Casualty producer reveals live plans, exciting return and more

Casualty is certainly on the up at the moment after triumphing at last month's National Television Awards, where they scooped the prize for Best Drama. And by the looks of it, things are about to get a whole lot more exciting.

Digital Spy recently caught up with series producer Erika Hossington to get all the gossip on what is coming up for the rest of the year – fans certainly have a lot to be excited about. Here in part one of our interview, Erika spills the beans on the show's plans to go live, a shock return, and much, much more...

What has the atmosphere on set been after winning at the National Television Awards?

"It's been electric. The win made a huge impact on everybody, absolutely everybody. I came in the morning after and the first person I saw was one of my lovely runners, whose face was just beaming. He was so excited and it was just such a lovely moment for me to know that every single person who works on the show felt and appreciated the win just as much as all of us who were lucky enough to be there on the night.

"There has been a skip going on where they will say, "Shall we do another award-winning shot now", "Would you like an award-winning cup of tea?". The word "award-winning" is going into every sentence and everybody is just so chuffed that the sheer love and hard work that they put into the show has been appreciated by the audience and the fans – and that they voted for us.

"Everybody feels that the fans who have voted for us also celebrated with us, as much as we have celebrated ourselves. That has made it very special indeed."

Were you expecting to win given the strong competition in the category?

"You never know with these things, do you? We were really surprised to be shortlisted again and we were shortlisted the previous year as well. We felt that all the shows in the category were really unique and different. We couldn't work out which way it was going to go, but I secretly harboured a positive feeling about it and I did have a feeling on the night. In all honesty though, no – we didn't expect it and I think it was absolutely apparent when you saw us all. It was a very honest reaction."

Last year saw the departure of some the show's longest-running characters like Dixie, Zoe, and Big Mac. Is it always sad to see them go?

"I think when characters leave after being in the show for a long time, it is like losing a member of your family. It is like somebody leaving home again – it really, really hits us and we get very emotional about it. The actors who have given all those years to the show also get very emotional about it and the three characters you mentioned had all been in the show between eight to ten years. That is a huge commitment from them to give those years in their careers to the show.

"I think it is a testament to how special the show is and how passionate they are about it, so you understand their decision to leave. I completely understood why they might want to do something different, or seek out a new challenge, but we do get very emotional when they leave and what we have to do under those circumstances is make sure we give them the best stories to exit them. At the same time, we have to play stories that resonate with the characters who are left behind over the following months in order to do them justice."

William Beck told us that Dylan has a love interest returning. Can you tell us anything about that?

"All I can say is watch this space. We will have some announcements coming up soon about stuff like this. I don't want to give too much away now. Fans can expect an old face to return, but maybe not in the guise they are expecting."

Can we expect to see anymore characters returning? And are there plans to bring in any new ones?

"There are no plans for anymore returns at the moment, but never say never. We have got someone new – who is not new – coming in and that is about it for the next four to six months. And then we will have some more new characters coming in towards the end of the year.We always keep a return wish list up on the wall and we see what happens and what doesn't happen. But I think the fans are going to be really, really gripped by what we have got coming up over the next few months because we have some really big stories and really big events all tied in together. I think it's going to be a really satisfying mid-point of this series."

The last two series finales have been huge. What can we expect from the this year's one?

"What we have decided to do this year is something different. Oliver Kent and I have hinted about it in interviews we have done previously and it is about doing our version of a live show. That will be at the end of this series and there will be an announcement that soon."

Can you tell us anything else about what Casualty's version of a live show will entail?

"If I say anything else, it will be giving it away but we are going to do something which I don't think any show has done before. What we want to do is give viewers a live experience but we can't do our show live because it wouldn't look like our show and it wouldn't sound like our show. We do a lot of post-production procedures and we can't do that if the show goes out live, so the audience wouldn't get the show they were expecting.

"ER did it really well back in the '90s because they shot their live episode through the eyes of a documentary crew coming in to film a shift at the hospital. In truth, that is the only way Casualty [could] go about it, and we didn't want to do that as it's been done before.

"We have got plans for a massive beginning of the next series, but the end of this series will have a very, very special and unique episode that I think the fans are going to be really excited about. In fact, the ending of the series will be something that the show has never, ever done before."

Alicia Munroe and Ethan Hardy get involved in a cave rescue in Casualty
© BBC ALISTAIR HEAP
Are there anymore big stunts we should be looking out for?

"We have a really big stunt coming up but the stunts are going to be more event-based. Unless the stunt is part of the episode, it doesn't resonate with the audience. But I can tell you that we have Pam St Clement's character returning and she literally causes an explosion. That is a good stunt and will be airing in March.

"Other than that, we have a factory fire coming up and another stunt later on in April where someone gets over later. This will be very shocking because of who it is, but I can't say anything more. We have got something else following on from that which is also very shocking as well. We will have two episodes on the trot which will both involve two of our regular characters.

"For the first time, we are also mounting a really big stunt within the hospital. We've done a stunt outside the hospital, but we are going to do a really big falling stunt within the hospital which we've never done before and that will be towards the end of the series."

In light of Oliver Kent's new BBC appointment, are there any plans to get a new executive producer?

"We have an acting executive producer at the moment and that's the lovely Simon Harper. Simon is now across Holby City and Casualty, so he is now my new boss."