Liz Carling is enthusiastic about her return to CASUALTY as a regular, she tells holby.tv.
‘I think the idea was flying around for a while and I’m glad it did,’ she tells us. ‘It’s great. Since then I haven’t shot anything else, so I’ve had a whole year of doing voiceovers, radio work, pottering about and stuff, so to go back as my last point of reference is fantastic – I love the atmosphere and everyone is really supportive, so it was a joy to come back, it really was.’
Back in Series 17, her character Selena Donovan had a five week stint in the ED department to carry out a drugs trial. Flirting with married Consultant Harry Harper was left with huge consequences when while out at dinner; his wife Beth ended up being involved in a car accident with his daughter Tally – a driving lesson, Harry had previously promised he would take her on. Beth died and this prompted a quick exit for Selena while Harry struggled to come to terms with his grief.
‘Selena felt really bad about that obviously, everyone in the hospital hated her and Harry was guilt ridden,’ Liz explains. ‘So that was that – it was all nipped in the bud really quickly!’
Now their relationship is strictly professional, when Selena returns on the scene to bring a new crime dimension to the show as a Police Surgeon to investigate the case of two missing children. ‘There’s a lot of water under the bridge as far as she’s aware,’
‘I think it’s the first time CASUALTY has had a Police Surgeon involved. It’s great for me as it gets Selena out of ED, working with the police and adds this extra dimension to the show.’
Describing her role she added, ‘As a police surgeon, she’s not allowed to take evidence or crack crimes. She deals with victims of violent crime, rape case – things like that’
Liz has enjoyed playing the character of Selena, who’s of contrast to her other TV roles such as Goodnight Sweetheart, ‘It’s a really nice change for me. This character is probably one of the grittiest I’ve ever played, so she’s really something to get your teeth into. She just doesn’t suffer fools.’
Asked if there were similarities between her and Selena she joked, ‘There can be, I guess it just depends what mood I am in!’ Explaining ‘If people are nice to me then I’m nice to them. Treat like as like.’
‘I walk away from situations and five minutes later think “I wish I said that” whereas Selena would say it straightaway. I’m guess I’m not as sharp as her.’
Liz also had to do some research for her role, ‘I met a police surgeon and talked about various things, but I have yet to do my day on A&E but I will as I think that will be really useful. I think it’s important to do it but at the moment the schedule is so tight’
Filming has had some difficulties though, Liz admits, ‘I am terribly squeamish – once there was this woman who’d been in a car crash and I knew that it was a dog biscuit covered in blood but when I lifted it up for the first time, I thought I was going to be sick!’
She also found getting her head round medical terms a nightmare, ‘It’s like talking Sawhali, which doesn’t come trippingly off the tongue. I have to practice it over and over again till it sits in my head. Well that’s the theory!’
In the first episode Selena is revealed to be newly married to police detective Will Manning. But only after two months of marriage, their relationship hits rocky waters when she catches him in bed with another woman.
‘Her heart gets completely broken – it’s only been two months and he’s being naughty with someone else!’
‘She’s becomes emotionally shut down. But no doubt she’ll pick herself up eventually.’
As for future storylines, Liz admits she doesn’t like to find out much in advance, ‘Some actors like to find out where their character is going – in life you don’t know what’s around the corner, so I prefer not to know and just take each script as it’s posted in my pigeon hole!’
Liz is spending most her time in Bristol were CASUALTY is filmed, but her home is in London where she still has a ‘well looked after’ flat. ‘I had a two week break recently and returned to my flat for the first time in five weeks’
Most of her family are in Middlesborough however, but she manages to get by through ‘texting a lot and phoning a lot.’
Working a six day week, 12 hour day does prove having a social life difficult, ‘I’ve had about three nights out since joining at the beginning of May!’
She explains, ‘For example, if we start work at 8am, we’d be picked up at 7am, so we’d need to get up at 6am – it means you can’t have too many late nights – well you could if you wanted to suffer the next day. But you need to have so much concentration and focus, I couldn’t risk it,’ She joked ‘I sound like a sob story!’
But she insists she wouldn’t change it for the world, adding as her highlight so far ‘Taking pellets out of a man’s bottom!’
Explaining further she revealed, ‘It was the first time I had to do a procedure. It was a prosthetic bottom and I had to put the needle in – my face was an absolute picture because I am very squeamish. I know it’s all pretend but there was blood oozing out of the wound, then I had to find the pellet – it was like a game of Operation!’
