Tina is one of the show’s longest serving cast members and her character, Chrissie, is set to wed this week in Series 14’s finale episode. She talks to holby.tv about Chrissie’s relationship with Sacha…
How does Chrissie approach the upcoming wedding?
Chrissie wants a small affair. She’s quite apprehensive about having anything too big – she’d rather just run off quietly and get married in a registry office but Sacha wants it all big and bold! She begs him not to do that, so much so that she begins to think she can’t go through with it.
The whole of the episode you’re led to believe she’s not going to do it and that she’s going to call it off. Chrissie is coming from her hen night when she runs into Jac in the middle of the car park (as Sacha has just had his stag do in Luc’s caravan!). Jac says something to her, quite profound, that sticks with her and Chrissie realises that she would be making a terrible mistake to not go through with it and that it would break his heart.
I think she goes into this marriage thinking that she’s doing it all for the right reasons. I don’t think there’s pure adrenaline lust or passion going through her mind but she does think practically that it’s good for Daniel, he’s a good man, that he will always look after her and that everything will be alright.
But does she love him though?
She loves him in her way, yes. They are an unlikely couple but I think it’s what Jac said in that if anyone deserves to be happy it’s him and that sticks with Chrissie. She realises he does deserve to be happy and she’s going to do this for him.
What is it that Chrissie has her doubts about?
I think it’s making sure you’re marrying the right person and I don’t think she’s convinced that she is marrying the right person. She’s hit this time in her life where she wants to feel secure, she wants Daniel to feel secure and maybe she’s thinking all the other things that all are supposed to go with the marriage are not that important, like the passion. Personally I think that is wrong, you need to have all those things!
So you don’t think it will all be plain sailing from here?
Ofcourse not. I think you’ll see from the off set how different they actually are but ultimately I don’t think it will be her doing anything nasty to him. I think it will be them both waking up and realising they want to do different things and you realise a lifetime of doing that is not going to work out.
Where is their common ground?
Daniel. Sacha is a genuine, warm person who adores Chrissie and for some people that’s enough, isn’t it? He adores her and she thinks that will be alright and will be enough for her. She’s going to make that be enough.
What would be your advice to Chrissie if she was your friend?
Don’t do it! I think there is a list of 10 things and you’ve got to be able to tick off atleast seven of those things and if there’s less than five, don’t do it! And for her there’s less than five! I don’t think anything really changes that much, if you are quite a passionate person, which she has been over the years, that’s not going to suddenly just go. You’re always going be left wondering, left wanting more which is a shame but I think that’s what could happen to her in this relationship. At the moment she probably thinks she’s just settled.
What was her relationship with Dan like?
Again, I think she wanted marriage more than love. She desperately wants to be happy, she wants to be married and tick all of them boxes. Now looking back at Dan, you could have seen from day one it wasn’t right but she closed her eyes to it. She thought this was going to be the one and wanted it all to be perfect so perhaps now she’s so exhausted from all of it that she thinks, do you know what; Sacha adores me and adores Daniel so that’s enough for me.
As an actress, do you want Chrissie to be settled?
No I don’t! I adore working with Bob and I love the whole storyline but I can’t see them having a happy ever after! It’s nice seeing a home relationship on the ward as I think people can relate to that though.
Coming up to Christmas, Chrissie has to spend Christmas with Sacha and his family, much to Chrissie’s horror! She suggests to Sacha why don’t they go on holiday as she realises she’s got five days off over Christmas but he’d prefer to stay at home, cook and eat. I think slowly that’s the beginning of things going wrong and indicates that this is not her dream.
What feedback do you get from viewers about their relationship?
I get “be nice to him”, “he’s a decent man”, “he’ll look after you” – I get all of that! But it’s all really positive though. People really care about those two characters, so it’s great. I think you’ll see her trying to make it work.
So we will have empathy for Chrissie?
You’ll go through her torture I think. You know she agrees with everyone, that he is a good man and from what we’ve seen she does care for him. I don’t know if it is just more excitement that she wants or if that she just realises that their worlds are quite different. She’s not ready yet to just settle down and watch tv and eat chocolate every night which is what he wants to do!
And I think maybe both of them will realise, perhaps Sacha could turn round and actually say we are too different?
What was it like filming the wedding?
It was exhausting! Quite tiring and lots of sitting around but it was nice be out on location even if it was only just up the road – in a kebab shop all day!
What’s Chrissie’s hen night like?
It’s only a few scenes. Again she wanted no fuss, just for it to go under the radar. But then Chantelle throws this surprise hen night on her which she does buy into in the end!
I do love working with Lauren, she makes me laugh all the time and Chantelle is such a great character.
Are you still enjoying be on Holby?
Yes I really am. I love working on this show, you get to work with such great actors. I don’t get bored of it because you also have these lovely guests come in so it’s like working on a different show each week!
Do you have any good patient storylines coming up?
She has a storyline coming up where a man has been married for 30 years but only married her out of pity and then his true love, who he has only recently got back together with, gets a brain tumour. He tells Chrissie of his regrets and it all resonates with her. You get one life, you kind of want all of it don’t you?
Would you like to do any other acting roles?
I’d love to do lots of other things but with very small children it’s difficult. I’d have mother’s guilt if I was away from them too long so until they are older and more settled, it does restrict what I can accept or look for which is why Holby is so perfect. I’m taking a bit of time off next year so we’ll see. I’d love to do a couple of episodes of something else just for something different.
