Last month, I sat down with Elinor Lawless, Charles Venn, Barney Walsh, Melanie Hill and Michael Stevenson to talk about this year’s Casualty Christmas special.

The instalment, set to air in the coming weeks, will focus on the importance of blood transfusions as the staff at the Holby ED face a crisis when they run out of donations.

The powerful episode will also feature comments from members of the public that have had their lives impacted by giving and needing blood.

Amid my glorious chat with a number of Casualty cast members, I also got to ask them what’s ahead for their characters after the Christmas special, when the medical drama’s next boxset kicks off.

Acting legend Melanie Hill plays Clinical Lead Siobhan Mackenzie in the show. Her Coronation Street character Cathy Matthews is a far cry from this powerful nurse, who works hard to ensure every single member of her team feels supported.

In the previous boxset titled Storm Damage, Siobhan discovered husband Rich had been seeing Stevie Nash (Elinor Lawless). Discussing this storyline, Melanie revealed to me there’s a lot more to come with this trio when the show returns permanently to our screens.

‘It’s basically the fallout, Siobhan versus Stevie. It’s a threesome, really. It’s quite sad because there’s no evil person in that triangle. They’re all nice people. Circumstances have happened where Stevie’s fallen in love with my husband, we’re not in love any more, and it’s basically watching that story play out.

‘It’s quite dramatic what happens, actually, because there is a bit of a really catastrophic event happens when we come back in the next box set, that heavily involves the three of them. Lots of drama ahead. Very grateful to have it.’

Before these scenes comes the festive special of the show, which will also mark Siobhan’s first Christmas at Holby ED.

‘I think she’s going to really enjoy being at work, to be honest, because obviously in the last box set we saw her private life fall apart, basically’, Melanie added.

‘Even though she is working with the person who, in her yes, has caused it all, Stevie, she’d rather be at work. From what I’ve played over the last year, Siobhan’s a workaholic, she absolutely loves all her team, she’s very loyal. I think it’s going to be a godsend for Siobhan, being at work at Christmas.’

Another person working the Christmas shift is Iain Dean. This time, things are a little different for him as when he isn’t busy saving lives, he’ll be hanging out with partner Faith (Kirsty Mitchell) and her children.

‘Committing to that sort of life has always been an issue for Iain. This family that he finds himself part of now is really exciting. It’s been a long time in the making and he’s jumping in feet first. He’s moved in, he’s living with them all’, Mike explained to me.

‘He’s had his issues in trying to navigate being some sort of father figure to two of them at least and this Christmas is his first opportunity to settle down and put his slippers on and his Christmas jumper and share that with kids and be silly.

‘I think that’s what Iain would love out of Christmas – all the silliness of Christmas and the wearing the costumes, hiding the presents, the naughty elves. Who wouldn’t love all that? For the first time he’s going to experience that as a family member.’

Reflecting on the importance of donating blood, along with what he learnt while filming this episode, star Barney Walsh – who plays nurse Cam – said: ‘The importance of blood should not be underestimated, because it is the one thing that cannot be replaced and cannot be manufactured. It’s either there or it’s not.

‘From the beginning of the episode, seeing Cam and the particular rigmarole that Cam has to do with the blood from the beginning – out of the fridge into the thing, the clock has to go on, it has to be downstairs by a certain time, has to be on the right shelf at the right time.

‘All of these things you’d expect, OK, but the fact that blood can so easily be either contaminated or the fact that blood can be so easily depleted in an ED or in a resus of one room of one hospital is quite scary and quite staggering.’

He added: ‘It’s something that people won’t think about until they see the episode and they go, “Wow! Is that true?” Because I was on set and I asked the question to one of the medical advisors – is this true that Cam would have stocked the blood on Christmas Eve and by Christmas Day there’s no blood left. And they said absolutely – that blood can go just like that.

‘To learn that, and to be in a position now where we can tell that story to the public and open the public’s eyes on the importance of blood and giving it, it’s an honour to be a part of that story.’

Charles Venn and Elinor Lawless, two more iconic stars of the medical drama who joined me for a chat to reveal their thoughts on the Christmas instalment, as well as what the end of 2024 and the start of 2025 will look like for their characters Jacob and Stevie.

Charles teased: ‘There’s a new character coming into the show and suffice to say Jacob is involved – in a helpful sense – with this character. I can’t say much more than that! I believe there are going to be some interesting situations with Jacob and Iain – that’s all I know at this particular point!

Eli added: ‘There are little seeds sewn in the Christmas special that will bare fruit a bit later on for Stevie. I think, what’s ahead for her, I guess will be her questioning her worth. Questioning where she fits and belongs and exploring what it is to feel alone. There’s a little seed sewn into the episode that we’ll come back to later down the line.’

While Casualty features fictional characters in a pretend hospital, the medical drama has a responsibility to tell realistic stories about patients who enter real-life NHS emergency departments, which means cast portray their characters remembering they are ‘depicting people who are part of an institution.’

Eli divulged: ‘You do feel a sense of responsibility to tell the story and to relay the amount of pressure exerted on these people day in and day out. I think it’s a sense of respect. It’s not so much that it’s daunting, it’s humbling and something you really take seriously.’

Charles noted: ‘We know the gravity of what it is that we’re telling. The genre that we’re working in, telling stories about medical practitioners and patients, it’s the most relatable subject matter, it applies to all of us because we’ve all relied on the NHS for one reason or another. People have travelled from far and wide to come here for the free healthcare.

‘When you’re given the wonderful, honorary responsibility to tell it, yeah, it is a privilege to do it, 100%.’