Is it challenging, as an actor, to convincingly play a doctor?

Paul Rose has been one of the most interesting and enjoyable characters I've ever played, because of his irreverent nature and because it has enabled me to discover more about the world of medicine.

To prepare for the part I spent some time at two hospitals, just shadowing anaesthetists and finding out about what their daily lives are like. I even observed operations to see how they operated the machines, how they interacted with the other doctors, and so on. I must say I rather surprised myself at not passing out during the grislier procedures.

There's a reason why your character, Paul Rose, was confined to a wheelchair for a long period. Tell us more.

Well in 2001, not long after starting on Holby City, I had a terrible motorbike accident which really ravaged my leg. It was pretty horrible at the time, and it meant I had to be confined to a wheelchair for years while the doctors painstakingly rebuilt my leg.

Paul Rose, my character, was consequently put in a wheelchair, and when I recovered the writers had him recover as well. For a while the writers contemplated going into Paul's problem in depth, and explaining his recovery, but it was ultimately decided that this would trivialise the subject for those viewers who spend their whole lives in wheelchairs. So it went unexplained really.

What's it like to be part of a major show like Holby?

This is probably the kind of cliché that all actors who work on long-running series say, but working on Holby City really is like being part of a big family. The cast are your siblings and the crew are your parents. The cast members I see the most are the other "surgeons" who share my operating theatre scenes, but I love working with everyone on the show.

We also have our share of funny moments on-set. You'd be surprised how often the actor playing the patient in theatre will literally nod off during the scene, and we have to stop them snoring.

Did you always know you'd be an actor?

I definitely caught the acting bug early. I distinctly remember the mime stuff we used to do in junior school, parading about for the other kids, pretending to be cowboys or whatever.

Then later on I was in lots of school plays, although curiously enough I did have this idea of becoming a farmer. That urge came and then abruptly went after I went to the Edinburgh Festival, got involved in street theatre, and decided then and there that I would be an actor or nothing.

Holby City is obviously based in the same hospital as Casualty. But are the two series actually filmed close by each other?

At the risk of shattering some illusions, I'm afraid to say that they are made many miles apart. Casualty is filmed in Bristol mainly, while Holby City is actually made at Elstree studios in London, which by the way is where EastEnders is also shot.

To give you an idea of how hectic it is, each episode of Holby City has to be made in under two weeks, and we generally film several episodes at the same time, so you've really got to keep your wits about you during each 12-hour working day. And people say showbiz isn't real work (!)