Derek Riddell plays Andy Peat

What drew you to the project and had you watched any of Lucy Gannon’s dramas prior to working with her?

Obviously the fact that Lucy had written it was a big draw. She has a great track record and I’ve watched many of her programmes over the years such as Soldier Soldier and Peak Practice. I really liked the balance of comedy and tragedy in the scripts and, having played a lot of unlikeable characters recently, so I was itching to play someone who is quite a nice bloke with a good sense of humour!

What is the premise of this drama?

It follows the daily routine of a group of district nurses in Bristol. Focussing mainly on lead district nurse, Frankie Maddox, over the six episodes you get a look at the difficulties these characters encounter in both their professional and personal lives. It is, however, not overtly medical and I like to think of it as a character driven piece.

Andy seems like a good sort. What’s his story?

He is a good sort. Very reliable. Someone who takes his work seriously but doesn’t take himself too seriously. He’s an ex-army medic, fine-tuned by his time in the forces and as a result is very capable in high pressure situations.

How unusual is it to find a male District Nurse and does Andy face any particular professional challenges because of his gender?

Before filming started I thought that a male district nurse would be a very rare thing but apparently not... In fact, Chris, one of our props men on the show, was an ex district nurse. In the programme you see that some people are surprised to find a male nurse arriving on their doorstep and make assumptions. There are also occasions when patients appear to get slightly over dependent on him.

Did you spend time with any district nurses before filming and would you have the skills / personality for the role?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to spend time with any prior to filming but we always had someone on set who would instruct us on the right and wrong ways of doing things and as previously mentioned, Chris, our props man, was an invaluable resource having been one himself in a former life.

I think I would find it very hard not to get too attached to some of the cases they encounter and am probably not emotionally tough enough to be a very good district nurse.

Were you shocked by anything you learnt in your research/in practice?

Not really, I think its pretty well catalogued the pressures that the NHS finds itself under and the amount of red tape which can make what seems a relatively simple task into a very complicated one.

Andy clearly has a strong bond with Frankie and is a huge support to her. Does this run deeper than friendship?

You’ll have to wait and see how things develop, but Eve and I initially wanted to go for a really strong brother/sister type relationship. He knows what she’s like, her strengths, her weaknesses and he has a good deal of sympathy for her partner Ian, because he knows living with her must be challenging at times, to say the least.

The Bristol location features heavily in the drama. Did the cast and crew locate to Bristol for the duration of the shoot and how well did you get to know the city?

I was usually in Bristol Monday to Friday and would go back to London at weekends; Eve lives in Cardiff so she commuted every day. I got to see lot of Bristol and was really impressed by it. I hadn’t been there since doing an episode of Casualty years and years ago and it’s changed so much. It has a real vibrancy about it. Very arty with lots of interesting shops, cafes and bars. Most people that came down from London to film there really fell in love with place.

Had you worked with any of the cast before?

Out of the regular cast I had only worked with Julia Ford before. She directed me in a BBC One daytime drama last year so to see her again and act with her was great fun. Although Dean Lennox Kelly and I have never worked together we’ve known each other for a long time.

I think a great strength of the show is the calibre of its guest actors it and I’d worked with quite a few of them over the years such as Kaye Wragg, James Thornton and Dean Andrews.