Outside the Blue Box: Casualty: Results by Ben Aaronovitch

To understand where Casualty was in 1990, we must first go back in time one year earlier, to 1989. The fourth season of the hit BBC medical drama, which had begun life three years earlier in 1986, saw the show undergo some changes. The original producer, Geraint Morris, had left the show at the end of series three to oversee The Bill, Thames TV’s popular police drama, as it transitioned from an hour long show to a twice weekly continuing drama series. The BBC’s then Head of Drama Series and Serials Jonathan Powell (a man who, along with Michael Grade, had attempted to cancel Doctor Who back in 1985 and whom so despised the show and its producer John Nathan-Turner that, as he subsequently told JNT’s biographer Richard Marson that he wanted him “to fuck off and solve it – or die, really”) gave a young Dubliner Peter Norris the opportunity to step into Morris’ shoes in what was to be his first break at producing a series himself. Changes also appeared on screen too; with several original cast members having departed either during the third season or in the break between it and the new series commencing. One further change was to be found in the schedules. Since its inception, Casualty had been broadcast on primetime Saturday evenings. Now, Powell wanted to experiment. Season Four aired on Friday evenings in the post-watershed slot of 9:30pm, a slot the show would hold for a further two series.

Given Powell’s attitudes towards Doctor Who, it’s arguably a mark of how untarnished Andrew Cartmel was by his involvement with the show that his services as a script editor were not only retained, they were put to use in the fifth series of Casualty in 1990. As Cartmel said to me in his recent interview for this series of articles, which you can read HERE, he made a conscious effort to draw from the pool of talent he had discovered on Who when looking for new writers for this flagship BBC drama series. As a result, it’s perhaps only fitting that Ben Aaronovitch – the man who penned Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield and whom Cartmel claims is “the finest screenwriter in Britain” – was to be the first of the former Who writers to pen an episode of Casualty. His story, entitled Results, went out as episode two in the fifth season, broadcast on Friday, 14th September, 1990. Of further interest to Whovians is the fact that this proved to be something of a reunion, as the director of Aaronovitch’s episode was Andrew Morgan, who had directed Remembrance of the Daleks back in 1988. Morgan had directed a couple of episodes of Casualty in the previous year, and would go on to direct several more in this season too. For Aaronovitch however, the script for Results was to be his one and only credit for the show.

In an interview he gave to Marcus Hearn just three years after the experience (Doctor Who Magazine Issue 201, 7th July 1993), Aaronovitch spoke philosophically on his time writing for the successful medical drama;

“I spent some time in a casualty unit and did the same thing I did in Doctor Who – I watched the previous episodes. I began to develop this critique of what happened in Casualty, and it wasn’t happening on purpose but it developed from centering drama around accidents. The accidents began to look like the consequences of people’s moral decisions. People were dying because other people needed to come to their senses. However, when I went to a casualty unit it didn’t look like that. People just die. I wanted to do a story about people who don’t die for a reason and how other people cope with it. That’s probably why I only did one!”

Watching Results and knowing this intention, I’d say Aaronovitch pulls it off rather successfully. By this point, Aaronovitch is correct in saying that Casualty had developed a winning formula; a mix of the game audiences loved to play that could best be described as “spot the victim” or “guess the accident”, and issue-led drama. As Peter Norris said in Hilary Kingsley’s 1993 book Casualty: The Inside Story, the early years of the show had focused specifically on the political situation of an under-funded public health service;

“I cut back on that so that I’d have the chance to go in harder on individual social issues, terrorism, football hooliganism, charity fund-raising, racial violence, the lack of understanding for the mentally ill, and child prostitution and female circumcision, which happens here, though few people know it”

The fact that the show had been moved into the post-watershed timeslot definitely allowed for some of these strong issues to be covered effectively but, as Aaronovitch, points out, several of them inevitably led characters to the A&E department because of people’s moral decisions and an inability to behave reasonably and rationally. Football hooliganism, for example, formed the premise of Penalty, the season five opener and the episode that precedes Aaronovitch’s. Written by one of the series regular writers, Ginnie Hole, it tells the story of a riot that erupts at a match when an away supporter loses his ticket and is forced to watch from the home stand. Tribal loyalties spill over into violence, creating a major incident with several casualties. Topics such terrorism (handled in the series two episode Seeking Heat and the series four finale Hanging On) are explored as political convictions causing untold damage, whilst racial violence, which featured countless times, is dramatised by the show as an irrational prejudice that can lead to devastating consequences.

Results sees Aaronovitch attempt to break away from what Cartmel called the show’s “rigid, cliched format” by exploring themes of chance and randomness, as opposed to any grand design or obvious blame. In that regard, the title is rather ironic; it’s as if Aaronovitch is asking the viewers to consider whether the tragedies he relates are the results of anyone’s actions. Though the title does have a more obvious relation to the drama, as the episode depicts one character receiving his university results. However, despite Aaronovitch’s experimentation, Results still follows a rigid structure in terms of the traditional Casualty storytelling method. The guest characters are divided up into an A storyline, a B Storyline and a C storyline, with a couple of other minor stories in their orbit, whilst the regulars – in this case, Charlie (Derek Thompson), the senior nurse, his loyal lieutenant, Duffy (Cathy Shipton) and cheeky Geordie porter Jimmy (a young Robson Green) – have their own storylines in support.

The A storyline focuses on a married, professional couple, Henry and Anne Carpenter, portrayed by Geoffrey Bateman (Dymond in 1979 Tom Baker serial Nightmare of Eden) and Jenny McCracken. The pair have relocated both themselves and their estate agency business from London to Holby for a fresh start but, on their first day in the area, their dreams are cut tragically short when a lorry driver’s brakes fail and he collides with Henry, sending him through the window of his shop. This is a brilliant stunt, arranged by Gareth Milne (whose name had regularly cropped up in the Peter Davison era of Doctor Who, most notably playing the disfigured George Cranleigh in 1982’s Black Orchid) and both this setpiece and its ensuing gore (as the paramedics arrive, Henry’s neck pumps blood; the result of the lacerations from the show window) are indicative of the quality of some of the setpieces that the show prided itself on and the flair for action that director Andrew Morgan had previously shown in bringing Aaronovitch’s Remembrance of the Daleks to the screen.

It later transpires in the story that Anne is a highly-strung individual who found living in London too stressful and fast-paced. Henry agreed to relocate and was in the process of returning from the chemist with her prescription when the road traffic collision occurred. Distraught at his death, Anne briefly lashes out at nurse Megan (Brenda Fricker; this was to be her last series of Casualty, following her Oscar-winning turn in My Left Foot) when she is offered tea and sympathy, demanding to know why her husband had to die. Here, Aaronovitch could be commenting on consequence, and how the show’s audience will look for fault or attribute blame. There’s an argument that, in the show’s tradition, the character of Anne Carpenter is the reason why Henry died, because she was the reason why they were in Holby in the first place, and many audiences may be content to believe this logic, however unfair it may appear to be. However, I believe Aaronovitch’s approach to his story is far less fatalistic. Henry is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is unfortunate timing and a confluence of circumstances that ultimately lead to his demise. For example, if there was a queue at the chemists, he’d likely have returned to the shop moments after the lorry’s brakes had failed and, if she happened to be standing by the window in this scenario, waiting for her husband’s delayed return, the vehicle would have careered into the shop potentially killing or injuring Anne instead. Equally, it is sheer bad luck or coincidence that the driver’s brakes failed at this point in time, on that road, rather than on any other road. Though the episode concludes with Anne being referred to this season’s semi-regular social worker character Tony Walker (Eamon Boland), the search for a reason for her husband’s death is clearly a fruitless one, the only answer being Aaronovitch’s “people just die”.

The B storyline is similarly tragic and illogical. It’s university results day, and a student, Alex (Ben Porter, a regular voice actor with Big Finish), wakes up as his fiancée Denise (a young Shirley Henderson, later to guest star in the infamous 2006 Doctor Who episode Love & Monsters) is leaving for her shift at “The Spicy Chicken” (there’s some confusion here, as Aaronovitch has given a fictitious name to the takeaway, one that is routinely used in dialogue throughout, yet later we see Denise at work, wearing a uniform that bears the legend Country Fried Chicken, a real chain. Was this a case of a writer not wanting to advertise, only for the BBC to go ahead and shoot in a real location anyway?). Before she leaves, she reminds him that today is the day he’ll learn whether he’s passed, but Alex goes on to spend the morning in bed. Later, Alex is awakened once more by a pair of student friends, Luke (Jamie Glover, who went on to play William Russell in An Adventure in Space and Time, as well as Ian Chesterton for Big Finish). The pair are rowdy, each celebrating their 2:1’s, and bring with them Alex’s results. He’s achieved a First. Alex’s initial reaction is to go back to bed, but the duo are insistent that he comes out and celebrates.

Throughout the boozing that follows, it becomes clear that Alex is not like most sudents. He’s a rather meek and earnest individual, whose only ambition is to marry Denise, the love of his life and the only girlfriend he has ever had, and make a good and happy life together. Alcohol is not something that Alex seems to be in the habit of partaking in or tolerating, and it isn’t long before he passes out in the bar. His two boisterous and inebriated friends transport him via a wheelbarrow to A&E where, near-comatose, he proceeds to vomit and soil himself. Alcohol poisoning is diagnosed and, during the medics attempts at cleaning him up, Alex stops breathing. Denise is alerted to her fiance’s predicament and leaves work to be at the hospital. As the team battle to save Alex in Resus, the unusually calm Denise explains to Charlie her faith that her fiance will be well, remarking that “Nobody dies without a reason, not really. You should know that” In this moment, it’s as if, on a metatextual level, Aaronovitch is using the character to comment on the very formula he’s kicking against, and challenging everything the series stalwart Charlie has witnessed thus far. Of course, what makes this moment really special, in terms of what Aaronovitch is doing overall in this episode, is that her belief is proven to be utterly false. Alex dies moments later. Again, by the show’s conventions you could argue that Luke and Joshua were to blame, dragging Alex out and getting him so intoxicated, but they weren’t to know the consequences. No one was. Again, people just die.

The C storyline is actually the first story we witness unfolding in the episode. When paramedics Keith (Geoffrey Leesley) and Jane (Caroline Webster) arrive at a shout in some isolated ruins they are jumped for their medical supplies by Mike (Jay Simpson) and Melissa (Linda Davidson, best known for playing Mary the punk in EastEnders) a pair of drug addicts looking to score. Having done the deed, the couple head down to the harbourside to go over their haul. Though they find it mostly disappointing, Mike manages to inject himself with atropine – a tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic medication that has a variety of uses including treatment for slow heart rate and against pesticide, or even nerve agent, poisoning – and is left feeling so unwell that Melissa has no option but to take him to Holby A&E, where they are eventually spotted by Keith and Jane. The fact that the stolen atropine lands Mike in hospital (and eventual custody presumably) is, as Charlie says, “poetic justice”, and arguably the only clear-cut example of a consequence of someone’s moral decisions, as Aaronovitch would later put it in DWM.

Elsewhere, Aaronovitch plants seeds of storylines for the regulars that will later play out in the series or continues to explore those already established. For example, we see Duffy’s life as a single parent, taking her baby boy to a childminder before she starts her shift. In a nice touch, Duffy arrives at the house to be greeted by a woman, who the audience will naturally presume to be the childminder. This presumption is subverted however when she is shown to be another mother dropping of her child and Barry (Ken Sharrock appears behind her with a baby clutched to his chest). This burly scouse man is the childminder, though we learn through a conversation with Duffy that he used to be a spot welder; presumably the decline of industry under Thatcher has led to his change in career. Another regular storyline involves Jimmy’s eye for the ladies, which will ultimately lead to him making a play for Jane, and she agrees to go on a date with him after their shift ends.

The biggest storyline for a regular character in this episode however falls to Charlie, and it again plays into Aaronovitch’s distinctive approach to the drama of Casualty. When we meet Charlie in this episode, he is making a brief stop-off en route to his shift to visit Robert (George Costigan, star of Rita, Sue and Bob Too and later to play Max Capricorn in Doctor Who‘s 2007 Christmas special Voyage of the Damned), a close friend who has been laid up for some time with a broken leg on the orthopaedic ward and is due to be discharged at the end of the day. The relationship between Charlie and Robert is well drawn by Aaronovitch, colouring their exchanges with glib remarks, humorous impersonations and silly voices; a kind of shorthand that implies a lifetime of friendship and private jokes has been shared between the pair. This light-heartedness and geniality also serves another purpose for the drama, and that is to lull the audience into a false sense of security. When Charlie concludes his shift and heads over to the ward to collect his friend and take him out for a pint, he is informed that the previously fit and healthy Robert had suddenly collapsed and died of a fatty embolism just moments earlier. Results concludes with Charlie looking understandably stunned at the news. It’s possible too that, like Denise and Anna, he is left trying to understand why his friend had to die; a line of thinking that, as Aaronovitch has just outlined, is a deeply unhelpful one. Though Aaronovitch never wrote for Casualty again, this moment that he delivered for the episode would go on create ripples throughout the rest of the season, as the usually solid Charlie sinks into a depression, begins to feel increasingly lonely, and ultimately seeks solace in the bottle.

The mark of a good writer in serial drama can be found in the little touches and individuality they bring to their episode, something that marks it out as uniquely theirs. Aaronovitch definitely achieves this with Results, not just in an overall philosophy that stands apart from the show’s formula, but also in some lovely bits of characterisation and well structured moments. There’s a recurring sense of life not being pre-determined and pathways not ultimately leading to an expected goal or end point. This is most obviously found in the tragic fates of the A and B storylines – the intended futures of both the Carpenters and Alex and Denise dashed in one cruel stroke – but it can also be glimpsed elsewhere in the episode. It’s there in the different path that Barry the childminder’s life has taken, and this is also echoed in a minor patient storyline involving a female carpenter who has injured her hand at work. When Megan enquires how long she has been a chippy, the woman reveals that she took up the trade after completing a philosophy degree at university. This idea that higher education doesn’t necessarily mean a concrete future is arguably reflected in the Alex story too as, despite getting a first class degree, his life is cut short.

The confluence of circumstances, the notion of being in a certain place at a certain time, was explored for tragic effect in the Carpenters storyline, but it is also further explored, to amusing effect this time, in Jimmy’s quest to get a carton of milk for the A&E staffroom. Having pinched one from the on-call room of the sleeping medical registrar Dr Funmi Akinuli (Valerie Buchanan), he is in the process of handing the carton over to Charlie when that self same registrar comes racing across the floor to attend to the crash call that went out for the critical Henry Carpenter in Resus, knocking it out of Jimmy’s hand.

Aaronovitch’s personal traits as a writer can also be seen in this episode. Married to an African lady and long considered something an Afrophile, Aaronovitch’s work in both televised Doctor Who, specifically Battlefield with the introduction of Brig. Winifred Bambera, and his later New Adventures novels in the 1990s, did much to incorporate African culture into the tapestry of an otherwise very white, western show. Aaronovitch brings similar diversity into this episode of Casualty by making not only his registrar character African, but also one of his patient characters too. Mrs M’Bete (Isabelle Lucas) is in the A&E having great difficulty in sitting down due to an abcess on her posterior. An X-ray subsequently reveals that there are some long embedded shotgun shells – a relic of her life in apartheid-devastated Sophiatown in the 1970s – that have now risen to the surface of her bottom to become acutely painful. Pleasingly, this character allows us to see a different side to the department’s newly arrived uppercrust and aloof surgical consultant, Julian Chapman (Nigel Le Vaillant), when he shows not only a warm bedside manner to the patient, but also corrects his Houseman Dr Beth Ramanee (Mamta Kaash) over the pronounciation of her surname – a familiarity that surprises her, but also suggests a colonial upbringing. Again, there’s a sense of life not playing out as it ought to have been, as Mrs M’Bete has found herself an exile “a cold country” like the UK, rather than remain in the home nation she hopes she will one day return to.

In conclusion, Aaronovitch may try to do something atypical with Results, but he nonetheless delivers a solid and satisfying episode of Casualty that stands easily in comparison to the rest of the episodes in what was a quality season. It’s a shame that, not only did it remain his only contribution to the show, it remains just one of a handful of TV programmes he has contributed to as a writer, having carved out a successful career as a novelist instead, most notably with the Rivers of London series of books.

Mark’s Archive – Outside the Blue Box – Casualty: Results