Shortland Street producer Oliver Driver reveals why the show feels so different this year. 

If there’s one thing you can rely on Shortland Street for, it’s an epic Christmas cliffhanger. Every December, the final episode of New Zealand’s longest running television drama explodes with murder, mystery and mayhem, but last year’s cliffhanger saw Shortland Street venture into new territory. An out-of-control wildfire was racing through Ferndale, and it seemed like the main victim would be the most important character of all: the hospital itself. As flames engulfed Shortland Street and the credits rolled for the final time in 2022, viewers were left wondering if their favourite fictional hospital would ever be the same again.

When the show rose from the ashes last month, it felt like Shortland Street really had changed forever. We returned to a Ferndale that was darker, bleaker and full of unease. The impact of the fire was immense, with the hospital still closed and Shortland Street’s medical staff split apart to work in different hospitals (the often-mentioned but never-seen-before St Cath’s and Central). The show’s timeline leapt forward several weeks, which meant those cliffhanger storylines we’d been thinking about all summer weren’t immediately resolved (even Dawn’s dog Barry was still missing). Shortland Street had transformed into an intense, moody drama, and while there was no shortage of compelling stories, the unexpected shift in the show’s tone left many viewers feeling confused.

Shortland Street producer Oliver Driver says that confusion is all part of the show’s grand plan to keep its audience guessing in 2023. “We wanted people to go, ‘what?'” he says of the edgy return, which took viewers beyond the charred hospital grounds and into the wider world of Ferndale. Driver is determined to sustain the extreme energy of a Christmas cliffhanger throughout the coming year, and the darker vibe of the early January episodes was one way of representing the turmoil the characters faced in the fire’s aftermath. “We wanted to go: ‘what would happen to these characters in this different world?’” he says. “We wanted it to be dark and gritty and cold, getting right in there to really show that they’re all broken apart.”

It’s a huge challenge to keep a 30-year-old show continually feeling fresh and relevant, and Driver wants to champion new and exciting ways to tell interesting stories. That’s why we saw Maeve in prison getting a dodgy tattoo and rebellious teenager Tilly become a ram-raider, and why we were blessed with the brilliant-but-morally-deplorable new doctor Emmett and a sad Chris Warner shower scene. The show’s time jump added to the tension, but Driver liked the idea of the characters’ lives continuing over the five week Christmas hiatus, as if viewers were stepping in and out of their world. It also meant that the reign of show’s current villain, megachurch pastor and new hospital CEO Rebecca, quickly gained traction. Driver says Rebecca’s murderous storyline will inform the drama for the rest of the year.

What viewers were universally thrilled about was the surprise cameos from former characters like Guy Warner, Brooke Freeman and Kate Hannah. Driver intends to keep bringing fan favourites back to Shortland Street this year, because it’s a privilege few other shows have. “We’ve got 30 years of backstory,” he says. “If you introduce a character, you need to tell this whole journey so that an audience understands who it is. But if you bring back David Kearney, everybody goes ‘oh, it’s David Kearney!'”

It’s a rich history to call upon, and every returning character sparks discussion and debate among viewers – both old and new. “That’s part of the joy of having a show that’s been around for 30 years,” Driver says. “You have these characters that are great and that you love, and I don’t want to stop using those actors.”

While the changes seen in the first two weeks of 2023 were temporary – the show has since resumed to its “normal” style of filming – it’s not the first time Shortland Street has challenged the traditional soap format. Last year, the show celebrated its 30th anniversary with a unique two-part documentary crossover with Seven Sharp, and later filmed an episode told from inside Damo’s mind during a near-death experience. “You watch the social media in real time on that one and it went from ‘I hate this, this is confusing’ to, ‘oh my God, this is amazing, this is the best ever,’” Driver recalls of the episode that saw the spirits of Damo’s past, present and future roam the hospital corridors. Ultimately, Driver knows Shortland Street will never be afraid to try new things, even if those new things feel disorienting for some fans.

“We’re in a very competitive TV market now, and we want to make a show that’s continually pushing the boundaries of soap, so that people go, ‘I’m not sure about that, but what is that?’” Driver says. Later this year, Shortland Street will continue to use different styles of storytelling, including weekly “medical mystery” storylines that allow cast and crew to lean into some juicy hospital drama. “We want to keep generating things that make people talk about it, while at the same time, really trying hard to continue to do what Shortland Street has always done, which is a reflection of New Zealand and to push those stories and boundaries as we always have.”

Driver has one message for Shortland Street fans in 2023: expect the unexpected. Even after 30 years on the telly, our favourite nightly drama still wants to keep challenging our expectations of what a soap can do. “It’s never gonna be White Lotus, you know? We’re never going to have the ability to do that,” he says. “But it is going to continue to be a strong and relevant and powerful piece of New Zealand television. We want this to exist in 10 years and 20 years and 30 years. I want some kindergarten kid now to be doing the 60th anniversary.”

And while Driver knows it’s a risk to make changes to a show that many New Zealanders love exactly as it is, he’ll never stop trying to make Shortland Street the most dynamic series on our screens. “I know there’s cultural cringe, and there’s lots of people who take great pleasure in telling me they’ve never watched an episode of Shortland Street in their entire life, as if that’s some kind of badge of honour,” Driver says. “But at it’s core, it’s good. It’s New Zealand. It’s us.”

Shortland Street screens Monday-Friday on TVNZ 2 at 7pm and streams on TVNZ+.