Holby City: He’s not a well man

(Series 23, ep. 34 by Ciara Conway 23.11.21) I’ve applied my usual critical lens to this episode for Metro, but before you go to read that…

I liked the visual effects that showed us some of what was going on in Ollie’s mind in that operating theatre. It was genuinely unsettling.

It wasn’t just visual effects, though. James Anderson has been so good at revealing different sides to Oliver as his Holby story has unfolded. From the cocky, confident junior doctor, to the more mature version shaped by the loss of his sister, to his current incarnation all of the versions of Oliver Valentine have been believable. Like Jac Naylor, he’s the product of all the stories that have gone before.

And of course Guy Henry tapped into the very deep sadness at the heart of Henrik Hanssen.

Which brings me once again to thinking how absolutely terrible it is that this programme is being axed.

Back to tonight’s episode, and Dominic’s storyline was really interesting. I liked that it was never suggested that Dominic was actually racist, but his attitude to Tianna was carelessness based on what Max identified as ‘unconscious biases.’

So sad to hear that Carole didn’t recognise him, too. No wonder he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

He learned his lesson, though, and so did Ange. Josh doesn’t need or want to be mother-smothered.

Holby City: How’s the head?

(Series 23, ep. 29 by Rebekah Harrison 19.10.21) Please head over to Metro for this week’s review. But before you go…

I said last week that I hoped Ollie’s sense of humour would still be in evidence, and his encounter with Jac in the Linden Cullen Memorial Shrubbery indicated it very much is.

Line of the week: (Jac) ‘How’s the head?’ (Ollie) ’Still more aesthetically pleasing than yours.’

Though viewers of Ru Paul’s Drag Race will know the correct answer to Jac’s question is, ‘I haven’t had any complaints.’ I don’t expect Ollie watches Drag Race.

Pot/kettle moment of the week: (Jac to Ollie) ‘Surely there are other places you could retrain where you haven’t been shot in the head?’ Yes, flower, and there must be other places you could work where you haven’t been shot in the back and all the other stuff that’s happened to you at Holby over the years, but we are where we are.

The Josh bulimia storyline is interesting and I didn’t guess that that might be the ‘health thing’ that was lurking in his past.

I hope he manages to confide in Ange. She would be so understanding and supportive.

I love Jason so much. If he didn’t work for the NHS he should be prescribed on it, because he has a way of knowing how to handle people to make them feel better. It’s his honest and direct approach and his natural thoughtfulness. He’s a wonderful character.

Maybe he’s the one who could get through to Lucky Simpson. He’d do a better job than the misguided Kylie – first time outside in your wheelchair? What you’re bound to want is a framed photo-montage of yourself to remember the occasion by.

Holby City: Many happy returns

(Series 23, ep. 28 by Patrick Homes 12.10.21) My full review is over at Metro, so please take a look. But before you go…

Oh frabjous day to have Oliver Valentine back. It seemed there was no way back for the character after his catastrophic brain injury after being shot by Hanssen’s son, but never say never on Holby these days.

I love Oliver Valentine. I expect to see him somewhat changed – of course he would have to be, if only by the passing of time – but hopefully with some of that lovely wit that I used to enjoy so much firmly intact.

Line of the week: (Ollie) ’Hello, Henrik.’ And facial expression of the week was Hanssen’s upon seeing his former colleague.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing his first encounter with Jac, too.

Cassie, the imaginary mental health nurse, was an odd one, wasn’t she? I mean, she was imaginary to begin with.

Line of the week 2: (Jac is not impressed by the sheer amount of male chest flesh visible in the locker room) ‘I love the smell of toxic masculinity in the morning. It smells like futility.’

Line of the week 3: (Jac’s amused at the idea that Josh thinks she’s ogling him) ‘As if. Besides, I’m a little young for you, aren’t I?’

I was a little bit confused by Russ Faber, but I don’t care because he was only a device to bring Ollie back.

The Bonfire of Jeni’s Things happened a little close to the hospital for my liking. Trigger warning for anyone caught up in the bomb blast, plus the fumes from all that burning plastic (files and whatnot) must have been quite toxic. There are sick people in that hospital, you know! At least three of them!

Holby City: Just Oliver

(Series 20, ep. 13 ‘No Matter Where You Go, There You Are – Part Two’ by Andy Bayliss 27.3.18) Last week’s cliffhanger made us wait an entire week for the verdict in Ric’s trial. And this week, we got that verdict, though it was a very low-key affair. We didn’t see the courtroom. We didn’t even see Ric. We heard the news as relayed to Ollie by Meena, and then Serena popped up to Darwin to present Fletch with a bottle of celebratory Shiraz.

Celebratory? Yes! Because the news is good. Ric Griffin is a free man!

Having swiftly wrapped up the ‘Ric’s Prison Hell’ storyline, the episode settled in to the topic at hand, which focused on Oliver Valentine and his determination to get back to being a doctor once again, and Henrik Hanssen’s ongoing struggle to come to terms with the consequences of his son’s actions. 

Holby City: A man of character

(Series 20, ep. 12 ‘No Matter Where You Go, Part One’ by Patrick Homes 20.3.18) It was the day of Ric’s trial – and at the very end of the episode the verdict was in! But we’re going to have to wait for another week to find out what it is, because this was the first of a two-parter. AAAARRGHH!!

What we did discover was the reason Ric has been so tight-lipped about what was going on during the three hours he was away from the hospital on the fateful day of Mrs Warren’s death. We know he was helping Jason, who was having trouble with ex-girlfriend Lola (Megan Jones), but what we didn’t know was that he was delivering Lola’s baby, in a car. And the reason he still won’t tell anyone about that is that the father of the baby, who’d been beating Lola up, also happens to be a policeman. If any of it was mentioned in court, he might find out where Lola and the baby are. This matters to Ric because he’s a man of conscience who would do the right thing anyway, but as an extra factor he’d just heard from his daughter Jess that she was thinking of going back to her abusive ex. The refuge Ric took Lola and the baby to was one Jess had had to make use of in the past. 

Holby City: Selfless. Kind. Brave

(Series 20, ep. 11 ‘The L Word’ by Katie Douglas 13.3.18) Holby is nominated for a RTS Award for Best Soap/Continuing Drama this year (and high time too). When you see an episode like this, you have to think how could it not win? Indeed you have to think how come it isn’t in the Drama category too? With acting as nuanced and powerful as we had here from James Anderson, Guy Henry, Hermione Gulliford and others, and production values that equal anything you’d see in things like Line of Duty and Collateral… well, I could go on. I probably will go on, whether it wins or not. But for now, I’d better turn my attention back to this particular, very dramatic and rather intense episode.

Professor Gaskell (or “the Great and Powerful Oz,” as Sacha rather brilliantly referred to him) was thinking that Roxanna was getting a bit emotionally over-involved with Oliver Valentine’s case. He’s shrewdly spotted that unless she’s been in a car with Hanssen or eating pizza in the on-call room, she has at all times been by Ollie’s side, frowning at him encouragingly. 

Holby City: Never too many broken hearts

(Series 20, ep. 10 ‘Square One’ by Kathrine Smith 6.3.18) There seems to be something of a power-grab going on at Holby. Prof Gaskell, aided and abetted by old chum Roxanna, is about to be installed on the board as Director of Medicine. Have we had one of those before?

Hanssen has given his approval via one of those in-car consultations that he’s specialising in these days. I picture him spending his days sadly patrolling the car park at 15 MPH in case he’s needed, but terrified to get out of the car.

Roxanna’s motives in getting Gaskell a place on the Iron Throne of Holby are altruistic (she thinks it’ll help Ollie to get the treatment he needs, and she believes in the Prof and his work), and I could probably say that about the Prof, though I’m not at all sure I entirely trust him. His guinea pig patient, Fiona, died this week, and in the comfort of his lab the Prof realised that his trial had failed. He’s keeping this news between him and his voice recorder though, and hasn’t told major funder and cheerleader Essie, or Serena, or Roxanna. I’m sure he really believes it’ll work eventually and he mustn’t stop now, but the last person we saw with that kind of attitude to a trial was Fredrik, and look how that turned out. 

Holby City: Everybody hurts

(Series 20, ep. 9 ‘Ache’ by Martin Jameson 28.2.18) Jac is struggling on despite being in horrendous pain (and Rosie Marcel is making sure we can feel that pain in every agonised breath Jac takes). I suppose she’s worried that if she gave up and went home they would have to get a locum heart surgeon in, what with Jac and Frieda being the only functioning heart surgeons left in the whole hospital. Or worse still, give half of Darwin away to some other unrelated department like they’ve tried before with plastics and neuro. Either way, Jac is not putting up with it and would rather try to carry on with her duties in between spells of lying on the floor with her teeth clenched. I have two solutions for her: (a) Pilates and (b) Mo. I would love to see Mo pop back to hold the fort until Jac is better, and I think Mo is about the only person Jac would trust. Apart from Joseph Byrne, but that ship has long sailed. And Elliot Hope, ditto.

Frieda’s solutions were (a) nagging and (b) very powerful drugs. When Jac was eventually persuaded to take the drugs (which Frieda had written a prescription for), did she thank Frieda for easing her pain and looking out for her? No. She thought Frieda was getting just a bit too uppity and needed taking down a peg by relegating her to the being the one who holds the suction thing in theatre (an important job, but not quite the role Frieda was expecting). Oh, Jac. 

Holby City: He’s alright really

(Series 20, ep. 8 ‘Hard Day’s Night’ by Michelle Lipton 20.2.18) I’m undecided about new registrar Xavier* Duval (Marcus Griffiths), but I think at the moment we’re meant to be. He has his twonkish side (“Delivering a baby is like watching your favourite pub burn down,” whatever that means apart from he can’t be bothered), but then after said baby is delivered (by Meena, Nicky and Donna) he gives Donna his credit card to go out and buy a load of stuff for it because the baby was totally unexpected and the mum (Jamie-Rose Monk, who was excellent) has nothing ready. So I would say he’s a man of gestures. Some are nice gestures and some aren’t, but we’ll have to wait and see what kind of person he is behind the gestures before we can say whether Zav could ever replace Raf. 

Holby City: I promise I will fix you

(Series 20, ep. 7 ‘Precipice’ by Tony Higgins 13.2.18) Poor Ollie. It looked like he was on the mend last week, but this week the bullet that’s still in his brain started leaking poison. It would have to come out, said Roxanna. This threw Ollie into a proper rage (how brilliant is James Anderson being at the moment?), and he said it should have been Roxanna who got shot, not him. Bless him, he’s not himself at all, is he? That’s not normal Ollie behaviour. He accused Roxanna of using him as a way of avoiding her grief over her dead husband (whose ashes were in her desk drawer), and he was right about that – she’s been living at the hospital because she can’t face going home. I bet she’s pleased she opted for that low-maintenance hairstyle now, hospital facilities being what they are.

But back to Ollie and his life-or-death surgery, which he only agreed to after Prof Gaskell had a quiet word (and I mean quiet – he’s got one of those voices that’s more of a vibration than a sound, and I have to say I find it rather thrilling as long as he isn’t overdoing it with the poetry). Predictably, things went a bit beep in theatre, but Ollie came through it, only to wake up from the anaesthetic temporarily unable to see, hardly able to move, and convinced he was still engaged to Zosia. Nooo!!!