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BBC Series ‘Casualty’ Draws Viewer Complaints Over Non-Binary Character’s Top Surgery Storyline

Jake Kanter
·2 min read

Casualty, the BBC’s long-running medical series, has been the subject of viewer complaints after featuring a storyline in which a character discusses their top surgery.

The BBC received 142 complaints from disgruntled audience members, who said it was “inappropriate” for Casualty to show non-binary character Sah Brockner (Arin Smethurst) discussing their surgery.

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“I booked time off because I finally got the date for my top surgery,” Brockner told colleagues. “Before you say anything, I know a double mastectomy is not to be taken lightly … for now at least, I’m just happy that I’ll look like the person I feel like on the inside. It’s been a long time coming.”

Brockner’s fellow paramedics, Jan Jenning and Teddy Gowan, responded positively to the news and offered to “stick the kettle on” in celebration.

The Casualty Twitter account published a clip of the scene, which generated 3.4M views and stirred debate on the social network.

Fair Play For Women, a women’s rights campaign group, questioned whether the BBC had taken its “safeguarding responsibilities seriously” by broadcasting the scene before the 9PM watershed.

Others were supportive of Casualty. Annie Wallace, a transgender actress in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks, said: “If they think that this abuse will stop us, or make us run away and hide, they are gravely mistaken.”

A Casualty spokesperson said: “Casualty is a fictional drama series with a rich history of covering a variety of subjects. As this storyline develops in future episodes it will be explored from a range of perspectives in a sensitive and considered way.”

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