The Good Karma Hospital will have an acid attack storyline suggested by star Amanda Redman
The ITV show's third season will include the storyline that Redman pitched to the series creators
The Good Karma Hospital star Amanda Redman suggested an acid attack story arc to the show's writer Dan Sefton, before researching the plotline at the same hospital where she stayed as a child after sustaining serious burns.
Asked about the upcoming third season, Sefton said: "I think a big part of this season was with Amanda, talking with her about our serial story and the story of Jyoti, who suffers this horrible acid attack and has to cope with this burns injury, which is something Amanda knows [about] well and she was involved in the charity work."
Speaking at a press event, Sefton revealed that it was Redman who had suggested the six-episode storyline to him, before they both visited the famed South London burns unit in East Grinstead for research.
"We went to East Grinstead, which is the burns unit to the south of London which has been doing that work for about a hundred years and everything, and they talked to us about the psychological aspect of these injuries, the rehabilitation time it takes, the number of operations you need to go through" he said. "It's an absolute marathon, it's such a devastating injury, it's such a cruel thing to do... there's always a scar left those mental and physical."
"We tried very hard with the collaboration with Amanda, it's a subject that's very close to the heart cause she suffered it when she was young," he said, later adding that they had a burns specialist advising on the series.
Speaking at the same event, Redman told RadioTimes.com that filming the storyline – in which her character, Dr Lydia Fonseca, assists the victim Jyoti – was "upsetting", detailing one scene in which Jyoti's skin falls off in the shower.
"There were bits of hair and scalp falling away. It was quite upsetting," Redman said.
Series three will begin at 8pm on ITV on Sunday 15th March 2020.
