'Casualty' storyline axed due to Welsh anti-smoking laws

Casualty was forced to axe an anti-smoking storyline due to Welsh laws.

Welsh law bans smoking in public places and the workplace, as is the case in England. However, Welsh law, unlike English law, states that this also extends to actors on film and television sets.

As a result of the stringent enforcement of this law in Wales, Casualty - which is filmed in Cardiff - had been forced to abandon the upcoming plotline.

Clare Hudson, head of productions at BBC Wales, made the revelation while addressing the Welsh national assembly on Tuesday. She claimed that the smoking ban could potentially cost the economy up to £20m a year, reports The Guardian.

Hudson told MPs: "We had one storyline in Casualty warning about the dangers of smoking and how it caused a fire in a hotel... but we could not go ahead with it because of the current legislation.

"And scenes in [the revamped] Upstairs, Downstairs were difficult to work around because we had to shoot them outside of Wales.

"Our drama in Wales has been growing very steadily over the past few years. We don't want to see that growth capped on the basis of the current legislation."

Hudson also revealed that the ban meant programme-makers have been forced to cross the border into England to film smoking scenes in Bristol, at the expense of an extra £5,000 a day.

Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Gavin & Stacey, three of the BBC's biggest hits in recent years, are all produced by BBC Wales and filmed in the country.

Mark Drakeford, a Labour member of the national assembly, rejected the call to overturn the ban, saying that it was "morally repugnant" to relax the rules just because different legislation applied in England.

BBC Cymru Wales has confirmed that a smoking scene it believed to have been axed from Casualty was actually reinstated and filmed as intended.

It was reported on Tuesday (January 22) that production staff were unable to film the plotline at the show's Cardiff studios as planned, because of Welsh laws which prohibit all smoking in public places.

Clare Hudson, head of productions at BBC Wales, had told Welsh National Assembly members: "We had one storyline in Casualty warning about the dangers of smoking and how it caused a fire in a hotel... but we could not go ahead with it because of the current legislation.

"And scenes in Upstairs, Downstairs were difficult to work around because we had to shoot them outside of Wales."

However, BBC Cymru Wales has confirmed that Casualty production staff were able to work around the anti-smoking law and film the storyline without issue, and had written to the relevant Welsh Assembly committee to withdraw the incorrect evidence.

"It has since been drawn to our attention by the Casualty production team that they found an alternative way of shooting the relevant scene. To be clear, no change was made to the plot of that episode," BBC Cymru Wales said in a statement. "The evidence presented was given in good faith based on information we now know to be incorrect.

"In the interest of presenting the facts as accurately as possible, we have asked the chairman to draw this to the attention of sub-committee members. We have also asked the sub-committee chairman for any guidance he can give on amending this part of our written supplementary evidence in light of this, and have expressed our sincere apologies for this error."

There is no exception to anti-smoking legislation for film and TV productions in Wales corresponding to the exemption included in English law. However, Welsh Assembly members are due to vote on a similar clause for artistic productions in Wales later this spring.