Holby City: All the feels

(Series 18, ep. 35 ‘I’ll Walk You Home’ by Andy Bayliss) If you had dry eyes at the end of that episode, you’re a stronger person than I am. Was that a brilliant hour of television, or what?

Arthur Digby’s last episode was always going to be emotional, no matter which way it went (miracle cure, or slow decline with last few months spent travelling and off-screen demise, or… not). He’s a very well-loved character, not just loved by fans but by so many other characters in the hospital. He’s worked on several wards and come into contact with so many people who love and respect him for his sweet, gentle nature and earnest commitment to his job. So young, just at the start of what promised to be a glittering career. And just married to his soulmate. Whatever happened to him was going to impact on everybody. 

Emmerdale: That’s Charity for you…

Another week, another thump on the head for Charity, the schemer with a noggin so resilient it can only be empty. Emmerdale celebrates it’s birthday week in it’s traditional way; by putting a central character in mortal peril.

To get you up to speed, everyone is shocked because Charity, a renowned liar, cheater and money grabber, has been lying, cheating and grabbing money. Declan has chosen to reveal these misdeeds in two very unique ways; firstly by holding a gun to his sister and declaring the truth to the entire clan of tricked Dingles and secondly by releasing his first of what I hope will be many DVDs. It was a gripping watch, and Declan had ordered several copies, which Amazon delivered to Charity’s family, friends, foes, solicitor and the police.

It’s needless to say she was now in hot water and needed to take a break from the village which hates her (more than before I mean.) Before she could get very far, however, she had been intercepted on a country road and walloped to the ground by a baseball bat wielding hoodie which no doubt conceals someone we know very well.

But just who has added a bump to Charity’s increasingly lumpy head? I line up the potential suspects below…

Emmerdale: Interviews with Jane Cox (Lisa) and Nicola Wheeler (Nicola)

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS which some readers may wish to avoid

Remember the days when Emmerdale used to be about sheep, bails of hay and the occasional lesbian vet? No, me neither. It’s never quiet in the village and the next two weeks are going to hit that home in a big way.

I’m personally just recovering from Donna breaking the fragile heart of Ryan before leaping to her death and I really cannot take much more excitement. But Declan Macey has other ideas; he is intent on offing his wife Charity as he takes her to a derelict countryside cottage and, mark my words, this explosive week in the Dales will end in a shocking way.

But, past the splashes of drama that Macey Madness will bring this week, there are more shocks to come in the village and Jane Cox, who plays the long suffering Lisa Dingle and Nicola Wheeler who plays the high maintenance blonde bombshell Nicola King, discuss the big plots on the way for their alter egos, in a double interview…

It’s not been an easy few years for the Dingles. Bereavements, rape, serial killers, floods, hostage dramas, debt, breakdowns, teenage murders, prison and Sam have just been a few of their pains in their unwashed necks and it’s a wonder that the glue of the family, matriarch Lisa, manages to hold it all together. However, as the true extent of Sam’s debts become known in coming weeks and with the ongoing trauma of daughter Belle’s incarceration, it is all about to get too much…  

Holby City: A new man

(Series 16, ep.7)  It was Malick’s farewell episode, and didn’t we just know it? He was given maximum opportunity to do all the classic Malick things – rush around going “Grrr,” shout at Digby, have an almighty strop, mess up a bit of surgery and try to worm out of it, and wrestle with his conscience about what kind of father he was to Jake. The only typical Malick thing that he didn’t get to do was have a steamy encounter in the locker room, but there was hardly time for any of that nonsense because he was so busy elsewhere.

It was actually all rather magnificent (apart from the sloppy one-handed chest drain incident – what happened to the standard cry of “We need some help in here”? And surely there’s a call button in the CT scanner room?). Since he damaged his hand, Malick has (understandably) been a tad immersed in self-pity, which has at times been fairly tedious to watch. By the end of this episode he’d recovered his mojo, but incorporated a few life lessons into it and become a humbler and wiser man. He’s The Malick again, but he’s Malick 2.0 – teacher, mentor, father. Ego restored and off to Sweden with his son and a James Brown soundtrack.  

Holby City: After the year she’s had

(Series 16, ep.6)   “After the year I’ve had…” Chrissie kept complaining throughout this episode, and I think we were meant to sympathise with her and think, “Yes, Chrissie love, you have had a horrible year and you deserve to run off into the sunset with the most attractive American medic in the hospital.”

But instead of thinking about poor Chrissie’s breast cancer problems, and My Son Daniel’s traumatic bone marrow donation and Sacha’s deception re same, all I could think about was how horrible she’s been to Sacha. It was left to the ever-wonderful Jac to sum up the car crash that has been Sacha and Chrissie: “You sleep with him – you break his heart. You have his child – you break his heart. You literally beg him to marry you and you break his heart. And now you’ve even found a way to divorce him, yet still give him a little bit of hope so you can break his heart again.” It was all true, and Chrissie wandered through the episode being as smug, self-righteous and manipulative as she has been recently.  

Holby City: Jac and Sacha friend-zoned

(Series 16, ep.4)  Jonny and Bonnie. It just can’t happen. It rhymes, for a start, and it’s impossible to make into one of those portmanteau names – though I have come across “BJ” on Twitter, which is almost certainly meant to be rude. Because the main reason Jonny and Bonnie can’t happen is that it’s making The Glorious Jac unhappy, and anything that makes Jac unhappy makes me unhappy.

Bonnie (she’s nice, darn her, and pretty too) is no longer an agency nurse. She’s a full-time, fully paid-up staff member, although obviously that means less within the fluid staffing configurations of Holby City than it would almost anywhere else. She is also “stepping out” with Jonny Mac, a fact which got our Jac so rattled she made a too-deep incision during surgery. Obviously she’s Jac, so she saved the patient anyway and treated her to a most beautiful piece of post-operative Naylor sarcasm. When the (annoying new-agey) patient complained that Jac had done an open procedure instead of a laparoscopic one as promised, Jac replied, “This morning you were suffering pericardial effusion as a result of your own actions and now, as a result of mine, you can go back to shopping and having lunch.”

Jac is aware of how she appears to other people, though. “I’ve just been called grouchy,” she said to Mo. “On a good day, maybe,” Mo replied.  

Holby City: The plumbing and the back to work bird

(Series 16, ep.3)  Henrik Hanssen’s parting words to Chantelle were, “Don’t ever stop being Nurse Lane.” But can she get over the car crash to continue being the sunny, joy-spreading nurse she once was?

She was back to work for her first shift. Serena told her she was on admin only, but that was never going to last for longer than it takes to shout “We need some help here!” Digby gave her a cuddly “Back to work bird” to bring her luck, which was adorable of him. It was all going reasonably well until Chantelle caught sight of Malick’s arm while the dressing was being changed and the hideous sight made her throw up. After that she was in a bit of a flap.

She tried to compensate by spreading extra joy to her patients, including a woman whose pregnancy test had come back positive. Chantelle wasted no time in giving the happy news to the patient’s boyfriend. Sadly it wasn’t a pregnancy but a tumour, and the patient died in a very messy way in the operating theatre. I couldn’t help thinking the scene in the Keller theatre was a bit frantic, with Mr T and Digby panicking a bit more than you usually see on Holby, where a spurting artery usually elicits nothing than a raised eyebrow and a call for some suction and 4-0 Vicryl.  

Holby City: More than half the man he used to be

(Series 16, ep.1)  You can imagine that Antoine Malick wouldn’t make a great patient even if it was only for something fairly trivial like an ingrown toenail. He’d be tetchy and stroppy and wouldn’t do as he was told.

Now factor in that he’s almost lost his hand and will only ever regain 85% of the movement in it at best, and you have to feel sorry for him, and maybe just as sorry for the people looking after him.

This comprised a crack team of new Queen of the Hospital Serena, Michael Spence, Digby and occasionally Ric Griffin. The episode opened with a strange dreamlike sequence in which the four of them were ranged at one side of a long table drenched in a heavenly light discussing the fact that Malick is only half the man he used to be.

Ric thought Malick needed counselling. “We have a very good counsellor,” he said, though who that might be now that Psych Sharon has gone is anybody’s guess.  

Holby City: When Henrik stopped being Mr Hanssen

(Series 15, ep.52)  Henrik Hanssen has been one of the greatest ever Holby characters. A mystery wrapped in an enigma encased by a formal suit, he was always intriguing and fascinating. The character was beautifully written, especially in the early days when odd little clues about his background were leaked out bit by bit, but it was Guy Henry’s stunning acting skills that really brought him to life. Having to work with the constraint that Hanssen was a character who didn’t really show emotion, his inner feelings had to be revealed by the most subtle acting, and by clever, telling details like the way he ate his sushi and arranged his pencils.

The exit episode for such a special character needed to be very good indeed, and last night’s episode was wonderful (beautiful writing by Nick Fisher). There had to be quite a lot of suspension of disbelief – that Digby was allowed to operate on the woman he loves even though he’d been a puking, shivering mess not long before; that no neurosurgeon was available at all (I’m sure in an emergency one could have been summoned from The Mythical St James’ or the Hadlington or somewhere if there really wasn’t one at Holby); that Ric Griffin took no part in the surgery to re-attach Malick’s hand even though he’s always been the go-to guy when veins needed sorting out; and so on. But, really, I wouldn’t have wanted to sacrifice any of the drama just to make things more realistic. Having Digby and Hanssen outside the operating theatre biting their nails while a Guest Artiste Surgeon did all the vital stuff wouldn’t have been the same as having them perform heroic deeds themselves.  

Holby City: Look out! Look out! Look out!

(Series 15, ep.51)  Talk about emotional rollercoaster! I don’t mean Serena’s birthday, though I dare say it’ll be one that she won’t forget – and she doesn’t even know (or care) about beloved Tim dying in AAU or Mo and Sacha kissing in the Linden Cullen Memorial Shrubbery. She doesn’t even know yet about the car crash right at the end, but obviously she’s going to, as half her colleagues were involved and there’ll quite probably be some life-saving surgery to get stuck into next week.

Phew. Let’s rewind a bit. It was the day of the Young Doctor of the Year award ceremony, and Digby was practising his speech – or his “rambling love letter to the Swede,” as Zosia put it. And this would be a good place to mention that I really, really like Zosia. I think there’s going to turn out to be a lot to her, and given time she could be one of the great Holby characters.

I also really love Digby and find him laugh-aloud funny. My favourite line was when his patient had just informed him that she was planning to call her unborn baby Destiny. Digby was explaining why she was in pain. “The appendix is being pushed up by the… by Destiny,” he said.