Creation
Nick Jordan was created in 1998 by BBC executives Mal Young and Tony McHale. He was conceived as a Cardiothoracic Surgical Registrar who would become a main character in new medical drama Holby City - a spin-off of the station's long-running Casualty. Unlike Casualty, which focused on the Emergency Department of the fictional Holby City Hospital, Holby City would centre around the hospital's cardiothoracic surgical ward, Darwin. The main characters were all staff on the ward, with Nick Jordan working on the surgical firm of lead Consultant Anton Meyer. Discussing the show's conception as a spin-off, Young has explained: "Like most people I’ve often wondered what happens next to those patients who come in after accidents. Where do they go when you see them disappearing upstairs on a trolley at the end of an episode? As I thought about this, it struck me – why start afresh when you’ve got the basis of a series already? People have busy lives and if they already follow a number of soaps, they take to a new drama series when they make sense quickly. This could be a way of helping that to happen."
The original cast of Holby City featured a number of established actors. Michael French, cast as Nick Jordan, was already well known for his role as David Wicks in EastEnders. French's cast-mates included George Irving, Angela Griffin, Lisa Faulkner and Nicola Stephenson. This propensity towards famous names was explained by Young, who commented: "Soap actors are the best actors. There’s been so much snobbery before. The whole thing about typecasting was probably invented by actors who couldn’t get other work. From day one I knew I wanted to put on screen people that viewers want to watch. There’s no downside to that."
In preparation for assuming the role of Nick, French undertook research at the Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, observing heart surgery performed. He said of the experience: "These guys are on their feet for hours on end. If the operation demands it, they’ll be there from eight in the morning until nine at night. I was there observing the intricate work they were doing, and my back started to hurt long before one operation was over, so goodness how they must feel doing it, day in, day out."
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Famous quotes containing the word creation:
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“Since we are assured that the all-wise Creator has observed the most exact proportions of number, weight and measure in the make of all things, the most likely way therefore to get any insight into the nature of those parts of the Creation which come within our observation must in all reason be to number, weigh and measure.”
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