Nurse Duffy to take centre stage for special episode of hit show Casualty

BBC One drama Casualty will mark the end of its 30th anniversary series with a unique one-shot episode centring on nurse character Lisa 'Duffy' Duffin.

The special episode will be filmed in one take on a single camera and will cover an hour in the emergency department at the fictitious Holby City Hospital.

Written by original co-creator Paul Unwin, the episode will air in the summer. During the show, senior ward sister Duffy will mentor two teenage work experience girls called Chloe and Diamond.

'Classic Casualty'

Cathy Shipton, who plays Duffy, said: 'It is so exciting and nerve-wracking to be working on this episode and unlike anything any of us, cast or crew, have ever attempted before. It is a brilliant fly-on-the-wall episode in real time, placing nurses central in the storyline. It will become a classic Casualty.'

To create the episode the mobile camera covering A&E will be required to be cable free and will also have to cover action from inside a moving ambulance.

In order to achieve the 360 degree shots, a number of rooms in the Casualty Ambulance Station have been converted into control rooms for the crew.

Sound will be achieved through 40 hidden radio microphones and five boom operators – disguised as part of the set.

Casualty first aired on 6 September 1986 on BBC One, and still attracts an average of 5.42 million viewers. Spin-off series Holby City, which focuses on the rest of the hospital started in 1999.

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