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Danny defines himself as this hyper-intelligent, empirically-driven person because he's worried about what definitions other people would impose on him if they were given the chance

How did the casting process come about for you?
I work with Birds Of Paradise, Scotland's leading disability-led Theatre Company. They were approached by the casting directing of the opportunity, and as a young, male, wheelchair user I fit the criteria. They told me about it and it went from there. When I was going through the audition process I was telling myself it was never going to happen - but it did!

It was all a bit surreal, but I was really happy when I got the role - especially because Danny is such an interesting character.

Tell us about your character Danny Adams
Danny Adams has a very sharp eye for details. This is useful for pattern recognition and piecing together narratives from the facts and figures that are presented to him. He masks his social anxiety (or fears surrounding the unpredictability of people) with his intelligence.

Danny defines himself as this hyper-intelligent, empirically-driven person because he's worried about what definitions other people would impose on him if they were given the chance. It’s likely that he feels quite isolated from others, not only due to his physical differences but also because of the way he perceives the world.

For Danny, it is easier to focus on details - on figures, inductive reasoning - than to address or even face up to emotional states like fear or anxiety, which he finds difficult to understand. If he shares a narrative with you that he has found by piecing together facts, he is doing this as an act of care and communication of potential friendship even if - to you - it reads as awkward or socially inept.

Fundamentally, Danny is kind and caring - he’s just unsure of how to communicate this in a way that is typical.

How did you prepare for the role?
I read a lot about SCI [Spinal Cord Injury]. I don't have an SCI personally, although I do have spinal lesions, so getting my head around the traumatic incident and how that would impact how a person viewed their physicality was difficult. Not only was a traumatic incident not my experience of my impairment, a quick "oh now you're disabled" turnaround was so far from how I have learnt, and am learning to understand my body and experience.

I read a lot of testimonials, talked to people I know who have had an SCI and tried to understand how that would change your interaction, conceptually, with your body and your disability. I read around Danny's interests as much as possible to understand his mechanisms and lenses for viewing the world and tried to figure out how he would think. Danny is younger than me, so I read a lot of sources from younger people online and tried to empathise with them, and think back to how I thought when I was younger than I am now.

I tried to embody the physicality a little bit. I do not have an injury at T (thoracic) so can only really approach the physicality from a position of mimicry. I discussed, at length, what it was like having an injury at ‘T’ with people with an SCI that I knew, and tried to figure out how to translate my own incomplete lesion at ‘C’ (cervical) to looking like an ‘T’.

This had, varying levels of success but, trying to reconsider my physicality on such a specific level as 'incomplete T might be able to move their legs differently, complete T might also…' and generally learning more about the variance in how SCIs present not only felt like something Danny might do (intensely researching his own condition, as many people do) but also felt like something that broadened my own understanding not just of Danny, but of SCI in general.

What was it like working on set?
Working on set was really interesting, though a bit dissociative for me for the first week or so. Prior to this, the only sets I had been on had been in youth theatre and in Contemporary Performance Art. I expected it to look like a set, but when I rolled in it didn't look like a set - it looked like a hospital!

I've spent a lot of time in hospitals, and I had expected to be able to discern the differences straight away, but when there, I found myself feeling the same things and engaging in the same manner as I would do within a medical context.

I came to really enjoy the contrast between this seemingly medicalised place, and interactions with the actors and crew. Every day brought something new and when it did come time to leave, I found myself missing it.

Did you face any challenges during the shoot?
Due to Danny being in a hospital, he was using a hospital-issue wheelchair. This was difficult as the chair itself is much larger and heavier than the chair I use. Danny also doesn't wear gloves when using his chair, as an injury so far down as ‘L’ (lumbar) is unlikely to impact his dexterity. This was difficult because my dexterity is atypical, and pushing the chair without gloves was hard. I have differences in movement, and at times full body jerks - Danny does not have these.

When I came in it felt like there were all these potential access issues, and transferring in and out my chair without help was going to be difficult and annoying - but the cast and crew never once made me feel uncomfortable or as if I was being 'difficult' due to my access requirements or physical differences.

It’s not an easy role to play, did you have any reservations about taking on the role?
I've been told numerous times that this role is difficult, but coming from a place in which I had never had a TV acting role, I didn't approach it as, oh this is a difficult role - and that must have helped. When I saw the amount of lines the character had, I remember thinking that it was a lot to learn, but it didn't strike me that it would be overly difficult to do so. Acting is the learning of lines, and the integrating of emotions and characterisation: it felt like the lines gave me an understanding of Danny's character that felt natural and authentic.

The shooting for the role took place during study for my MSc History of Medicine, and my one reservation was timing. Would the university agree to taking time out to shoot, and would the company be able to change their schedule to allow me to shoot? Both of these things fell into place, and although it was a bit of culture shock to go from studying Ancient Greek medical texts to acting, it became weirdly seamless, with a lot of my thoughts during the shoot being about the representation of medicine and disability, which has informed some of my written work in the past semester.

Why did Danny confide in Jamie?
Firstly, Jamie was a figure of authority. Danny would be aware, due to his interest in military history, that Jamie is almost guaranteed by the nature of his service to be trustworthy and capable, so sharing the information with him would be a good idea as it would allow that information to be communicated from a trusted source.

Secondly, Danny saw that Jamie had no visitors, no interaction outside and was fairly shut down to the staff - it strikes me that Danny is someone who has spent time alone, isolated and knows how that feels. Perhaps he didn't want Jamie to feel the same things he had previously felt regarding social isolation, so took it upon himself to intervene and try to be his friend - the way Danny knows how to do this. Information exchange.

What made Danny start collating the data from the hospital deaths?
Either he had noted some odd behaviour and decided to research the hospital in greater depth, or during a 'routine' research of the hospital he may have noted the abnormality in the morality rate and thought it prudent to investigate and try and come up with a conclusion as to why this was happening.

It started out of curiosity, rather than necessarily going in with a theory already built. Once the data was assembled and he could see the differences in mortality between the unit and other similar units, then he would probably have begun hypothesising. Danny is well versed in conspiracy theories, and an upshot of that type of thinking is a critical eye towards data and behaviour.

Character breakdowns

Corporal Jamie McCain, played by Alfred Enoch
Corporal Jamie McCain is both tough and intelligent. His world is one of physical capability, getting on and doing, not talking about it. The kind of person you would describe as a man of action. As the story begins, the man of action finds himself unable to walk. Frozen both physically and emotionally, and suspected of suffering from PTSD, it looks like Jamie might never recover. But when patients on the unit die unexpectedly he becomes obsessed, determined to uncover the truth - and although he doesn’t know it, this is the first step in his rehabilitation. But are patients really being murdered? Or is that just the paranoid conclusion of a man with an unstable mind?

Dr. Archie Watson (clinical lead), payed by John Hannah
Dr Archie Watson is the unit’s clinical lead, whose bad jokes and awkward persona hide a seedier and much more sinister side. Archie is basically hiding in Neuro Rehab, devoting most of his time to minimizing his workload and avoiding trouble. Archie may appear indifferent, but he’s also manipulative and will stop at nothing to save his own skin. Despite his marriage, Archie often oversteps the mark with his female colleagues. His ‘technique’ works very well with a certain type of woman.

Debbie Dorrell (head physio), played by Ashley Jensen
Head physiotherapist Debbie can be sharp-tongued, and often gets on the wrong side of people without meaning to. Debbie is a fantastic physiotherapist, she’s a professional who’s fiercely committed to her patients. Sometimes she pushes a little too hard, but she always gets there in the end.

Dr. Zoe Wade, played by Katie Clarkson-Hill
Zoe has always been smart, but even qualifying as a doctor hasn’t quite pushed down her feelings of insecurity and imposter syndrome. Everyone around her seems so confident that she’s sure she’ll be found out any minute. Up until now, Zoe’s solution has been to try and embrace the conventional. Even in her relationships - she is currently engaged to Alex - she’s played it safe. And the safe option is working, sort of. So why isn’t she happy? Alex has been there for Zoe through dark times, but she’s much better now - or so she’d like him to think.

Dr. Alex Kiernan, played by Richard Rankin
A career neurologist, Alex is training to become a consultant. On the surface he is a fun, attractive and dedicated doctor. But all of this belies his steely ambition, and we sense an undercurrent of threat beneath his professional exterior. Alex’s desire to protect Zoe means that he doesn’t always recognise her boundaries, but if this is a problem for Zoe, then Alex is unaware.

Dr. Laila Karimi (clinical psychologist), played by Amiera Darwish
An exceptionally intelligent and intuitive woman, Laila loves being a psychologist. Sometimes she can come off a bit more like a scientist than a human being - which suggests she’s probably not as ‘stable’ as she’d like to think she is. Her friendship with Zoe is real - an opposites attract dynamic - but does Zoe know the real Laila, or is she hiding behind her clinical persona?

Parveen Shankar (pathologist), played by Manjinder Virk
Parveen is a studious and efficient pathologist and a stickler for the rules. But she is also strong and capable of standing up for herself when she’s faced with difficult situations. Others may assume that they can walk all over her - but it’s often the quiet ones you have to watch out for...

Danny Adams (patient), played by Elliot Cooper
Danny is a handful. His mind fizzes at a hundred miles a minute with technology stats, conspiracy theories and an obsessive love of Doctor Who. When Jamie arrives on the unit Danny self-appoints himself as his best mate, and soon takes Jamie into his confidence. Is Danny just a conspiracy nut, or could he actually be on to something?

Related Programme Information

• Episode one
• Episode two