{"id":26917,"date":"2022-12-09T13:56:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T12:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1753276"},"modified":"2022-12-09T16:47:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T15:47:33","slug":"casualty-boss-jon-sen-on-improvised-special-this-is-the-reality-of-what-paramedics-face","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/casualty-boss-jon-sen-on-improvised-special-this-is-the-reality-of-what-paramedics-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Casualty boss Jon Sen on improvised special: \u2018This is the reality of what paramedics face\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Helen Daly\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 09 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Long-running BBC drama Casualty will never shy away from a challenge, and its latest episode, set to air tomorrow (10th December) is no exception.<\/p>\n

Following on from their award-winning special about the COVID-19 outbreak, this special episode is set to explore the pressures currently placed on paramedics within the NHS \u2013 in particular, how in demand they are and how this impacts on patients.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the frantic episode is improvised, too, meaning it genuinely will feel very real and fly-on-the-wall to viewers.<\/p>\n

RadioTimes.com<\/a> recently caught up with Casualty boss Jon Sen to find out exactly why he wanted to build on the experimentation the long-running drama has already done, and what the future holds for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCasualty\u2019s got a long history of telling stories that are true to the NHS, that really talks to the experience of NHS workers, doctors, medics, but also people who are patients on there,\u201d Sen explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking to a lot of doctors, nurses, paramedics and practitioners within the community (as we do) and realised that actually, this year more than anything for them, the defining visual of hospitals had become this set of queueing ambulances which seemed to start in several central hospitals, but was becoming more prevalent.\u201d<\/p>

Sen continued: \u201cWe felt this needs to be a really intense, naturalistic treatment of a paramedic\u2019s life and we wanted to get as close to that as possible. So we talked about how to do that both camera-wise, production-wise, and then style of performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realised that actually, in terms of style of performance, the way we could achieve greatest naturalism was to allow the actors to improvise along set lines that we\u2019d set up very particularly for scene breakdowns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was he worried about how to portray the scenes without being overtly political? \u201cWe have to be careful because we are the BBC and it prides itself in its impartiality. And it\u2019s important as well that we portray the truth of what\u2019s going on. Our jumping off point is always fact-based research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen added that he was \u201cproud\u201d of presenting a fact-based episode, adding: \u201cThis is the authentic reality of what paramedics are facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t point the finger of blame at anybody \u2013 there is obviously a discussion around lack of social provision meaning there\u2019s no beds, which means it knocks on to ambulances \u2013 we can talk about the conflicting arguments about the causes, but the truth of it is paramedics on the front line are suffering mental and immense challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be authentic and are a reflection of their experience, rather than find ourselves taking a political stance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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