Casualty Spoilers for 2015
Casualty bosses are lining up a year of treats and surprises for fans as the show builds towards the launch of its 30th series in late 2015.
For all the gossip on what's ahead, Digital Spy recently chatted to series producer Erika Hossington about her future plans for the BBC medical drama.
Here, we present Part One of our exclusive interview.
How do you feel about producing Casualty as the show approaches its milestone 30th series next year?
"It was dream come true for me to take over as producer, because I've always been a massive fan of the show since it first started. I'd also worked on it previously for a short time as an episodic producer, so I knew the show and the team very well already. In some ways it was like coming home!"
What were your main aims when you took over?
"I was very lucky, because very comprehensive audience research is done into Casualty every couple of years. The latest research had just been completed when I arrived, so I could see exactly how the audience felt about the show and that was an incredible point from which to start.
"When I took over, I really wanted to tap into the heart of Casualty and what had kept the show so popular over the years - and the research bore this out. In the previous year, there'd been more of an emphasis on the stories of the characters coming into the ED, rather than the regular characters who are based there.
"One of the first things that I felt would be right for the show would be to readdress the balance on that, by focusing on the characters who the audience really love and tune in every week to see. Our guest stories needed to be medically interesting and compelling, but to also have an impact on those main characters.
"There were also certain aspects which I felt were a little out of date in terms of what the show looked like, so I wanted to sweep a brush through it and to ensure that Casualty looked like the show we could only make in 2014. We looked at everything from the cameras we were shooting on, to the format we were shooting in - even down to the light bulbs in the studio! I made lots of little changes, which altogether added up and had a huge impact on what the show looked like."
Which storylines and characters are going to be most prominent over the next few months?
"The big entrance on Casualty in the past few months has been that of Connie Beauchamp, and now that she has taken over from Zoe as Clinical Lead, she is going to stay very prominent over the next six to nine months.
"What we wanted to do with Connie in her first year on the show was to have 'seasons'. When she first came in, it was her spring. Summer is when she takes over as Clinical Lead in the ED and things go well, but as we go into autumn, things take a turn! By the time winter arrives, Connie is at her lowest point - and then we start again after that.
"We've also now found out more about Rita now that her secret has been revealed, and that will certainly play out for quite a few months. Rita is going to face a really tough time and she'll be pushed to her emotional limit. You'll have to watch and see whether she comes out of the other side.
"Chloe Howman is a brilliant actress and she's really risen to the challenge of Rita's new storyline. I think the viewers are going to be really interested in that, because up until now we haven't known much about the character. In medical stories, Rita always wants to know the facts, but when the spotlight is turned on her and she's forced to face up to the truth about herself, she doesn't deal with it too well!
"The other main characters we'll be focusing on over the next few months are Jeff and Dixie. I know the fans are really keen to know whether Dixie returns from her suspension before Jeff leaves, and I can confirm that she does - it would have been a huge letdown to the audience if she hadn't!"
We've heard that there are some special standalone episodes coming up. What can you tell us about those?
"Our series run tends to be 46 episodes, and I can tell you without any reservation that there'll be no accident, medical disease or condition that we haven't covered by now! When I arrived, I looked at the series as a whole and looked at what we could do to give the audience a treat of a different kind.
"Building up to the 30th anniversary - which we'll be marking on screen with the launch of Series 30 next year - I also wanted to see if we could tempt back some of Casualty's writing alumni who have gone onto bigger and better things. We asked if there was ever an episode of Casualty that they'd never written that they'd really wanted to. We gave them a free reign - they could choose a character or a story and we could go offbeat a little bit."
When do they start airing?
"There are three of those specials which will happen over the course of the year. We've already shot the first one and it will go out on November 1. We're shooting the second one at the moment and the third one is in the conception stage.
"The first one is a murder mystery and the character it features is Lily. That's been written by Jeff Povey. It's a great episode and it's all set at night. The hospital is empty, so it feels like a very ghostly place and that really feeds into the story that we're telling. It's brilliant and it feels very different. The second one is an episode for Zoe, which has been written by Barbara Machin. It's a 'What if?'-themed episode.
"Fundamentally they're all grounded in character and brilliant medicine, but they're very different and will feel like a unique experience. The audience will love them because they're still completely inimitably Casualty and couldn't be done on any other show.
"The other reason why we decided to do these specials is that building up to our 30th anniversary episodes, we will do something completely different that no other show has done before. So these are a building block towards those, and all will become clear!"
Are there any new characters on the way?
"We will see the return of Michael Stevenson as paramedic Iain, and he's coming back into the show as a regular character. It's going to be fun establishing his partnership with Dixie, and especially seeing how Dixie copes with the change after she and Jeff were such a strong team.
"Chelsee Healey is also coming in for a stint as a character called Honey. She announces in her first episode that she's a barrister, but of course what she means is that she's a barista! She's going to be working in the coffee shop, but she's also going to be one of those fabulous tea ladies with a trolley who pops up everywhere - a bit like Hayley in The Call Centre!
"Chelsee brings a different type of character to the show, which we really wanted to try. Honey is like a little breath of fresh air and Chelsee has been great."
Can we expect any more returning characters? The fans would love to see Nick Jordan back!
"There will be another returnee, but it's top secret! I don't want to build the fans' hopes up that it'll be Jordan, as there are no active plans to bring him back at the moment. He's the person I've been asked about most often in my first year in the job, as he's an iconic character who has inhabited both Holby and Casualty very brilliantly. We'd never say never but it's not on the cards at the moment.
"However, there will be another familiar face coming back, but we're not going to announce it. It will be a complete surprise when that person hits the screen in October…"
Are there any well-known faces coming in for guest roles?
"Gary Lucy is coming in and he's going to be in the first of our standalone specials. We've also had Antony Costa filming with us. All of the BBC dramas are doing World War I commemorative episodes and he'll be in ours, which airs on October 25. Afterwards, his character is going to cross over into Holby.
"We've also cast Sarah Jayne Dunn as a semi-regular and we've got Frances Tomelty coming in too. She's a real acting heavyweight, but her arrival is a little way off yet."
We always expect great stunts from the show, but are there any ones in particular we should watch out for?
"There will be an absolutely huge stunt around the time that Jeff leaves the show. As he is a paramedic, we decided that there'd be a major incident that he and Dixie would be called to deal with. It's a big mini-bus accident which was technically very challenging to film. It was one of the most challenging flips that we've ever done but it came out really brilliantly. It's who's involved in the accident that makes it such a big deal.
"We've got a big riot in our World War I episode. We pit two sets of football supporters against each other, and thematically it's men of the family and age groups which fit into the scenes of the First World War and conflicts within that war. That was a huge set piece which we shot in Port Talbot. It looks amazing on screen because it's on such a large scale.
"At Christmas we've also got a massive accident involving a chandelier and a cathedral - I'll say no more! Our research showed that the audience wanted bigger stunts but less of them, so the helicopter crash and the train derailment are examples of the set pieces that we're looking at.
"We'll still see chases and other accidents as those are our bread and butter, but we also wanted to make sure that our big set pieces are earned and will involve the characters that people care about. That's why Zoe was at the heart of the helicopter accident and Tess and Fletch were at the heart of the train derailment, so we'll continue in that vein."
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