Doctors star Kia Pegg has detailed the moment the cast were told the soap had been axed.
The actress, who rose to fame in CBBC’s The Dumping Ground, plays receptionist Scarlett Kiernan in the show.
This week, news broke that Doctors will come to an end next year, with its final episode slated for December 2024.
Discussing the sad decision to end the programme, a BBC spokesperson said: ‘We have taken the very difficult decision to bring daytime drama Doctors to an end after 23 years
‘With super inflation in drama production, the cost of the programme has increased significantly, and further investment is also now required to refurbish the site where the show is made, or to relocate it to another home.
Kia appeared in shows on CBBC before Doctors (Picture: BBC)
‘With a flat licence-fee, the BBC’s funding challenges mean we have to make tough choices in order to deliver greater value to audiences.
‘We remain fully committed to the West Midlands and all of the funding for Doctors will be reinvested into new programming in the region.
‘We would like to thank all the Doctors cast and crew who have been involved in the show since 2000.’
While the news shocked fans, focus once again turned to how the cast and crew were told, and how they were coping in the aftermath.
The show is a training ground for actors and crew members (Picture: BBC)
Kia, 23, decided to open up about these moments in a passionate and heartfelt post on social media.
‘When your show gets cancelled, you’ll know before the words are ever spoken aloud’, she began.
‘When your show gets cancelled it will be somebody’s job to make sure the zoom meeting is playing in every room. It will feel vaguely dystopian; something bad is coming. You’ll sit in reception and watch grim faced crew retreat to the safety of their own departments’.
‘…Someone will invite you all into the script office. You’ll go, but you’ll make sure to stay close to the other actors. A set is full of tribes and they are yours. Later, when the meeting is long over, you’ll be glad you stayed beside an actor. You held his arm tight the whole time. You think you probably would have cried if it hadn’t been for him.’
‘When your show gets cancelled, HR will never use that word. It hasn’t been cancelled; it has only been decommissioned.’
The show has been running for 23 years (Picture: BBC)
Kia went on to describe how news of the cancellation made the ‘building fall[s] quiet’ and how a director stood up during a meeting and asked ‘where are the people who did make this decision then?’.
She continued: ‘When your show gets cancelled you’ll talk about anything but the future. When your show gets cancelled you go to the pub. Everyone will have a great night. A happy night. Onlookers could be forgiven for assuming you had something to be celebrating.’
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Concluding the post, which is continuing to be shared on Twitter/X, Kia said:
‘When your show gets cancelled you get home late and read your new scripts. They’re as good as they’ve ever been. You feel lucky again. You read your callsheet. You get into bed. You set your alarm.’
‘When your show gets cancelled you still have to go to work the next morning because for now, at least, there is still a show to go on.’
MORE : The BBC’s decision to axe Doctors is nonsense – its best years lie ahead
The final episode is set to air next December.
