Casualty: There’s detached and there’s too detached

(Series 29, ep.7) There’s a huge, Jeff-shaped hole in the department, and everybody is feeling it. Dixie can’t sleep, but work isn’t really doing it for her either: “He’s at home, he’s here… there’s nowhere I can go to get away from Jeffrey Collier.” So she spends her time trying to take every shout, and back at base clutching Jeff’s own personal coffee mug to her heart and glaring at Ash. If only Ash hadn’t gone and got his leg carelessly impaled, none of this would have happened, etc.

Everybody else is suffering too. Robyn is emotional; Big Mac talks to Invisible Jeff when he’s alone. What’s needed is sensitive and kindly leadership. What they have is Connie Beauchamp.  

In private, Connie is a bit tearful and fragile herself, but she’s of the Stiff Upper Lip type and can’t quite work out why pushing through with sheer hard work won’t sort everybody out quick-style. You’d think Selfie would agree with her – this is very much his approach to his own daughter’s problems in Holby – but even he popped up in the car park to mention that this is the kind of time when the warmer and more intuitive approach of Dr Zoe Hanna is sorely missed. Zoe sent a wee hamper of condolence – wine for Connie and chocolates for the team – so she was very much in Connie’s thoughts.

By the end of a shift in which Connie was being accused of negligence over the treatment of a disabled man (a shocking storyline beautifully acted by Lewis Adler), Charlie was advising Connie to have a long think about whether she was the right person to lead the team (haven’t the tables turned between those two?). Connie picked up the phone and dialled the Strictly Come Dancing studio – it’s time Dr Zoe Hanna was getting back into the pencil skirt of office.

Elsewhere, Cal enlisted Ethan’s help to unravel the mystery of what connected two apparently unconnected people who presented with the same rare virus. Ethan was only too happy to help, because he was bored out of his socks recuperating in hospital. If only it had occurred to Cal to give him some credit for his input.

And Honey was dispensing tarot card wisdom and herbal tea to Dr Lily Chao. Actually, Connie could do worse than to employ Honey as an emergency trauma counsellor – just until Zoe gets back.