Casualty star reveals another major Hollywood star was almost cast in role

William Beck has played Dylan Keogh in Casualty for over ten years. He may be a somewhat socially awkward fellow, but Dylan is also smart and incredibly good at being a doctor at Holby City’s ED. If I sat and listed everything Dylan has been through since we first met him, I’d honestly be here all day. From his complicated relationships to his addiction to alcohol, things are never straightforward when it comes to Dylan – and that’s exactly why we love him.

In recent years, someone we’ve seen multiple times from Dylan’s past is Zsa Zsa Harper-Jenkinson, played by none other than Cagney and Lacey’s Sharon Gless. Zsa Zsa first arrived in 2017 when Dylan contacted his old tutor to discuss Glen Thomas’ operation. Zsa Zsa flew to the UK from America to operate on Robyn’s (Amanda Henderson) partner Glen, who had a brain tumour.

The iconic character was last seen in 2020, when Dylan asked Zsa Zsa to review the case file of Faith’s (Kirsty Mitchell) son Luka, who had a tumour close to the brain stem. Zsa Zsa agreed and once again returned to Holby ED, ready to perform the surgery.

During my chat with actor William Beck, we reflected on Dylan’s time with Zsa Zsa and what it was like to work with Hollywood star Sharon Gless.

To my surprise, he then revealed quite a brilliant secret about the casting for the character.

He said: ‘I can tell you, there was one other name they thought about asking and they didn’t have to, because of Sharon. I know that they were thinking of going for Whoopi Goldberg as well. What a remarkable thought!

‘When Covid came around, the scope and budget of TV drama has now been limited but it’ll be back! We’ll be doing stuff like that before too long I’m sure.’

He laughed: ‘I remember the first day of filming we went, what the hell is one of Cagney and Lacey doing in South Wales?! Where do you start with that! I think I just had my haircut and I probably looked a bit like an evacuee and I thought, she’s going to take one look at me and pronounce my career at an end. But then all of a sudden, it’s not like that. She was, without question, the camera loved her more than anybody.

‘She just had to look up and you were like oh my god, Hollywood!’.

Last Saturday, Casualty fans were left utterly heartbroken when Dylan said goodbye to his poorly dog Dervla.

‘We hadn’t seen her in the show for so long, and she was such a defining character when Dylan was first introduced as well’, Will added, reflecting on this emotional arc.

‘To see what people were able to take from the story, so many of their own experiences of pet owning. It seems like an incredibly obvious thing to say but so many people deal with bereavement through pets, so it was a fantastic way to tell the story through continuing drama.

‘In terms of the acting, we had to sort of get out of the way of the story because it does it for you. It was humbling to see the way people had responded to it.’

William Beck has played Dylan Keogh in Casualty for over ten years. He may be a somewhat socially awkward fellow, but Dylan is also smart and incredibly good at being a doctor at Holby City’s ED. If I sat and listed everything Dylan has been through since we first met him, I’d honestly be here…