Casualty EXCLUSIVE: Eddie-Joe Robinson takes us behind the scenes of Ryan Firth’s brutal assault

“As weird as it is saying that you were excited about seeing your character getting beaten black and blue, it was an exciting prospect. I’ve done a few stunts and a bit of violence on screen before but nothing to that extent, so it was exciting, not only from the physical aspect of it, but also the psychological aspect as well. I was excited for the task acting-wise of what the fallout from this event is going to be and how badly it’s going to affect Ryan…”

“That's one of the brilliant things about Casualty. Of course, it's a drama and with that, they have to up the stakes slightly but it's never too far away from realism. What we do so brilliantly on the show is reflecting current problems that NHS workers face and I think violence towards NHS workers, especially with everything that's happened over the last three or four years with COVID, the general atmosphere around EDs is much more tense and highly strung because the stakes at hand are so high; life and death. I think what this does is then give rise to these kinds of events.”

“Yes, because what we see on screen happening to Ryan is not a rarity, it happens in real life, it is a true reflection of certain places and events. So, as excited as I was and looking forward to doing it, I also felt a responsibility to do it justice because I know that some people have experienced this kind of thing in their real life.”

“It was tricky because you have to choreograph it for a long time. You have to be quite delicate with these things so that no one actually does end up getting hurt. You take it step by step and you trust in the people that you're working with. Luckily, Jimmy, who plays Ray, was brilliant and just incredibly receptive to everything the director and the fight coordinator were giving us. The fight coordinator on set kind-of supersedes the director at that point because they're the ones who know this stuff. You take their lead and take it slowly.”

“We had two stunt doubles, one for each of us. I don't think I've had a stunt double before - it’s really cool! I was ready to get stuck in myself, but then when I learned exactly what we were going to be doing I thought, ‘I will leave that one to the professionals.’ I was so grateful to have my stunt double there, he was great. He’s a bit taller than me, a bit more muscly and a bit more handsome as well, so I was thinking, ‘maybe I should get this guy to do the whole scene!'”

“I’m pretty sure we spent the whole day on that scene because it takes a long time to get the moves right. You’ve also got things falling over so, if in one take something falls one way, you need to make sure it falls the same way the next time.” 

“Yes, it feels like there's a point where it switches from ‘Ryan is getting beaten up’ to ‘Ryan might die.’ There's quite a distinct difference isn't there? Towards the end you're left thinking is he going to make it through? At the end of the scene Ryan is fully unconscious and the cliffhanger here is, is he going to make it though or not?”