Baby Emma Henry originated the role and played Vicki until 1988, when her parents moved to Scotland. The role was recast to Samantha Leigh Martin, who learned to call Susan Tully "Mummy Shell" and referred to Letitia Dean who played her mum's best friend, "Daddy Sharon". Tully has commented, "What's lovely about working with Samantha is that she's always happy. When it comes to work, she knows it's playing a pretend game, she knows my real name but she knows to call me 'Mummy Shell' when the cameras are running. If she isn't involved for a couple of weeks, I like to visit her at home, so she's always relaxed with me." Tully worried about this when it came to filming scenes in 1989 where Vicki contracted meningitis and was hospitalised and placed in an incubator with tubes attached to her body. Tully said, " has seen me in all kinds of situations but I didn't know how she'd cope if I cried over her". At Tully's suggestion, the BBC built a hospital room with minimal equipment and a consultant was present to make sure the BBC had the details correct and that neither the viewers or Samantha would be too distressed. Tully insisted that the child was not present when she had to film scenes of Michelle sobbing over the incubator.