The thirty-third series of the British medical drama television series Casualty began airing on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 11 August 2018, one week after the end of the previous series. The series consisted of 46 episodes. Lucy Raffety continues her role as series producer, while Simon Harper continues his role as the show's executive producer. Sixteen regular cast members reprised their roles from the previous series. The series, which is billed as "The Year of the Paramedic", begins with a motorway collision stunt sequence, and features a crossover episode with spin-off series, Holby City. This series featured the departures of six cast members, including Amanda Mealing as Connie Beauchamp, Azuka Oforka as Louise Tyler and Chelsea Halfpenny as Alicia Munroe. Four new regular cast members also joined the series, while two actors began appearing in a recurring capacity. Production The thirty-third series will consist of 47 episodes. Lucy Raffety continues her role as series producer while Simon Harper remains as the executive producer. Kate Oates became the show's senior executive producer from October 2018, and was promoted to Head of Continuing Drama six months later. Raffety's resignation from her position was announced on 16 April 2019. Raffety confirmed that there would be a series 33 in an interview with TVTimes, where she billed the series as the "Year of the Paramedic". In preparation for the series, two new paramedic characters were introduced to the drama. It was announced on 24 July 2018 that the series would begin on 11 August 2018 with an episode described as "one of [the] biggest episodes in the show's history." It was previously revealed, in May 2018, that the show was filming scenes which would feature a motorway crash and a petrol tanker turning on its side. Sophie Dainty of entertainment website Digital Spy reported that there would be an explosion, which would leave one main character's life "hanging in the balance". An official statement from the show stated that the ED's paramedic crew would "face their darkest day" in the episode. Charlotte Salt, who portrays Sam Nicholls, told Elaine Reilly of What's on TV that the episodes were filmed at night over two weeks with night shoots lasting over 13 hours. On the atmosphere on-set while filming, she commented, "there's a certain buzz in the air..." The episode sees Sam die after suffering a fatal bleed from the crash, which sparks