As she prepares to marry Jesse on Tuesday, Holby's Adele has got a bad case of pre-wedding jitters, as actress Petra Letang reveals…
Adele's certainly been through a lot this past few months, hasn't she?
"She has! When she got engaged to Jesse everyone was really happy. But then, on her way to her engagement party, Adele was attacked and ended up in a coma. Now she's recovered, she's all set to marry Jesse."
How are the wedding preparations going?
"Well, it's not really been left to Adele to plan as Jesse's kind of taken control. It's every woman's dream to plan her own wedding, so the fact Jesse's taken the reins is a real niggling issue for Adele. But, in his defence, he's only trying to do the right thing."
How would you describe Adele's relationship with Jesse (Don Gilet) generally?
"Jesse’s a bit of a charmer while Adele's very worldly; she might not be academically intelligent, but she's very street-smart. I do think there's a genuine love there between them both, they perhaps just have slightly different ideas of how to 'do' relationships; Adele likes to discuss things, whereas Jesse just likes to get things done."
Maybe he’s just trying to be chivalrous?
"Exactly, and it's not that Adele’s being ungrateful because every woman would love a man to provide for her. Personally, I'd love a man to sweep me off my feet!"
So, aside from these 'niggles', how’s Adele feeling on her wedding day?
"On the day, Adele's just really happy to be getting married. Having recently been through such a traumatic experience, Adele's glad things finally seem to be going well for her. Though, in true Holby style, things never really go THAT well…"
Firstly, Adele’s wedding planner, Beattie, collapses and Adele has to take her to Holby. Have they become close?
"Yes, they have. Beattie's been married to her husband Linden for 43 years; that’s something that Adele’s wants for her relationship with Jesse, so she sees Beattie as a role model. Adele's obviously got a few jitters and nerves and Beattie's there to offer reassur1ance."
When Linden arrives at the hospital, does Adele compare Beattie's relationship with her husband to what she has with Jesse?
"Yes! When Adele sees the almost 'unconditional' love that exists between Beattie and Linden, she starts to question whether this is the kind of love she has with Jesse. It holds a mirror up to Adele and makes her wonder if what she feels for Jesse really is true love."
Does Adele have second thought about marrying Jesse?
"It's daunting for anyone to say they're going to get married and spend the rest of their life with just one person and Adele's not sure if she's quite 'there' yet with Jesse. It's all a bit overwhelming for her – it just feels like it's too much, too soon."
Whether they do tie the knot remains to be seen - but did you enjoy wearing Adele's wedding dress?
"Oh, the dress was amazing… I loved it! It was corseted, so it was difficult when I needed the toilet but it had all these crystals encrusted on it and a fishtail. I didn’t go to any dress fittings because I was on holiday just before we started filming this episode, so I wasn’t around, but the lady in our costume department bought this dress and it fitted like a glove. It was perfect!"
Holby City continues on Tuesdays at 8pm on BBC1.
