Holby City: Selfie fails to impress anyone

(Series 17, ep.25) Shall it be Holby or The Mythical St James’s for the Cardiothoracic Super-Centre? And doesn’t that question have a familiar ring about it? It seems like a CT contest between Holby and its mythical rival is almost an annual event.

The decision-making power this time seems to rest in the hands of one Dept of Health bigwig, Neil Maclin (unseen), and his wife Francesca – seen, because she had a cough that Elliot needed to sort out. Luckily (for Selfie) she also needed some spinal surgery, which gave him a chance to show off his fabulous surgical skills. It also gave Francesca the chance to observe his personality at close quarters. “I don’t like him either,” she confided to Elliot at the end of the episode, and she offered to make sure the Super-Centre went to St James’s just to spite him. Elliot convinced her that he’d rather like to have the Super-Centre all the same – so if Holby gets it, it will be despite, rather than because of, Selfie’s efforts. 

If only the charm-free CEO had realised that his own Self was the hospital’s greatest liability, he mightn’t have worried so much about Prisoner X, or Jonny Maconie as we’ve come to know him, littering a side room with his inconvenient presence. At the time of writing, Jonny Mac has been returned to the Wyvern County Jail, but thanks to Mo’s efforts in helping Memory Loss Steve to recall changing the battery that Jonny had just changed (oh, I did feel sorry for Steve), we can be fairly optimistic about an early release. And will he, Jac and Emma skip off happily into the sunset together? It’s looking increasingly likely.

It’s looking less likely that Harry and Mary-Claire have a future together, though, as she’s just decided to accept a job working with Michael Spence and Colette in Chicago (nooo! Don’t leave, MC!). Don’t they have any doctors or nurses in the US? They always seem to be casting their recruitment net in the direction of Holby.

Dr Harry Posh was making plans to go to Chicago too, but it was mainly because he hoped Michael Spence could give him his own beautiful face back rather than the rather lumpy job he’s been left with as a result of Dr Raf Smug’s efforts. Not that Dr Raf hasn’t done a brilliant job, because he has – but Harry’s expectations of facial reconstruction were unrealistically high. Everyone agreed he wasn’t ready to relocate to Chicago, particularly as it’s known as the Windy City and everyone knows that “if the wind changes direction your face will stay like that.”

Meanwhile, Digby carried on pursuing his detective theories about last week’s caving accident, while merrily ignoring some actual internal bleeding. Dominic bailed him out more than once, with the rather implausible result that he impressed Serena and she’s given him a job on AAU. That could go horribly wrong – but on the other hand Digby isn’t a million miles away from Dr Ethan Hardy off of Casualty, personality-wise, and Ethan does very well in a trauma setting. We’ll have to wait and see – but I’m sad the Dig & Dom partnership has to be split.

Sue H