BBC Casualty filming thrown into chaos after Iain Dean star's stunt goes wrong

Casualty's resident action man Iain Dean (Michael Stevenson) yet again put himself in danger in order to help others in the latest edition of the long running BBC medical drama. However, behind the scenes Michael also had to deal with real life danger in order to shoot the tense scenes as he tried to rescue children from a swimming pool following a chlorine leak - and it meant the entire filming schedule had to be adjusted. During a recent set visit to Casualty's Cardiff set, Senior Producer Mat McHale exclusively explained to Express.co.uk that the scenes in the swimming pool saw Iain wearing a special protective suit, which is where the issues began.

"We had those suits, and we sent Michael off to train in the suit, and we had advisors and all the rest. About three days before we started filming. Michael went off to training - because it's got breathing apparatus which is a big thing. He came back and said: 'I'm not sure if you know, but I'm only allowed in the suit for 20 minutes at a time'. Now nobody has told us that. And it was actually 20 minutes no more than twice a day!" he exclaimed.

This created huge issues for the team as the scenes, which were filmed in Cardiff International swimming pool, featured Iain quite heavily.

"Suddenly, with two and a half days to go (to shooting), we have this massive dilemma and have to pull apart the schedule and start again.

"We ended up with, I think it was 8 doubles of Iain, so there were a lot of shots from behind because it was only worth having him in there when we're on his face," he revealed

Iain found himself in that situation as in recent weeks he has been working with HART (Hazardous Area Response Team), which is a specialised group of paramedics who are trained to work in dangerous and challenging environments.

Mat had nothing but praise for Michael's fearless commitment to the stunts his role frequently requires.

The actor always does as much as he can himself and last year was caught upin a huge underwater stunt, which saw him filming in the famous underwater tank at Pinewood studios used by the James Bond flms.

"He was great in that water stuff. So good," Mat raved. "Because it does get cold. The water's heated - it's the Pinewood tank, and the water is heated, but I'm sat on the side and it's nice and warm, but you can see them coming up, and they were getting cold," he said.