'Casualty' fans angered as BBC cancels show to screen Wimbledon on two channels at once

Fans of medical drama Casualty were fuming at the weekend after the BBC cancelled the show to screen Wimbledon tennis instead.

Andy Murray and Serena Williams were paired up in the mixed doubles and their match against Andreas Mies and Alexa Guarachi, which was being screened on BBC One, ran overtime.

Casualty was initially postponed, before being pulled from air altogether on Saturday evening, so that tennis fans could see Murray and Williams storm to victory.

But fans of the hospital drama were angered, particularly as Wimbledon tennis was also being aired on BBC Two.

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TV presenter and former Celebrity Big Brother star India Willougby tweeted: “Disgusting. All the people who rely on their telly for a bit of company and it’s wall to wall Wimbledon. BBC lost the plot (to Casualty definitely, because it was cancelled)”

And real life paramedic Luke Simmonds complained: “Stick to the schedule please!”

Some fans of the show complained that the episode was not even added to the BBC’s on demand service BBC iPlayer, while others moaned about paying their licence fee for sport to dominated both the main channels.

Insult was added to injury as pre-scheduled tweets from the Casualty Twitter account teased the episode was about to begin and showed preview clips of the episode.

The official BBC One Twitter account let fans know the episode will be aired next weekend instead.

Set in the Accident and Emergency department, Casualty - starring 70-year-old Derek Thompson as nurse Charlie Fairhead - has been airing on BBC Once since 1986 and in 1999 spawned spin-off hospital show Holby City. While Casualty sometimes takes a short break for the summer it is traditionally shown Saturday nights almost every week of the year.

In 2017 Thompson was revealed to be the highest paid actor employed by the BBC with a salary of £350,000 and 399,000.