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Casualty star Cathy Shipton speaks out ahead of Duffy exit

Photo credit: BBC
Photo credit: BBC

From Digital Spy

Casualty star Cathy Shipton has spoken out about Duffy's exit ahead of her final episode this weekend.

The actress is leaving the show after three decades of playing Duffy, who has been living with dementia for the last couple of years.

Although the further details of Duffy's exit is being kept under wraps, Cathy has explained that she never planned to stay long-term when she returned in 2016.

Speaking to Digital Spy about how the story came about, Cathy said: "There was a movement between the show to take on long lead stories – stories that last longer than one episode or a month.

"These stories were going to play out over a long period of time, like Iain's depression story. They approached me and asked what I thought. I hadn't said this to them but I already knew when I went back four years ago that I wouldn't want to stay forever.

"That married with this and I knew I'd want to see the story through. They planned it out over the last two years so, in a way, it was a mutual thing."

Photo credit: BBC
Photo credit: BBC

Discussing how she felt filming her final scenes, Cathy added: "I think it was worse for everyone else, than me. I was more emotional two years ago when we started talking about this as a potential storyline.

"That is when I had my, 'Oh gosh, how is this going to be handled' moment. Once we had more talks about it all and I saw the amount of care and time that was going to be taken over it, I realised that it was a really important piece of work."

Casualty airs Duffy's final episode on Saturday, February 1 at 9.15pm on BBC One.


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