His co-creator McHale points out that Holby’s shoestring budget meant no location scenes, which, counterintuitively worked very much in its favour. “Casualty is a series of guest accidents, with the team responding to the fallout,” he says. “Holby is about the intense emotional interplay between staff – that’s why the audience cares.”

Before anyone asks, here at Woods Towers we will most certainly not be transferring our affections or indeed infections to Casualty. I may be biased, but it’s a medical fact that Casualty is for sad sacks with nothing better to do on a Saturday night. Watching a weekday drama is an altogether more sophisticated proposition.

Why, it was practically a foundation course in biochemistry; they did research, read medical journals and sometimes made presentations to the board about revolutionary pieces of kit dreamed up by surgeon Sasha in between hapless relationships with awful women and the gastric band he once had on the sly that didn’t work. 

We dutifully followed and invested in the sort of lengthy narrative arcs that were somewhere between faintly absurd and downright jump-the-shark ridiculous. Why? Because the characters drew us in and the finely judged balance of humour and pathos, tragedy and redemption made us care. No small achievement on a Tuesday.

“We did lots of research and visited hospitals to see who worked there and I was really taken with the detachment and arrogance of the top surgeons, who knew they were the very best,” says McHale. “Over the past 20 years that rigid hierarchy has relaxed and Holby reflected that change. I like to think if any of us needed urgent care, we would want the Holby team to treat us.”