After 31 years on our screens, Shortland Street's Christmas cliffhanger has become an "institution" almost as famous as the holiday itself and this year's teaser clip proves no different.
Actor Ben Barrington, who plays the role of Dr Drew McCaskill on the hit series, talked with Breakfast about the tantalising twists, saying there is an "unspoken pressure" to make the ending bigger, bolder and better each year.
"The weird thing about it is, the show goes on... this hospital drama and the lives, loves losses of a television drama. And then the Christmas cliff, it's just Die Hard all of a sudden," he laughed.
"Suddenly, people are adept at firing guns in hospitals… turns out someone knows kung-fu, people sprint down hospital corridors and can fight off assailants," said Barrington, as Matty McLean laughed.
"Then the show starts again and it's like, no one really mentions the fact that we had all this going on five minutes ago," he joked.
Barrington described the show as "all over the place".
"The show has always been really elastic in its ability to cover all these different genres… but you have action, comedy, slapstick, heavy emotional stuff," he said.
After McLean made a plea for an exclusive nugget of information, Barrington replied, "someone is going to lose their life", which was met with an audible gasp from McLean.
"A much-loved character in Ferndale is going to die," he said.
"When we get the scripts, you go to the last page and work backwards until you find your name, you know it says 'Drew sheds a tear' or... Drew does this'."
When probed whether his character survives, Barrington responded: "I can't tell you…"
He spoke about the shows' nominations at this year's TV awards, in which the Street scooped the best script award.
"It's testament to the writers that they've been recognised," he said.
The final episode of Shortland Street will be free to air on TVNZ+ on Thursday, December 21.
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