BBC series follows Natalie Cassidy on a new adventure

BBC Daytime has commissioned Natalie Cassidy Learning to Care…

Best known for playing Sonia Fowler on EastEnders, Natalie Cassidy will be taking on a new role – but off-screen, fulfilling her genuine ambition of a lifetime to train as a carer. She will study, work and care alongside the next generation of young carers.

Natalie will be enrolling at one of the UK’s top Health & Social Care colleges where she’ll train, study, and work alongside real professionals – facing the realities, the heartbreak, and the joy of caring. Together, her and her fellow students will push open the door to the UK’s healthcare providers and put the spotlight on something we all face at some point in our lives – who will care for our parents, who will care for our children… and who will care for us?

Having cared for her family members in recent years, and volunteering at local groups, she is now taking on this new and emotional challenge. With no holds barred access, this series will follow Natalie from classroom to community care services, supporting those with a range of care needs, she’ll be there for life’s toughest moments. And to make it official, she’ll have to pass her final exam.

The work of carers was highlighted by Crossroads in 1972. A real caring for carers scheme was later launched by ITV/ATV to support carers.

Each episode will reflect what every day looks like for a carer, with no day quite the same. Across the UK, millions of ordinary people quietly take on extraordinary responsibilities, caring for elderly parents, partners with long-term conditions, or children with additional needs, often without recognition or support. This series will shine a light on their daily realities too, championing the unseen and unsung carers who hold families and communities together.

Introducing a spectrum of care stories and carers in all types of careers and the families they care for, the episodes will follow how care is implemented with guidance from medical and care professionals in the field. Will it be an eye opener, or all in a day’s work for Natalie?

The series starts filming in April and will follow Natalie throughout her year of qualifying, through exams, placements, work and home life.

The plight of carers was first shown to a wide audience in 1972 when ITV serial Crossroads showed the work of carers following one of the leading characters being left unable to walk following a car incident. A fictional ‘Caring for Carers‘ scheme was launched in the saga, which later led to a real-life Crossroads Care charity launching, it continues to run.

Natalie Cassidy Learning to Care, the twelve part series will air in half-hour slots on BBC One. It will also be available on the iPlayer.