Ben Turner joined the show last series as nurse Jay Faldren. His cheekiness and pranks have always created laughs but it’s his recent romance with Ruth Winters that has created most debate. Ben talks to holby.tv about his role in the new series…
What’s in store for Jay in Series 24?
Jay is still getting on with his job, still a cheeky chappie, getting into trouble, saying things he shouldn’t say. Jay and Ruth, continue to flirt and fight.
Tell us more about Jay’s relationship with Ruth..
All will be revealed quite quickly, I don’t want to give too much away but there’s clearly an attraction between the two characters but they are very different people and I think it’s that constant push and pull that happens in the workplace versus what happens in the privacy of their own homes.
What about them do you think makes them an interesting couple to watch?
I like the fact that there are characters who seem destined to be together – we really want to see them get together but there’s all sorts of personal things that stop them from achieving that. As a teaser we like to feed that. If we can get the audience behind us, wanting these characters to get together and then actually not put them together then we’ve got somewhere to go.
How does Jay interact with the new F2’s?
As a nurse, I’m with them all the time, kind of looking out for them. The main issue Jay has is the whole thing with doctors being so used to cutting people open that they forget that they’re dealing with human beings and people with feelings. So Jay’s there to balance that element out. Particularly Lenny, who seems hell bent with the medical practice that he forgets that he’s dealing with real people and Jay being very good at dealing with people, he teaches them how to do that.
What other topics does CASUALTY touch on this series?
We deal with poverty quite a lot such as the homeless people that come in during the first episodes.
Cultural differences such as for example when Muslim people die, the process of how they deal with the body is very different to Western culture; someone dies in hospital, they go through a post mortem whereas certainly in Iran or places like that the first thing they do is wrap the body up and start praying and within seven days the body needs to be in the ground. But it’s so different here, so we touch on that a little bit.
And we deal with families a lot, resolving issues which I imagine happens a lot in real hospitals.
What do you think makes CASUALTY remain successful after so many years?
What CASUALTY does brilliantly is that it has a formula that works. At the same time it pushes the boundaries as much as they can and throw their heart into it but underneath it I think the formula is always the same, so people know what to expect when they watch it.
What have been some of your most memorable moments to film so far?
When Jay was dressed as a pirate and had to rescue Toby. That was quite good fun; I had to do a days filming in a pool with lots of scuba gear, dressed as Jack Sparrow. I don?t know if you’ve ever tried to swim in full pirate brigade but I tell you its practically impossible! I ended up needing help myself!
I also had to save someone from a roof in one episode. We had to find a way of her going to commit suicide but for it to look like I go to get her but miss her or slip. The final shot where we bring the stunt woman in and I rush to the edge, I grab her hand and we cut to a shot which is down on the floor looking up and it does kind of look like I just dropped her. But I like to think it was quite Lethal Weapon and I called her bluff!
I also enjoyed working with regular ‘Mrs Bassey’. Once I had to work with her and a box full of maggots. That was horrible, I’ve got no problem with blood but show me a box of maggots and I’m out of there!
What feedback do you get from viewers?
I’m quite a hit with the grandmas! I also get ‘Dump Ruth’ quite a lot, shouted out of cars. I get it quite in the neck because of Ruth…!
