Fans get ready to countdown to Christmas with a two-part Christmas episode which promises to be one of the best episodes to date.
In what has been described as a ‘psychological thriller’, Waking the Dead creator Barbara Machin has written the powerful script which also stars notable guest actors Holly Aird and Gary Kemp.
Producer Jane Steventon explains what’s in store, ‘We’ve taken three perspectives of a day so within that day we see Josh’s day, Ellen’s day and a guest character, Laura’s (Holly Aird) day’.
‘We overlap time so significant moments in the story are repeated but from different perspectives’. She added there were lots of challenges facing the cast and crew as they filmed scenes which will include frost and snow effects.
Actress Georgina Bouzova is delighted with her final storyline, ‘It’s been an amazing experience for me. Episode 15 hasn’t been written chronologically. It’s been a really good challenge and also we have an amazing writer.’
‘This is going to be something special, it really is. It’s so moving. Even when I read the script I cried so that’s how powerful the writing is,’ she enthused. ‘This is the best episode of Casualty I’ve ever done’.
Whilst long serving actor Ian Bleasdale is also delighted to be in the thick of the action this Christmas. ‘I particularly like the fact that I’ve got a lot to do!’ he jokes. ‘And it’s undoubtedly one of the best storylines I’ve done in 15 years’.
He passionately talks of how Casualty is back on form with these episodes, ‘The profile of this particular episode is getting back to how it was – getting back to pure old drama,’ he says. ‘I think Casualty’s at it’s best is when it’s uplifting, when it’s positive, when it’s funny, when it’s witty, gritty and when it’s truthful.’
Writer Barbara Machin had actress Holly Aird in mind when she thought about who to cast for the character of Laura, who comes into Casualty with her ill daughter. And Holly was thrilled to take the part, ‘What brings me to Casualty?’ she says ‘A part that I don’t think anybody in their right mind would want to turn down!’
‘Barbara sent me a very long email one day explaining this part. I feel kind of proud of what I’ve done only because I feel I’ve gone to places in myself I never knew existed. Barbara is the most fantastic writer especially around crime and her stories are very multi-layered’.
Meanwhile Barbara said of Holly ‘I needed someone who could do that immense kind of leap from hard and strange to very very humane.’
Barbara who has written a number of episodes of Casualty over the years takes great respect with the characters of the show that viewers fondly love. ‘The great characters of Josh and Charlie – they have histories that our audiences have lived with so you treat characters like that with such respect because you know as soon as you put them in the centre of the story they have such a focus of real emotional bonding with the audience.’
And she concluded that this one day will have lasting effects on the Holby crew, ‘One day in the life of these two characters [Ellen & Josh] but what a difference a day makes, when finally the day’s over and all the regulars leave at the end of their shift, the world has changed and it’ll never ever be the same again.’
