Michael Stevenson addresses Casualty’s recovery from ‘turbulent times’ ahead of ‘unmissable’ Charlie exit

Michael has played Iain since 2012 (Picture: BBC)

Just like other soaps and continuing dramas on our screens, Casualty occasionally goes through difficult periods that often leaves fans struggling to enjoy storylines.

One thing that gave Casualty the opportunity to step up its game and change was the axing of Holby City – and they most certainly took it.

As things started to slowly get back on track, the arrival of Jon Sen as Executive Producer also saw the format of Casualty change completely.

Now, instead of running one continuous series, Casualty airs boxsets that focus on one specific storyline over the course of 12 episodes.

The most recent one, titled Driving Force, primarily focused on an exhausted Donna (Jaye Jacobs), who was involved in a car crash after falling asleep at the wheel.

As well as making it easier for the audience to invest in plots, the change also shows Casualty once again adapting to the world we live in and the way we watch shows.

Michael Stevenson, who has played paramedic Iain Dean since 2012, recently reflected on this during a chat with Metro.co.uk.

‘I think, in all my years of being there, I was saying this to one of the execs the other day is that, it’s been through a lot of turbulent times, brilliant times, but I think the show at the moment…it is frustrating for the audience because we’ve been off air for so long – I think we just got to a point where we won everybody’s attention back’, he said.

Iain works alongside Jan, Jacob, Sah and Teddy (Picture: BBC)

‘My mum’s always a very fine example of speaking the truth and she’ll tell me when it’s not so good! She constantly phones me and she said it’s absolutely back at it’s A game and you feel that on the floor. You feel it in the building, people are excited to get the scripts again, because the storylines are really gritty.

‘The new format that we’re working with at the moment with this 12 episode arc. We focus heavily on one character’s journey for 12 episodes, which hopefully grips in the audience as well. I think it’s just brilliant and it just shows that we’re moving forward with the times.

‘I think the show is probably in one of the best states I can remember it being in to be honest.’

Teasing what’s ahead for Iain when the show eventually returns to our screens, Michael told us:

Iain’s relationship with Faith progresses (PIcture: BBC)

‘Iain moves into uncharted territory in his personal life, in that he sort of becomes a bit more of a family man. His and Faith’s relationship gets cemented a little bit more and then he becomes included in the family. But with that comes the complications of 18 year olds and three kids that are all sort of trying times in their lives.’

As Casualty goes from strength to strength, it won’t be long until we say goodbye to Derek Thompson, who has played Charlie Fairhead since the very first episode back in 1986.

Aside from Sunetra Sarker’s return as Doctor Zoe Hanna, there’s not much we know about Charlie’s final storyline just yet, but Michael promised it will definitely be memorable:

Derek has played Charlie since the very first episode of Casualty (Picture: BBC)

‘You’re looking at a character that’s been in the forefront for the best part of 38 years so he’s not going to just walk out of the ED doors. Look, his legacy speaks for itself, and I haven’t seen the final cut of that episode, but I know that being part of them and knowing the scripts that they’re going to be huge eps and ones that you know, certainly will want to be watched by millions of people.

‘It’s a huge character to not be on your screens anymore so you know, the show will have done that justice in order to see that come to an end.’

When Michael isn’t filming at Casualty as Iain, he is busy working as a producer on short films created by his production company, CuspFilms.

The most recent one, The One Note Man, follows a musician – played by Jason Watkins – who lives a comfortable life doing the same thing day in day out.

Set over the festive period, the film looks at how the man is challenged when a violinist catches his eye.

Oh, and it doesn’t have any dialogue and is narrated by acting legend Ian McKellen.

No big deal.

‘When you first read the script, and you have a very similar sort of experience to when you first watch the film, it takes you until you get kind of halfway, maybe all the way to the end before you go, there’s no dialogue at all!’, Michael said.

It features Michael’s co-star Crystal Yu and former Emmerdale star Louisa Clein (Picture: Provided/Michael Stevenson)

‘When I read the script for the first time, it’s all stage directions, it’s all feelings and emotions and things like that. So, it’s a very similar experience to the film, it takes you a while to recognise that there’s not a word of dialogue and that, again, is really appealing, because I’ve never worked on anything like that before.’

The success of the film so far is something Michael described as ‘amazing’. After it ‘took two years to get off the ground’, the hardwork seriously paid off recently, as The One Note Man ended up getting qualified for the Oscars!

The film is set over the festive period (Picture: Provided/Michael Stevenson)

‘We couldn’t rush it, we had to get the finance. Initially we sort of watered down because it was set in the Albert Hall so we had to bring it down a few pegs! But I think that all really fed into the sort of cuteness and the warmth, quintessentially sort of Britishness of the film is that we were able to bring it down and centre it around this little community sort of orchestra and things like that’, Michael explained.

‘In terms of how long it took to get off the ground to filming, we filmed in March, we picture locked in June, and we finished post production in July. And then we won the first festival that we got accepted at, which was Rhode Island, which happened to be an Oscar qualifying festival!’.

Pondering over the prospect of going to the Oscars, Michael smiled: ‘What’s happened over the last few years is that the short film Oscar has gone to I think…three of the last six have been British, last year was Irish. So these people that are on your doorstep have already done it. That gives you that feeling of going, it’s not out of the realms of possibility.

‘Our film sits in the genre that’s probably not normally within what you would expect an Oscar winning short to be. There is no political message, nothing in there about mental health and there’s nothing about social commentary.

He added: ‘It’s a warm, feel good Rom Com which we always intended. In the times that we are living in at the moment and the dark things that are happening in the world, we wanted an audience to walk out of the theatre smiling.’

‘So hopefully that’s what you know, the Academy members are looking at and they’ll enjoy it!’.

Fingers crossed!

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We chat to Michael Stevenson about Casualty and his short film The One Note Man.