Kimberley Nixon: ending Fresh Meat was like leaving uni, giving birth and getting married all at the same time
The Welsh actress spills the beans about the tear-filled and "slightly traumatic" last day on set
After 4 series, 3 years of uni and countless laughs the Fresh Meat gang are bidding farewell to viewers later this year – and according to star Kimberley Nixon, filming the last scenes of the student comedy series were suitably emotional.
“It was like leaving school, uni, saying goodbye to your best friends, giving birth, and getting married…all at the same time,” she told RadioTimes.com.
“It was wonderful, but it was horrible at the same time. We were there with crew who had been there from the beginning, you know, art department who had given me my first ever Josie props.”
Nixon went on to describe the last day on set, which saw co-stars Joe Thomas, Jack Whitehall, Zawe Ashton and Charlotte Ritchie unite for the last time (with series 3's Faye Marsay not appearing in the final run)
“We did our last ever take together – Charlotte Ritchie had finished her scenes 2 weeks before to do Call the Midwife, but she managed to get the day off to come back.”
“We filmed a scene with 5 of us in and Charlotte watching. We did the last take on the last shot ever with Fresh Meat, and we were all in absolute tears at the end. It was slightly traumatic.”
Nixon now describes herself as “unemployed” – though she hopes that her recent role as junior doctor Harry Bennett-Edwards (above) in Sky1’s Critical might see her back on screens soon.
“There’s talk of a second series, we don’t know yet. I’m unemployed, so a job’s always good,” she said. “We’ll probably find out in the next month, and then we’ll be filming all next year.”
“Last time we shot January to October – it was the longest job I’ve ever done. We were in that white set, and we all went mad by the end. We all had white room cabin fever.”
“It was hard,” Nixon concluded. “Just because of the nature of the show, it’s so entirely medical and clinical, and the prosthetics were so incredible. The resets would take 2 hours, so it was an arduous shoot in that way. But when I watched it on TV it entirely paid off. It was incredible.”
Fresh Meat series 4 will air this autumn
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.