“She’s going to have to keep quiet for as long as she can.”

Casualty spoilers from Saturday’s episode (March 23) which is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer. This article contains storyline details that some viewers may prefer to avoid, as this episode hasn’t yet aired on TV.

Casualty newcomer Sammy T Dobson has spoken exclusively to Digital Spy about a major new story for her character Nicole.

Sammy’s first scenes aired in the second showing of Saturday’s double episode (March 23), which is already available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

She has joined the show as junior doctor Nicole, who came to the rescue of an abandoned baby on the way to her first shift at the Emergency Department.

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When the youngster became unwell, Ngozi was quick to pick up that an emotional Nicole had more than just professional concern for him.

As the episode went on, it became clear that all was not as it seemed with Nicole when she was sick all over a patient.

With Ngozi beginning to connect the dots together, Nicole explained that she was pregnant for a surrogate, but didn’t want anyone else to know at the moment.

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“My favourite line I’ve had to say yet is, ‘it’s not mine’ about the baby”, Sammy said to Digital Spy.

“She’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m pregnant. It’s not mine’. It’s a fun, mad thing for a woman to say, but it isn’t hers – Nicole is a surrogate.

“It’s not fully explained or properly revealed for quite a few weeks yet as to who or for what reason, but she is a surrogate and so the baby that she’s carrying is just a cooking bun in her oven and won’t be hers at the end of this process.

“I think what’s happened is, as life sometimes goes, she’s finally got this ST1 post at the ED, which she’s worked really long and hard for, but that has come at exactly the same time as finding out she’s pregnant.”

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Sammy added: “I imagine she’s gone through quite a few rounds to get here. It’s not an instant thing, and I think it just happened at the same time and it’s terrible timing. But she isn’t going to turn down the job she’s wanted to do forever and so she’s just going to have to get on with it.

“She’s very working class. She’s had to work really hard to get to this point now and she’s actually quite old, I suppose, to be a junior doctor. She’s in her 30s – it would normally be 10 years earlier than that.

“But it wasn’t an automatic thing for her. She was not pushed into medical school, she has had to work a bit harder to get there and it’s really important to her.

“She is terrified that they’re going to say, ‘You can’t do this job and be pregnant’ and so she’s going to have to keep the pregnancy quiet for as long as she can.”

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Sammy also explained how she didn’t know about the baby storyline initially, only finding out during the costume process.

“I knew almost nothing”, she said. “The scripts I auditioned with weren’t the actual scripts – they’re written especially for the audition.

“So I knew absolutely nothing until I was contacted by costume to discuss sizes and things like that. And they said, ‘Well, of course you’re pregnant’. And, ‘Oh I don’t know who’s told you that but I’m not’, and they went, ‘Sorry, no, your character is’.”

She continued: “That was the first thing I’d heard about it and it was exciting. It was later that day that production got in touch and explained Nicole to me, who she was and all of this stuff. It was so exciting. But initially, I thought there had just been a misunderstanding!

“I did the birth research early on. I don’t really know the outcome of the storyline but needless to say, the pregnancy is not going to be smooth sailing.”

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Nicole’s baby storyline will see her make a firm friend in Ngozi, who will be an unwavering support to her over the next few weeks.

“Ngozi is so kind straight away and just seems to be on her side from the start,” Sammy said. “I think you automatically are so grateful to have an ally in a new, terrifying environment like that and I think friendships are formed fast in stressful situations as well.

“I think when you’re under that intense pressure and you’re experiencing these things together, it bonds you quite quickly. They become quite close quite quickly, and it’s a lovely friendship.”

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And while fans are only being introduced to Nicole today, Sammy is already feeling very at home in the role.

“It’s been a while since I started, which is why it’s so weird”, she said. “We are filming six months ahead and now it’s finally going to be on telly.

“I think until very recently, my fiancé thought it might be a lie, because I just keep disappearing off to Wales, and then coming home with all these mad stories, but it’s never on the telly. I’m glad it’s finally on, and I can prove that that’s where I have been going, and not having a very elaborate affair! [laughs].

“It’s the best job I’ve ever had. Everyone is so nice. The place is amazing. The work is brilliant. With the stories we’re getting to work on, I get so excited when the new scripts come out, and I go and sit in a cafe and I can’t believe what’s coming up. It’s just brilliant.”