EXCLUSIVE: BBC Casualty’s Michael Stevenson and his producing partner Luke Carroll could be heading to Hollywood in March as they have a film on the shortlist for an Oscar nomination.

Jason Watkins stars in the award winning short The One Note Man (Image: Cusp films )

Casualty’s Michael Stevenson is by his own admission “knackered” when he and producing partner Luke Carroll sit down to chat exclusively with Express.co.uk about the acclaimed award winning short The One Note Man which was produced by their Birmingham based production company Cusp Pictures. The movie has made it onto the shortlist for an Oscar nomination and both men have been working extremely hard to promote the movie.

Naturally they fully intend on attending the ceremony if the film makes it onto the final nomination list. “I’m constantly looking at the schedule board at work and when they send me scripts coming through for the next few months, I’m like, “Ah, I don’t know I hope I’m not in around March. What storylines are in March?”

But he feels his BBC bosses would be understanding considering the circumstances. “I think [they would give me the time off] yeah. Everybody upstairs is really excited by the prospect of it happening.

“So as and when it does, I think you’ll all understand that I need a week off,” he laughs. The film qualified for Oscar submission after winning the grand prize for best live-action short at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Michael Stevenson may need some time off from playing Iain Dean in Casualty to go to the Oscars (Image: BBC)

Writer and director George Siougas had directed Michael in Casualty and had mentioned that he had a script. Explaining what then drew them to move forward with it. Luke said: “For us a big selling factor was first and foremost we absolutely loved the script.

“It felt very kind of live action Disney Pixar type feel when we read it and you couldn’t help but just fall in love with it. But Steven Warbeck the Oscar-winning composer was attached to the project before we even came on board and we knew that he was going to do something wonderful with the score.

“And I think it just kind of attracted [talent] as we went along. You know, to get him and Jason Watkins and we had backing from and support from the likes of Ian McKellen and the Ambassador Theatres group and just all these little dots connected along the way that just kept us motivated and kept the belief going in the project as a whole.”

“I think also the first time we read the script, and you get to the end of the script, you’re just absolutely beaming smiling,” Michael interjected. “There was a desire to put that on screen and to make audiences feel the same.

“We kept going back to the script and telling each other that if we can make an audience feel the way that that script made us feel at the end, then it’s a film that we cannot give up on.”

Jason Watkins plays a man with a mundane life in The One Note Man (Image: Cusp films)

The quirky 20-minute movie stars Jason Watkins, who was most recently seen in ITV’s Archie, alongside Emmerdale’s Louisa Clein, and Crystal Yu who has appeared in Doctor Who and The Full Monty’s Paul Barber. It is narrated by Sir Ian McKellen. Daisy Jones and The Six star Sam Claflin is one of the executive producers.

Jason plays a bassoonist, who adheres to a very strict and monotonous routine that involves bicycling to an opera house daily to play one note on his bassoon in an orchestra. After accidentally overhearing a mind-blowing violin solo he finds himself torn between staying in his comfort zone or changing his life forever.

It’s won several awards on the festival circuit and created quite a buzz however, Michael insists his Casualty castmates didn’t even known about it until quite recently. When asked how they felt about the fact he might get an Academy Award, he said: “To be honest a lot of it’s been kept quiet because I do a lot of my work in my dressing room off set,” he explained.

“And they’re over the moon now because I put it on the group the fact that we were shortlisted and what have you, and it’s come as a shock to people because you talk about these things so often. And lots of people have got projects on the go but when something gets as far as The One Note Man we all know what it feels like.

“We’ve all imagined what it must feel like to be on an Oscar shortlist or a BAFTA shortlist and we all want to do it. So when you see one of your peers doing it they’re there. Yeah, they’re all really supportive and they love the fact that we’re there.”