Casualty will air its first ever improvised episode this weekend

Casualty is set to air its first ever improvised episode this weekend in an unscripted storyline that will reflect the pressure paramedics are under.

Featuring Holby Ambulance Service workers Jan Jenning, Iain Dean, Sah Brockner and Teddy Gowan, it will show how they are pushed to breaking point by ambulance queues in an overstretched health service.

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The BBC One medical drama's Di Botcher, who plays Jan, comes back from holiday but is soon ground down by a long shift and makes a mistake.

Meanwhile Teddy (Milo Clarke) gets a confidence knock on a difficult call out, and Iain and Sah (Michael Stevenson and Arin Smethurst) both face extremely stressful situations, too.

Steve Hughes, director of the episode, said the actors were “scared” at first as it is like walking a “tightrope without a net” before they found it “freeing and exciting”.

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Hughes added: “It was vital to make this episode feel as authentic as possible to highlight the challenges paramedics, and the NHS as a whole, face on a daily basis.”

Jon Sen, executive producer of Casualty for BBC Studios, said: “The ambition behind the (episode) was to tell a story that gets as close as possible to what it is like to stand in the shoes of paramedics up and down the country.

“After our extensive research, using improvisation techniques to capture the truth of the world seemed only natural.

“We want people to come away having a greater respect for the work paramedics do and a true appreciation of the challenges they face.”

Although this is the first improvised episode, Casualty filmed a live episode shot all in one take in 2017.

The drama's spin-off series Holby City, set in another department of the hospital, came to an end in March this year after 23 years on screen.

Casualty’s improvised episode will air on Saturday at 8.10pm on BBC One.