THIRTY years ago most of us had scant knowledge of medical conditions.

Today, largely thanks to TV and specifically to the series Casualty, we can recognise a whole host of illnesses and conditions.

The popular series set in the fictional A & E Department of Holby City Hospital has not only spawned dozens of memorable characters and given early acting breaks to luminaries like Kate Winslet and Orlando Bloom but also helped educate the nation.

Now, we know what a pneumothorax is (a collapsed lung where air leaks into the space between lung and chest) and that a skilled medic can, in an emergency, use a coathanger to relieve it. We understand a host of rare illnesses and can often “spot” the early signs of others.

The programme has become a kind of “guess the ailment” in many households with viewers aiming to come up with the “winning” diagnosis. But, the comforting reality is that it’s a clever way of getting the positive health message across to millions of people.