For the uninitiated, both shows are set in the same hospital – Holby General – but filmed in different locations.
Holby City is filmed at Elstree while Casualty recently moved from Bristol to Cardiff.
The plot conceit that allowed the move to take place was a fire that destroyed Casualty’s Emergency Department, requiring its total rebuilding.
But some duff scripting and apparent lack of liaison between the two production teams meant the apparently closed ED was still sending patients up to the wards in Holby.
And the new Casualty exteriors don’t really match the look the glimpses we see of the hospital’s surroundings when ever the Holby team find time to stare meaningfully from the roof. Something they seem to spend a lot of time doing.
The divergence between the two shows seems to be getting worse.
Over the years we’ve repeatedly been told that members of the two staffs are the very best of friends, yet when it comes to after hours socialising they’re never seen together.
And that’s not just down to differences in shifts – both teams seem to frequent completely different pubs and bars.
(Given the endless internal politics, the bolshie patients and ever-present threats of law suits for medical negligence, it’s not surprising that most shirts seem to end with a drink!).
What happened, did Ric fail to pay the bill one night? Are the Casualty team still sulking that their ward colleagues didn’t notice they’d been blown up for more than two weeks?
Given both shows use sets rather than location filming, surely the two production teams could have liaised and knocked up two instances of the same set in an effort to tie the shows together?
Otherwise why bother having the shows take place in the same hospital and city?