Iain Dean

Iain Dean (born 1983/1984) is a paramedic for the Holby Ambulance Service. He joined the service in August 2013 as a student paramedic and remained in that position until April 2014 when he left to go travelling. He rejoined in October that year following Jeff's death, after becoming a fully qualified paramedic.

An ex-corporal, Iain had previously encountered Sam Nicholls during his time in the armed forces where she worked as a medic. She had an affair with him whilst still married to Dylan Keogh, and Iain was distraught when she left the army to go to work in the same hospital as him. Since retraining as a paramedic and following Sam's departure, Iain has slowly managed to put his past experiences in the army behind him, whilst still upholding the important lessons he learned from being on the front line. He is currently in a relationship with staff nurse Rita Freeman.

Early life
Prior to joining the ambulance service, Iain Dean worked as a corporal in the army alongside Sam Nicholls. In July 2011 they were positioned in Afghanistan together which led Sam to have an affair with him whilst married to Dylan. Sam was due to leave in 2011 but the medic who was due to replace her broke his leg so she decided to stay on for a bit longer. However, an incident occurred during a bombing where Sam mistook an injured man's inhaler for a bomb and shot him. This left her feeling guilty and she told Iain that she was going to leave after all to go and work at Holby ED. Knowing this was where Dylan worked, he realised she wanted to get back to her husband after all.

In April 2012 after Sam had started working at the ED, Iain was called to give a statement after she had forcibly restrained a man and he had presented with a neck injury. He had been called to give evidence against her during the GMC hearing, which brought back some painful memories for her. At some point after the date of the hearing, Iain left the army.

Time with the Ambulance Service (2013-)
In August 2013, Iain began working with Jeff and Dixie as a student paramedic. It was clear that he was extremely confident and may have needed to be kept in line. However, he soon got a chance to prove his worth when the team were alerted to a terrifying bus crash. Iain managed to rescue one of the patients, Anna, just moments before there was an explosion on the wrecked vehicle. Later, however, Iain found himself in hot water with Jeff for not following instructions and endangering a patient. The following week, Jeff and Iain's relationship didn't improve as they were put together to help two brothers who were involved in a stabbing incident with a screwdriver.

In November, Iain was deeply affected when two police officers were involved in an attack which made him recall experiences from his past in the army.

The following year in February, Iain once again defied orders from Jeff when he ran into a burning building after a man who had gone in after his fiancé. In March, Iain and Big Mac were called out to a fire at a local B&B, but Iain was shocked when he discovered that his old army friend Kenny was there. Things soon got worse when Kenny later rampaged into the ambulance bay in search of him. When Kenny's anger later reached its peak, Big Mac and Iain found themselves tied up in a hostage situation. Iain departed later in March 2014 and went travelling as Big Mac had suggested.

Iain returned to Holby for Jeff Collier's funeral in October 2014. He went to help Dixie as she had avoided the funeral by attending the scene of an accident. Together they managed to save a man before heading off to the funeral. Tamzin left later that day as a result of Jeff's death, leaving Dixie as the only paramedic. She offered Iain his old job back, to which he agreed at which point he was fully trained as a paramedic.

That December, Iain attended a call out with Dixie, Ash and Charlie to the scene of a chandelier collapse at a church. In February 2015, Dixie and Iain attended a call out to a caravan hanging loosely off a cliff. With a boy still trapped inside, Iain climbed in to rescue him, much to Dixie's annoyance due to the fear that he would die like Jeff. In April, Iain applied for a new job opening of a rapid respondent.

In September 2015, Iain was accused of assault by a traffic warden who fell over at the back of the ambulance whilst him and Dixie were on a call out. The case was resolved in the ED as Rita discovered that traffic wardens couldn't clamp cars on private property and therefore the man took back his threats to go to the police.

At the beginning of October, Iain and Dixie were required to attend a HART training course. As the anniversary of Jeff's death approached, Iain attempted to keep Dixie's mind off of it. After returning to the ED after their respective shifts, Iain and Rita shared a kiss outside The Hope & Anchor following flirtation in the previous weeks. The following week, Iain and Rita had a moment alone in cubicles when he was injured during a collapse at an office in a warehouse. Later in the month, Dixie opened up to Iain about her rejection from the adoption board, and asked him to keep quiet about it from other members of staff. He also learned of when Dixie and Rita kissed back in 2013.

In November, Dixie and Iain attended the scene of an accident in a woodland where a patient had fallen down a deep hole. Upon arriving there, they realised it was Jess Cranham from HART who had fallen and was accompanied by her partner Nikki and daughter Olivia. Iain was able to use a harness to lower himself into the hole to rescue Jess. Dixie later became worried upon discovering that Jess was taking anti depressants but Iain was convinced that it was just down to her jealousy of Jess being in a relationship.

In December, Iain and Dixie didn't help matters in the busy ED when the ambulance skidded on its side outside the ED. Connie and Jacob were among many to help all of those involved. Later in the month, Iain was flirting with Rita over text when he accidentally sent a flirtatious text to Robyn, shocking her.

In January 2016, Iain and Dixie helped Jess and her family after an accident in the house caused by Nikki. Soon after, Nikki became infuriated and a fire was started when she threw lit birthday cake across the room. Dixie and Iain managed to get them all out safely and back to the ED. The following week during a black alert, Dixie and Iain were called out to the scene of a car accident to find that Jess was also there on the job. They worked together to save the couple in the car before it exploded, but Dixie was still annoyed at the fact they were still going ahead with the investigation after she filed a complaint against her.

Later in January, Dixie and Iain attended the scene of Noel's attack in the park. They accompanied them back to the ED and were concerned for both him and Big Mac who was with him at the time. After Dixie's departure at the end of January, Iain got Scott "Rocker" Rosher from HART to come in and cover to help out. However, he soon became angry when Rocker began flirting with Rita, and ultimately Iain phoned Rocker's boss at HART and asked for him to be placed elsewhere. Later in the month, Iain attended the scene of a pride festival with Lily and were required to help after part of the staging collapsed injuring a teenager.

In March, Iain finally found a permanent replacement for Dixie, a newly qualified paramedic Jez Andrews. On their first day, they were travelling with Cal, Ethan and Emilie to a place more comfortable for her to spend her final days. However on the way down a country lane they asked Iain to stop the ambulance and whilst him and Jez were distracted outside, Cal and Ethan hijacked it to take Emilie to her favourite holiday destination. Iain blamed Jez initially, but when a dangerous driver caused Iain to jump out of the road and injure his ankle, he was thankful to have Jez there to give him a piggyback until they were able to get a ride with some women back to the ED.

In April, Iain became confused when he saw Jez kissing a man outside the ambulance station but then continued to flirt with women all day. Towards the end of the shift, Iain confronted Jez but he turned the joke round on Iain by starting to flirt with him. At The Hope & Anchor, Jez told Iain that it was a joke, but that he was bisexual but questioned why he should have felt the need to reveal his sexual orientation as Iain didn't. Whilst Iain was distracted with Jez's personal life, Rita had her own issues when her ex-husband Mark returned to the ED following a car crash. Although Iain attempted to help, Rita told him her day was too long to explain, so he remained oblivious to her day's events. The following week when Rita noticed her ID badge had gone missing and suspected Mark, she told Iain about Mark being there the previous week. He told her to get him if she was worried again.

Personal life
During his time in the army, Iain had an affair with Sam despite knowing she was married to Dylan. Sam ended the relationship when she left the army, leaving Iain heartbroken. Iain never truly got over her even after returning to the ED as a student paramedic in 2013, and was clearly left feeling sad when he saw her marry Tom.

In 2015, Iain and Rita entered a relationship after kissing outside a pub one night. Although they haven't officially announced it yet, some staff members such as Zoe and Jack have caught on by the way they interact with each other at work.

Trivia

 * Iain had an affair with Sam in Afghanistan.
 * His platoon was blown up by an Afghan he trained and was close to.
 * He suffered from PTSD.
 * Iain loves banter and is always up for a challenge.
 * Iain and Rita are currently in a relationship.
 * Iain's idea of fun is going down the pub with some friends, getting smashed and grabbing a kebab in the early hours of the morning.

Behind the scenes
Michael Stevenson has portrayed Iain Dean on Casualty since his first appearance in 2012. In 2012, his two appearances, one a special episode, were both guest appearances as part of Sam's storyline. However, he returned as a regular character in 2013 ("Waiting for a Star to Fall") when he joined the Ambulance Service as a student paramedic.

Iain's role in the show isn't as prominent as Dixie's was prior to her departure, due to the fact he hasn't had any main storylines to date apart from his brief encounter with his old army friend. Despite this, he is the only character to date to have appeared in every episode of series 30.

Appearances

 * See also: Character appearances and Category:Iain centric.

Iain made his first appearance in Casualty in the series 26 special episode "Under Fire", with his first full episode appearance in "Appropriate Force". He arrived as a regular in the series 28 episode "Waiting for a Star to Fall". He had a temporary departure after this episode to his full return in the October 2014 episode "The Last Call". To date, Iain has only had one centric episode, one of the fewest of any main character.