Paramedics from Hertfordshire are the stars of a television trailer currently promoting episodes to mark the 50th anniversary of Coronation Street.
Communications manager Gary Sanderson, paramedic Vicky Brannan and emergency medical technician Liz Dobb, who all work for the East of England Ambulance Service, welcomed camera crews into Stevenage Fire and Ambulance Station on Monday, October 18.
There they filmed the emergency services scenes that make up part of a trailer for the ITV1 soap, ahead of a major disaster that will take place next month.
During filming, producers and directors from the ITV creative department invited Gary, Liz and Vicky to act out an emergency scenario, and the final trailer shows Liz and Vicky passing equipment and kit bags to Gary in the back of an ambulance before it races off to the incident.
Gary said: “ITV's location manager Simon Hassard was driving past the station when he popped in on the off chance to see if the station could be used and staff members to be part of the trailer.
“Simon was very impressed with the location and was very happy for the filming to take place at Stevenage.”
ITV crews filmed at the station for seven hours, although the edited trailer is just one minute long.
Vicky said: “The filming was a bit surreal and we all found it hard to believe that ITV were filming a Coronation Street special in our ambulance station. The production staff from ITV were very helpful and made us all at ease throughout.”
Liz added:” It was a great day. It took several hours to film and seeing the finished article on television makes it all worth while.”
The trailer is now being shown several times a day between programmes on ITV until the main show is aired in December.
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