Harry Tressler's life hangs in the balance in Tuesday's Holby City (BBC1), when he has a terrible fall. Jules Knight, who plays Harry, tells us more...
Holby's Harry and Mary-Claire have been on and off more times than a light switch in recent weeks. How would you describe their relationship up to now?
"Harry and Mary-Claire started off as 'friends with benefits', then it became a solid friendship, and you got the impression they spent a lot of time together. But now Harry feels she could be something more."
So, this week, does Harry put his ego aside to tell Mary-Claire how he feels?
"Yes, he does! Harry's finally come to terms with the fact that he loves Mary-Claire. But the problem is Mary-Claire thinks that's so unlikely – because Harry's let Mary-Claire down before, she just doesn’t trust him. So when he eventually tells her, she can't take him seriously."
Harry's trying to make Mary-Claire believe he's being sincere when there's an emergency. What happens?
"Harry's been treating Grace, a girl with sickle cell anaemia, who's been brought in by her boyfriend Elijah, who it turns out also has the disease. Because Harry has been distracted by wanting to tell Mary-Claire how he feels, his mind has been slightly elsewhere, which prompts Elijah to get up into a window-cleaning cradle, suspended from the building, in protest."
What happens then?
“While Elijah's in the cradle, he develops his own symptoms of sickle cell anaemia and collapses. Harry realises the only way he can save Elijah's life is to climb out of the high window and get into the cradle himself."
Is Harry partly trying to prove he's a hero to Mary-Claire?
"Not at all. Harry's terrified of heights, so this is one example of how, recently, he’s become a more selfless person. All he's thinking about in that moment is genuinely being a good doctor and saving Elijah, so Harry quite selflessly and spontaneously gets into the cleaning cradle in order to help this guy… and things go wrong from there."
We’ve seen the pictures of you as Harry hanging off the cradle. What was it like filming those scenes?
"I absolutely loved it and I insisted on doing as much of the stunt as I could. I'm a bit scared of heights myself so, for me, it was little bit a case of facing my fears really. I didn’t actually tell the Holby production team that I was afraid of heights because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it."
We know the story takes a tragic turn. What can you tell us?
“Well, all of Harry's colleagues are watching from the ground below as the cradle malfunctions and Harry’s left hanging onto the side… then he loses grips and falls. It’s quite horrific."
Is it a life or death situation for Harry?
"Definitely! Harry doesn’t come off very well at all and he's left in a very bad way. At that point, it looks pretty fatal and viewers will certainly be wondering whether he'll live or die."
