Hi °C | Lo °C Georgia Taylor may not know the hustle and bustle of an emergency room, but the 27-year-old actor has had her fill of hospitals - not that she can remember much about it.
"I had amnesia!," she cries, talking about tackling a bout of pneumonia and encephalitis during her last year of primary school. " It's true. So I can't remember being brought in. I was on the children's ward, that's all I remember. I was in hospital for a while."
Hopefully, the actress will be able to turn a negative into a positive when she joins the latest series of Casualty, playing a new junior doctor called Ruth Winters.
"She's very methodical, not a lot of fun," reveals Georgia of her on-screen alter ego. "She's a troubled soul. Hopefully, we'll find out why she is the way that she is. She just really wants to do a good job and is an absolute perfectionist and very self-critical.
"She's not one of those doctors who would have a chat about the weather and hold your hand," she continues. "It's not that she's nasty. She's not equipped with those skills. She's a bookworm and a thinker."
Dr Ruth gets a nasty shock after being shown around the ward by Charlie, as a major explosion rocks Holby to start the new season with a literal bang. In other words, it's in at the deep end for the star, especially when it comes to Casualty's trademark gore.
"I love it," she laughs. "I'm so calm when they bring in a chest that's all open. I don't mind it at all. Of course, if it was a real person, you'd freak out ... "
After all that Georgia's been through on television, it must be pretty hard to shock her. As Toyah Battersby on Coronation Street, she was part of one of the soap's most brutal storylines when she was attacked and raped. Although gruelling to perform, Georgia's performance led to unilateral praise, as well as several awards including Best Actress from the Royal Television Society.
Having left the show, she took a number of supporting parts in everything from Life On Mars to the film version of hit play The History Boys. And then it was time for another plunge into the world of continuing drama.
"Yeah, it was a big decision," she admits, about joining Casualty. "I'd been out of Coronation Street for four-and-a-half years and done the things that I wanted to do, which was lots of little short jobs and theatre and a bit of film. I kind of got to the point where I thought it would be really nice to bed-in somewhere and have relationships with people that I'm working with and really feel part of a team. I was ready to tackle the character and invest in the character."
She got right down to the nitty gritty of research, working with the on-set medical consultants drawing blood and doing stitches. "I could have knitted a whole arm!"
Georgia also upped sticks from her Manchester base and moved to Bristol, where the show films. "It wasn't the same as when I joined Corrie, because I was very young then and it was my first job," she says. " A lot's happened since then."
But while she has made fast friends with her new castmates, she makes sure she stays in touch with friends from the old days, like on-screen sis Jane Danson.
Despite rumours in the press however, a return to Weatherfield is unlikely. " I've no plans," she explains.
And although Ruth will make a steady start to her time in Holby General, Georgia already knows and is excited about her future. "I know roughly where it's going," she says, "so I know I've got interesting work coming up. I don't think she's going to soften too much, but you find a chink in her armour, although she'll try and keep that quiet for as long as possible."
Georgia Taylor joins Casualty on BBC One from Saturday
