On one overcast Saturday in September 2014 St George’s opened its doors to the crew and cast of ITV’s award winning drama, ‘Broadchurch’.

The 30-strong crew arrived early in the morning and parked up their three lorries that were brimming with lighting, costume changes and location props – it was going to be an interesting day!

They were here to film some scenes with detectives Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman). Alec was having a pacemaker fitted so they needed to film in a theatre, a ward and get some general corridor shots of him speaking with attributing actors. They also needed to film in A&E but obviously as ours was in use they instead turned an outpatient clinic area into a make-shift A&E with some extras caked in fake blood and others hobbling around on crutches.

To help ensure the scenes were medically accurate ‘Broadchurch’ had requested that we have a clinical member of staff there to give them advice. We were happy to oblige and asked Felicity, an Advanced Theatre Practioner to be on-hand through the day.

Felicity said, “The first surprise of my day was walking into the Day Surgery Unit to discover it had been transformed from the place I attend work Monday – Friday into an unrecognisable arrangement of huge TV monitors dotted all over the place; huge snake-like cables trailing over the floors (an NHS health and Safety officers nightmare come true!); an ENORMOUS spotlight outside the building – and lots and lots of people that I didn’t know. I was introduced to about 15 people as soon as I walked into the unit and forgetting their names instantaneously I was led to work.

“The day itself was a mixture of fun and frustration I have to say! There was a huge amount of hanging around waiting for my services to be required, but when they were I had a good time explaining bits and pieces to the crew, but I must say it was slightly frustrating when the director occasionally decided that ‘artistic license’ freed him to do EXACTLY the opposite of what I’d recommended he do!

“Sticking ECG dots and plasters to David Tennant’s hairy chest was quite amusing as well!!

“Lunch was a spectacular event and I was fed very well with a wonderful choice of food (I was heavily scolded by my daughter after getting home for not taking up the offer of a take-away!) All in all I had a brilliant day and David Tennant and Olivia Colman were lovely to work with – as were the rest of the crew.”

If you missed St George’s in Broadchurch you can catch up on ITV Player.

The series continues this evening on ITV at 9pm.