Casualty star Amanda Henderson has lifted the lid on life behind the scenes of the BBC medical drama, as the show celebrates its landmark 40th anniversary on September 6th.
The actress became a fan favourite as nurse Robyn Miller, spending more than a decade in Holby ED before her character was dramatically killed off after a car crash in 2023.
Now, as Casualty marks four decades on screen, Amanda has reflected on the secrets of filming the long-running drama - from fake blood and cast members sleeping in hospital beds between takes to the “legendary” cast parties viewers never got to see.
Amanda also revealed why she believes Casualty has survived, while fellow long-running dramas such as Holby City and Doctors have disappeared from screens.
Speaking to online bingo provider Zingo Bingo, Amanda Henderson says:
What was your favourite memory of working on Casualty?
The one-shot episode, because our crew were just unreal. They were so good. The rehearsal process for that took me back to my theatre days. I didn’t have loads to do in it, but I kept popping up here, there and everywhere, so I had to make sure I was going through the right doors at the right time to enter in the right place. The rehearsal process was brilliant. I also got to work with Jenna Boyd, who’s huge in musical theatre. She was in it as one of the characters, so I got to hang out with her and that was really fun.
How realistic does the set feel? Do you actually feel like you’re in a hospital?
Yeah, it definitely does. I was, and am, really squeamish. I’m not very good with blood and things like that. A lot of the main blood we use is quite sweet and sticky, and it almost smells like Calpol, that kind of thing. So I kind of got used to that. On the first day they showed me everything and I was like, “I’m spinning out. I’m going to faint. I don’t know what’s going on.” But the more you do it, you really do get used to everything, although some of the prosthetics were so real. They were not fun.
What other props did you have to work with that were particularly weird?
So many! There was one episode where we did a tapeworm and the prop they made for that was disgusting. That was me and Richard Winsor, and the two of us were having to work with it. I was like, “You’re going to have to do it because I can’t.” That was gross. It’s funny because there are so many beds around and, obviously with a TV set, you are hanging around sometimes and it can be a long wait. Sometimes you can’t necessarily leave the set because it’s not going to be that long. The amount of people you’d find just lying in a bed going, “I’m so tired, leave me in a bed!” We’d also have fun with the dummies. We had loads of dummies that we could put into beds if we couldn’t use the person and things like that. George Rainsford was a prime example of having fun with those. We used to put them in silly places to make people jump.
What bits of filming look really dramatic to the audience but are ridiculous to film?
Weirdly, the giving-birth scene I did, which was on a gravestone. Not a real gravestone… I had to double-check this a thousand times. I was like, “Please tell me this is not somebody’s real gravestone.” They were like, “No, we’ve made it, it’s fine.” There was freezing rain pouring on us, and me and Jason were getting absolutely freezing cold. You know when you just think, “This is so ridiculous. I’m giving birth on a gravestone.” It becomes laughable. Obviously it was so dramatic, but behind the scenes it was like, “This is crazy. This is my job. What am I doing?”
Did you take anything from the Casualty set as a keepsake?
I really wanted to keep one of our really nice keep-warm coats, but they didn’t let me! But I do have my Holby City hoodie that was my costume. I got to keep some bits of my civvies costumes, but me and Robyn dress a little bit differently, so I didn’t take all of them. Shoes. A lot of shoes! I kept a lot of trainers. Robyn had some good trainers, so I kept a lot of those.
I don’t know if I should say this, but I definitely have one of my name badges, which again I wasn’t supposed to take. I also had one of Emily Carey’s character cards from when they played Connie’s daughter. I’ve kind of watched them grow up and I’m really good friends with their mum. I kept their character one of those.
What do you think viewers might be surprised to learn about filming the show?
I don’t think people realise how much we really do try to stick to the proper medical stuff. Obviously we can’t put a laryngoscope straight down somebody’s throat. We can’t do that. So it’s the amount of little cheats we have and the amount of props that might be sawn off or blunted so we can do things and make it look like something’s actually going into their mouth. All that trickery is so clever, and over the years we’ve just got better and better at it. I think CPR is always one of the hardest things to do, especially if you’re fully in shot, because you can’t really press on somebody’s chest. That’s not going to be nice for them!
It probably won’t surprise people to say that Casualty is a family. Because it’s filmed in Cardiff, a lot of people aren’t necessarily from Cardiff, so we’re all there and it becomes this little Cardiff family for us all. I’m sure people aren’t surprised by that, but it really was such a happy family and I wouldn’t change that for the world. So many people, because it used to be filmed in Bristol, still say, “Isn’t it filmed in Bristol?” I’m like, “No!” I think I started just after it had moved. I’ve not been on the show for a few years now. I’ve slept since then! But there were so many times when we were hanging around and we just got on so well, the crew and the cast.
The Casualty parties were always legendary. There was a place just around the corner from the studios where we used to go, and we would find an excuse to celebrate anything. And then when we got the BAFTA, that party was unreal. Because we did the Covid BAFTA as well, we had to hold off the celebrations until we could all be together again. That party just got even bigger. I think that’s one of the main things I’ll take away from Casualty - the fact that you can literally celebrate anything.
If you could bring one former character back to Casualty now, who would it be?
Alex Walkinshaw, who played Fletch. He’s amazing. He was so good and he taught me so much at the beginning. Although he did tease me. I’ve got a really terrible phobia of spiders. I know a lot of people are scared of spiders, but mine is silly. I knew there was a spider over in a corner of the studio one day, and I’d said to him, “Alex, please can you just go and get it? Please, can you just get it away?” One of our supporting artists had put a cup over it because we were about to go for a take. I was like, “Right, fine. It’s under a cup, just do this and then it can go.” It was a big thing. It wasn’t small. Then Alex, in his infinite wisdom, decided to come over to me with his hands held out and act like he had it. I burst into tears and screamed. Alex was like, “Oh no, it’s not in my hands! I was joking, I was joking!” We did actually hold up filming for a while because I was in floods of tears. So actually, I take that back. I wouldn’t bring him back! No, I would. I think Fletch was such a good character. He was loved by so many people. So yeah, I would definitely bring back Fletch.
