' of ten or so episodes, rather than series of 40 or so episodes as it used to be.

[RhysJR]

The BBC have denied reports in The Sun that the show will end in two years time.

www.tvzoneuk.com 

'CASUALTY ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE': BBC RESPONDS TO AXE CLAIMS
The BBC have responded to reports from The Sun newspaper that long running medic…
  Source: www.tvzoneuk.com

[Flux]

The BBC have denied reports in The Sun that the show will end in two years time.

www.tvzoneuk.com 

I think the S*n (and their "source") might be reading between the lines and assuming just because Casualty's current rolling contract might not extend beyond the 40th series that means the end of the show. I can totally see a future contract renegotiation bringing down the number of episodes (not a bad thing IMO) or cutting the budget, but totally axing Casualty would be foolish. Since Doctor Who was taken in by Bad Wolf, Casualty and Pobol y Cwm are the only two regular dramas made at the BBC's Roath Lock studios. The studios were a huge investment, employ and develop hundreds of local talent and do a great deal for the BBC's regional quota in Wales (as well as their required programming for S4C). It's also still rating around the 3 million mark weekly, which is not a number to be scoffed at in the current broadcast landscape.

[RhysJR]

Certainly using a large chunk of the annual budget this week

[James2001]

Was suprised to hear Another Rock And Roll Christmas left in today's Drama episode of Casualty from Christmas 1997. In fact considering the episode would have gone out not long after Glitter's original arrest (though likely filmed shortly before), suprised it wasn't edited out of the episode back in 1997, he was cut out of Spiceworld at the same time.