Sunday 30 March
9.00-10.00pm BBC ONE

(L-R) Nurse Ada Russell (Sarah Smart), Matron Eva Luckes (Cherie Lunghi), Sydney Holland (Nicholas Farrell) and Ethell Bennett (Charity Wakefield) as a medical team from The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, 1907

Plunging viewers into London’s East End, Casualty 1907 delivers a gritty, realistic experience of life just over a century ago in Whitechapel. This was a time when the average person lived to be 45 years old and one in five children died by the age of 10. Then, as now, the Royal London was the most advanced emergency hospital in Britain, but with antibiotics and public funding from the NHS still 40 years away, life was tough.

In Casualty 1907, the streets are teeming with trouble and gangland rivalry is rife. One of the first people to stagger through the doors is the leader of the Blind Beggar Gang, Nobby Clark, who has a bullet wound. Under the watchful eye of Matron Eva Luckes, Nurse Ada Russell has to deal with a team of probationary nurses while facing the painful dilemma of taking the job of Ward Sister, even though it threatens to ruin her engagement to Dr James Walton.

The Light Department at the hospital is using a radical new technique – ultra-violet light – to treat appalling cases of skin disease brought on by the cramped, insanitary conditions and lack of sunlight in the East End. The hospital’s chairman, Sydney Holland, is preparing for a visit from the hospital’s patron, Queen Alexandra, who wants to see such a case.

This powerful drama uses case notes, ward reports, autopsy records and intimate diaries to bring actual doctors, nurses and patients from The Royal London Hospital vividly back to life.

Ethell Bennett is played by Charity Wakefield, Nobby Clark by Alfie Allen, Matron Eva Luckes by Cherie Lunghi, Nurse Ada Russell by Sarah Smart, Dr James Walton by Tom Riley and Sydney Holland by Nicholas Farrell.