Casualty's series producer Nikki Wilson has revealed that the show will be exploring the issue of riots in a forthcoming storyline.

The programme's boss confirmed that the plot will air later this year and explore the consequences of public disorder.

Casualty's team came up with the idea before the 2011 England riots took place, but have since made some changes to the planned story.

"We're building up to a major storyline about the effects of riots at the end of the current series of Casualty," Wilson told Inside Soap. "That'll be interesting after what happened in real life last summer.

"We actually planned the story ages ago, before all of that, so it's been useful to use true events as research for the plot.

"Our original idea was for it to be a protest march that got out of control, but that's changed slightly as a result of what took place in London and elsewhere back in the summer."

The show chief also promised that Casualty fans can expect big stunts this year following the set move from Bristol to Cardiff.

Wilson said: "Bigger and better stunts are at the heart of our remit now we're in Cardiff. We've reduced the number of episodes per year, but the budget has remained the same to let us do those impressive stunts. It's part of our viewers' Saturday night adrenaline hit!"