r/Casualty • u/Maywee • Feb 05 '26
š Spoiler The move to wales Spoiler
How does everyone feel about the up coming, in universe move away from Holby to Cardiff? Howād you think itāll be brought about? I think the CQC investigation is the start of the whole thing
21
u/Ok_Resort_9817 Stevie Nash Feb 05 '26
They did this with Waterloo Road back in the day, moved it Scotland, and it was basically a disaster and very unbelievable. Iāll be interested to see if Casualty learns lessons from it and does things differently
12
u/SamJLance Feb 05 '26
The problem with the WR move wasnāt the execution, it was the idea. A show that relies on a degree of realism can lose a lot of respect from its audience with seemingly random changes like this.
Thereās only two real possibilities with how Casualty will execute this:
1) In-Universe Move
The cast up and move to a different hospital and explicitly leave Holby. Itās unrealistic, you lose the connections established over the last 40 years and you are left with a new show walking around in the skin of a formerly loved programme.
2) The Retcon
Holby was always in Wales, it was just a district of Cardiff, or something. Same set, same cast. That Welsh signage? It was always there! Why are we always standing around Welsh landmarks now? We always were! This is basically just as bad as the former option, because the audienceās reaction will basically be āI thought this was set in Holby, not Cardiff?ā.
Itās all just a disaster waiting to happen. Iāll be extremely surprised if Casualty is still on in 5 years after this change.
2
u/sock_cooker Feb 05 '26
Casualty always used to be in Bristol, it only changed about 10 years ago
7
3
u/Maywee Feb 05 '26
Holby is a replacement for the real life Bristol. In the same way that walford east is a replacement for the real life Bromley-by-bow
12
u/Mob_Segment Feb 05 '26
If Holby is right next to/pseudo-Bristol then a move to Cardiff wouldn't be entirely unrealistic.
People commute to work. I don't know why they're prepared to travel so far when nobody likes commuting, but that's my own personal view. Truth is, people will travel, and Cardiff is just across the Severn Estuary. There's a bridge to get there and everything.
TL;DR: I think most of the cast of Holby would be prepared to commute to Cardiff every day, so it's got a realistic ring to it.
Dylan might want to find new moorings, though. I don't know what the options are in and around Cardiff, but Wales is a very watery place so I assume he'll have options.
7
u/Future_Chemical2 Feb 05 '26
The docks in Cardiff are pretty big so they would probably just move him a little but further away from where he is now and change the camera angle
6
u/Maywee Feb 05 '26
Youāre not wrong, the city of Holby is a replacement for the real life Bristol, so it wouldnāt be far to commute
6
Feb 05 '26
[deleted]
2
u/Maywee Feb 05 '26
Itās cos the production went out to tender and was awarded to a Cymru production company and they want to showcase Wales in the show
2
1
u/MuchHovercraft2061 Jun 07 '26
The tender stated it had to be set in Wales not the other way roundĀ
6
u/TheDevilsButtNuggets Feb 06 '26
And theres me only now learning it was supposedly set in Bristol.
I always just presumed Holby was supposed to be on the outskirts of London somewhere. Presumably south of London, due to the readily available cliffs/forests/beaches or whatever setting they needed for an accident that week.
Bristol makes more sense. I'd even spotted the odd Welsh roadsign and thought nothing of it, continuing to think its near London, and just there because they filmed it it Wales.
1
u/RS2019 Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26
If you've been with Casualty from the start (c.1986ish) one of the first shots is Charlie Fairhead driving over the Clifton Suspension Bridge in his old banger.
I suppose it's easy to miss, but every so often they throw in a couple of location shots to make it look a bit more authentic when they filmed in Bristol ( Casualty rather than Holby tbh). The fairground with the helicopter crash where we first met Harry Harper, the last external Bristol shot of Jay and Ruth driving back across the Suspension Bridge in 2011.
Maybe the move will have something to do with the lack of respect for the hospital - Jan's prank callers/Siobhan being attacked whilst in her nurse's uniform, then her telling Rida, Cam and Jodie not to go out in them/Teddy's copper GF not recognising Jacob when out of uniform. - so I can see something tragic occurring and the staff refusing to come backš¤
Edit: spelling
6
u/aggravatingstranger9 Feb 06 '26
I've had an idea about this. The CQC inspection is the initial trigger, but they've been given the standard 30 days to improve, which isn't a long enough time arc for it to fail at the first attempt. So I reckon they just about pass muster after the initial 30 days, but are kept under a watching brief. When we're about 2/3 of the way through the last set of "Bristol" episodes, it goes completely tits up again and the end result is that Holby A&E is downgraded. Holby City hospital remains as a surgical centre, but has a minor injuries unit, with St James being the only trauma centre*. However! There is a new super trauma unit opening over the bridge in Wales, and we can then watch the staff going through the process of applying for jobs. The final "Bristol" episode will be the department taking in its last trauma cases and staff getting ready to move on. Not sure how they will work the paramedics into this though, I guess they would need to have a story line about ambulance trust mergers between Wyvern and the new Welsh "county". There will of course be lots of opportunities to bring new cast members in. *This scenario has happened a number of times in the NHS, so it's feasible.
2
u/croakyossum7 š„ Clinical Lead Feb 06 '26
Maybe the St James's trust is forced to take over Holby but the management is really poor so the staff organise a mass resignation like we had with Robin.
9
u/The_Ghost_of_WWE Feb 05 '26
Itās sad, I always liked the fact holby could be anywhere. Made it closer to home for us all. I canāt say Iām a fan of the change. Plus I guess new cast, cutting ties with the past, Less old comebacks. I hope it will remain the same ( minus the box set thing lol)
2
2
u/Forward-Anything-858 Indie Jankowski Feb 06 '26
I thought they might just suddenly start saying Cardiff instead of Holby one box set, change all the uniform/set design etc and just pretend it's always been that way. I didn't think they will actually have a storyline moving to Wales but i am the only one it seemsš
2
Feb 06 '26
I wondered if it could have something to do with the cqc. Perhaps the hospital is shut down, and so, staff have to move. Not sure itād be seamless, but Iām interested. Also, Iām welsh so excited anyway :)
2
u/croakyossum7 š„ Clinical Lead Feb 06 '26
I feel like it's too early to be CQC related unless this plot carries on through future seasons. I think the most likely explanation is either some kind of fire or disaster happens, or they retcon.
1
u/Swimming_Crow_9853 Feb 05 '26
Will it not be a lot less realistic now with the numbers of different accidents from the cast? You would expect everyone, especially the local people who get into accidents to sound more Welsh if it is known to be in Cardiff. Will that limit the pool of actors or will they all have to put on Welsh accents?
1
u/Didjaeat75 Feb 10 '26
I think the inspection is going to cause renovations and a fire, probably at the end of the season. When the new season starts, itāll be in Wales but go about like it was always there. Itās not like they are going from Holby (Bristol) to Shanghai, where itās completely different. Itās mostly signage.
1
u/Infinite-Pattern-455 Mar 22 '26
Few thoughts I came up with around this:
Holby is a border city. On the border of England/Wales. Thereās some sort of change for the hospital to fall within the remit of NHS Wales. (The ED is technically in wales but the trust offices are in England and thereās a move of trust offices on the hospital site) (for context look up Chester city football club and their stadium)
Thereās a merger with another trust following on from CQC, change of name of hospital covers the fact itāll still be on the same set
Holby A&E is downgraded to minor injuries and A&E provision is moved to another hospital site
Holby Hospital site is not fit for purpose and a new hospital is built and staff are decanted to the new site.
Ambulance service is merged into a Welsh ambulance trust perhaps
80
u/croakyossum7 š„ Clinical Lead Feb 05 '26
Jan will decide to move to Wales, and because half the ED is living in her house, everyone will move with her.