After Saturday’s dramatic Casualty, new clinical nurse manager Rita is in the doghouse with clinical lead Connie, but actress Chloe Howman tells What’s on TV she's relishing the demands of the big storyline.
“This episode was quite heavy! Because we film day-in, day-out on Casualty, all year round, when you have a big storyline your schedule can be absolutely mental. But when I feel shattered I remind myself it’s high drama every day, and I love playing Rita.”
Having played gutsy nurse Rita Freeman on the BBC’s long-running medical drama since 2013, Chloe has found her own way of balancing the busy filming schedule.
She laughs: “I take it a day at a time, it’s the only way – otherwise you’d actually go mental! Because so much happens within Casualty, sometimes it can feel like a lot. Thankfully we’ve got a fantastic team around us who keep us grounded. And the heavy stories are shared so it’s not on one person all the time.”
Fans of Casualty were on the edge of their seats when Rita’s first shift as clinical nurse manager was hijacked by the reappearance of her convicted paedophile husband Mark (Joel Beckett). All hell broke loose when Connie’s young daughter Grace went missing from the hospital...
“I hope everyone enjoyed it. It’s a really nice journey for Rita. I really felt for her. She does the best she can in that moment. Rita has learned from her mistakes. She’s a humanitarian and tries to let go [of Mark] with as much forgiveness and sincerity as she can muster.”
But with battle lines drawn between Connie and Rita, this isn’t the end of Chloe’s big storylines. She hinted: “The ramifications of what happen at the end of this episode are massive - keep watching!”
Read more from Chloe Howman here
