Casualty boss Jon Sen on leaving medical drama, teaming up with Lenny Henry

After heading up EastEnders from 2019 to 2022, Sen moved to Casualty and has helped shift the style of the much-loved medical drama during his time at the show.

After an acclaimed run heading up Casualty and seeing the medical drama win a BAFTA TV Award for Soap & Continuing Drama, Sen announced earlier this year that he would be leaving the show behind.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com, Sen explained why he chose to depart the medical drama and also discussed his next move.

"I worked as a writer, director, story producer and then exec on Casualty," recalled Sen. "I adore the show. I watched it with my parents and together it's got a massive place in my heart."

He explained: "When I joined the show, my ambition was to make it a British ER. I'd always worked on it and I've always loved the art and I was desperate to make something very similar in terms of energy, pace, number of guests, style, and authenticity.

"And so I set about working with the team in order to deliver that to the audience because these shows – and I've always felt this – need constant reinvention to appeal to a new audience, otherwise they can become boring, stale, and kind of predictable.

"And that will be the death of continuing drama, if people don't understand that they are vital and that they can have the capacity to reinvent themselves, then I think they will fall out of favour, given the competition that there is with streaming services – it's too easy to turn over now.

"And so you've got to really renew your offer to an audience. You've also got to be really consistent in what you deliver to an audience week in and week out. So they build allegiance to the brand. And that's something that I think we've done over the last couple of years with Casualty."

Discussing his approach to stories with 'special' and more focused episodes, Sen continued: "We've used these special episodes in order to really tantalise the audience about the possibilities, whilst at the same time, we've made really strong efforts to deliver consistent quality week in and week out, and we're seeing that in the viewing figures. The audience is really strong at the moment and kind of coming back to Casualty.

"I work with a brilliant team, but the quantity of stories that the show takes is immense. And, you know, coming in, making some changes to the brand, bringing on the Nigel Harmans of the world, or, you know, I'm really, really thrilled about the four new young nurses who have joined the show. We've introduced new young nurses to the show many times and that's the most successful introduction of a cohort that we've ever had."

Sen concluded: "Having done that, I just felt it was time to [leave], you know – achieving what I wanted to set out to achieve. I felt it was time to move on and give somebody else a chance to lead what is an amazing show."

However, Sen now has a very exciting new venture that he is moving to, following on from his departure from the BBC later this year.

Teaming up with the legendary actor, comedian and writer Sir Lenny Henry, Sen will be the Joint Managing Director of Esmeralda Productions.

This new scripted start-up will "focus on broad appeal drama and comedy, with an emphasis on working with under-represented writers, cast and crew".

Speaking about the move, Sen described his pleasure at working with a "trailblazer" like Sir Lenny Henry.

He said: "He's somebody who we've all looked up to, for his work not only just comedy but his work with diversity. He's obviously worked within the whole industry. It's a real exciting opportunity for us to do exactly what we're talking about – bringing out new voices."

Sen continued: "We're an open door, we want to provide a nurturing environment where everyone feels they’re supported to produce their best work and that, given both of our history trying to push diversity forward, I think this is a moment when we can really engage with people who've just not had that opportunity before.

"And, you know, Lenny's ITV series, Three Little Birds, that's really exciting, and there would be some brilliant series off the back of that.

"We want to really make sure that the momentum keeps going and that we make sure that we put our money where our mouth is and really bring on exciting new voices."

Casualty returns later in 2023 and old episodes are available for catch-up on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Soaps coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight.

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