Sunetra Sarker is to make a guest return for two episodes of CASUALTY next year to mark Charlie’s exit from the show.
Sunetra will reprise her role as popular medic Zoe Hanna, having played her from 2007 – 2016 and her last appearance in an episode of Series 32 where she left to make a life with porter Max Walker.
Revealing all in an episode of Loose Women, she said ‘I’m going back for a special double episode because our lovely Charlie who has been there forever is going to leave the show. So I’m going back to make sure I get my last little moment with him.’
Since leaving the show, Sunetra has continued to appear in a number of TV shows including Ackley Bridge, Desperate Measures, The Bay as well as appearing on Loose Women. She also made her RSC debut in ‘A Christmas Carol’ last Winter.
Talking of Charlie’s exit, Executive Producer Jon Sen said, ‘Derek and I would often joke that, after such a long and dramatic career in the NHS, there was almost nothing that Charlie hadn’t seen. So it was an amazing surprise to me when Derek arrived with a brilliant idea for Charlie’s exit as part of an upcoming storyline, which was too good to pass up. We will all miss Derek enormously.
‘Over nearly four decades, Derek has crafted an iconic character who is woven into the fabric of British TV history. We will miss his craft, his humour and his on-screen presence. We’re also going to miss a friend, so for the next few months we’re going to have a ball filming Charlie’s final chapter.’
Elinor Lawless, who plays Stevie, also revealed her character is involved in Charlie’s exit, ‘Over the next few weeks as you see Stevie and Faith’s friendship tested, we enter into the temperature of the ED really starting to shift, we start to take a look at the reality of what staff are up against in a real sense of their mental and physical safety.’
‘That’s where you see Stevie at the beginning of this trajectory, it’s this huge story that will culminate in the exit of a legend,’ adding ‘I think that he really is a cornerstone, he’s an anchor for the whole ethos of the ED. It definitely promises to be a real shocking, exciting, gut-wrenching and hopefully edge of your seat stuff’.
