Casualty, 'No Place Like Home'

After watching episode 1 of series 25, 'No Place Like Home', I saw a clear scene in which you can use Roland Bartes theory. In his theory he believed that you can look at one scene and gain various different meanings from it. A clear example of this was during the scene of the widows brother reading his speech for her husbands funeral. During the speech the man gets quite emotional and describes him in many ways, some of them being: "husband, lover". The fact that he adds on lover to the list after husband could imply two meanings. He could either mean not only was her partner a husband to her but he was also her lover, or he could have been trying to imply that the two men had an affair together, and he was his "lover". However, to understand this I think you have to pay attention to the scene and watch the character carefully.

During the opening 5 minutes of the episode, you are introduced to the character of Kirsty. When she begins to get changed there is a large visible bruise on her back. This instantly makes you question what type of relationship she's in- whether it's an abusive and controlling one. Which then makes you question if she's quite a weak character because she lets her partner treat her in this way. She may have the intelligence to be a doctor, but struggles when it comes to solving problems in her personal life.


Later on in the hospital we see the Senior Consultant, Nick. He's seen wearing a suit a tie, which immediately puts him aove the rest of the staff on the ward because they're all wearing uniforms. His authority is also reinforced when he's speaking to Tess. The camera angle used is a close up of him talking down to her- this implies that he is higher than her in the hierachy of staff.


Tess, who is head of nurses, is soon seen after this giving the rest of the staff a briefing. During the briefing she is put in the center of the circle, and the camera angle used for this is a medium long shot. I think this is a good angle to use, because instead of using a long shot where you can clearly see she's in the center, you get this from a medium as well as being able to see her face and the expressions that she's pulling to show her authority.