Behind The Scenes
Background
Life outside in dangerous Whitechapel tumbles through the doors in the victims of violence, suicide, drink, drugs and tragedy. A modern observational style captures a world in which life expectancy is just 45 and 1 in 7 children die by age 5. 40 years before the NHS funding and basic medicines like antibiotics, infection is the great unstoppable killer. TB, pneumonia, measles, syphilis, diphtheria are rife. Many of the diseases are half-forgotten now and the treatments fascinatingly remote. The hardships are extreme – but people’s forbearance also seems remarkable today.
The London was one of the most advanced hospitals in the world. CASUALTY 1906 reveals the passionate drive to improve treatments by the staff and the terrible price they sometimes paid in radiation poisoning or deadly illness. It shows a spirit for pioneering and self-sacrifice that are all too rare nowadays.
Cast and Characters
The drama centres on characters who reflect the social and medical cross-roads of this time. Emergency room Nurse Ada Russel (SARAH SMART) faces a tough dilemma of whether or not to marry Dr James Walton (TOM RILEY). Nursing was regarded as a sacred profession and relationships were not permitted between staff in the hospital. If discovered, one partner had to leave within a week.
Matron Eva Luckes (CHERIE LUNGHI), close friend of Florence Nightingale, has sacrificed her private life in a ‘marriage’ to the hospital. She faces a series of crises – a nurse dies from illness caught on the wards, a Sister has a nervous breakdown, the hospital is hit with a deadly outbreak of cross-infection....
Cast and Characters
Ernest Wilson (JASON WATKINS), a radiographer in the pioneering X-ray department, is a genuinely remarkable tragic hero who richly deserves to be publicised. Wilson makes the ultimate sacrifice: he will lose his hands, then his life, to the radiation damage caused by placing his hands under the machine to test it each time it’s used. A plaque to the “X-Ray Martyrs” stands in the hospital today.
Sydney Holland (NICHOLAS FARRELL), the hospital chairman, must deal with a constant struggle to raise funds for the largest emergency hospital in Britain.
From striking Jewish workers beaten up the police to the emergency operations carried out on children asphyxiating with diphtheria to an incredible piece of open-heart surgery by the flamboyant Mr Hurry Fenwick (DAVID TROUGHTON) we see a range of illnesses that reflect the hardships of the East End or come in through the docks from the Colonies and foreign lands.
Set in the days leading up to Christmas, CASUALTY 1906 is a highly atmospheric, moving and informative new drama.
The Making of Casualty 1906
Producer/Director, Bryn Higgins found some diaries from his grandfather, a surgeon, Thomas Twistington Higgins. The diaries were mostly about his time as a war surgeon in the Somme. He was a very young doctor, sent to the Front to set up an underground operating theatre where the most gruesome and tragic events took place. It turned out that he had trained at the London Hospital in Whitechapel.
Situated in the heart of the East End amid horrific poverty, the London was also the home of some of the most eminent doctors in Europe. It pioneered X Rays bacteriology and heart surgery. The matron, Eva Luckes, a friend of Florence Nightingale, hit new heights with her insistence on cleanliness.
Higgins adds “The drama tackles issues that still affect viewers today, at the time everyone was gripped by an infection in the hospital. Then it was erysipelas but it is the equivalent of MRSA or Clostridium Difficile today. Now we battle these things with antibiotics, but back then they employed an army of cleaners. Tuberculosis was prevalent then and we are experiencing a resurgence in poor areas now.”
The Making of Casualty 1906
At the turn of the century there was a lot of public fear and prejudice at the huge influx Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe into the East End, which echoes what is happening with Muslims today.
The hospital’s patron was Queen Alexandra, the Princess Diana of her Day. When she came to visit, security was increased to avoid the terrorist threat on the doorstep - in those days, Russian anarchists.
When the King went shooting, a brace of pheasants would be sent to the staff.
Of course the biggest difference between 100 years ago and today’s health service was that there was no NHS. All the funds had to be raised by the chairman of the hospital Viscount Knutsford, aka Sidney Holland (played by Nicholas Farrell). In 1906 he had a novel idea: to appeal to the readers of the Daily Mail for funding for baby bundles for “Whitechapel’s shivering infants.”
The Making of Casualty 1906
Higgins adds “The main difference between Casualty 1906 and any modern hospital drama is that the staff never shouted or ran about. This would have been completely frowned upon. The cases are just as horrific as today and just as numerous but the feel of the casualty department, known as the Receiving Room, was very different. The actors were given voice coaching, again Edwardian restraint was the order of the day.”
“The Royal London has probably got the biggest archives in the world and 100 years ago is a very interesting time. Everyone was gripped by an infection in the hospital. Then it was Erysipelas but it is the equivalent of MRSA today. Now we battle these things with antibiotics but back then they employed an army of cleaners.”
“It’s only your grandparents’ generation yet can be a shocking, foreign world. Setting the film at Christmas, however, gives it a touch of warmth and nostalgia.”
“One of the greatest challenges was narrowing down the huge numbers of possible stories. We tried to pick stories that either resonated with today – like crises in funding and untreatable infections – or that showed some of the great differences, like the sacrifices made by the staff doing work that they knew was killing them. It reminds you of how lucky we are today.”