Naughty nurses and nasty doctors (Holby City)

Member Name: west_jenn

Product:	Holby City
Date:	05/02/03 (2093 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great storylines

Disadvantages: gets very soapy at times

Holby City is an offshoot of Casualty set in Holby City hospital's Darwin, Kellor and maternity wards. It's fantastic almost like a soap opera with the occasional patient. The staff have so many dramas and relationships with each other it's amazing more of the patients don't die of neglect, because the nurse is involved in a round of long lingering looks and hushed, urgent conversations in a side office.

I've been watching it for a good couple of months now and it's strangely addictive. Acting wise, I?ve not noticed any potential oscar performances from the cast, although some of the bereaved extras put in a good performance, There are some stereotypes in the cast of characters: arrogant but brilliant surgeons, good time girl nurses and brilliant doctors who don't have much of a bedside manner.

So here are the characters

Tom Campbell-Gore Is the surgical consultant and top of the tree. He is arrogant, cold and ruthless, but a brilliant surgeon. He has a frosty working relationship with Ric Griffin who wanted his job and doesn't like the way he works. He is an alcoholic who has recently started drinking again and collapsed during surgery because of being very drunk. He has also been having trouble with his black sheep junkie brother.

Chrissie Davis Ward sister and hospital good time girl who has worked her way round most of the eligible males. She's extremely efficient at her job and doesn't suffer fools gladly. She had an affair with Alistair (a doctor who has since left). She resumed an affair with Owen which had broken up his marriage. Owen left his wife for a second time to be with Chrissie, she's now pregnant but the baby may be Ed Keatings conceived after a brief fling together. Chrissie marries Owen but there may well be trouble ahead.

Owen Davis Consultant obstetrician. He's ambitious and good at his job. In the past an affair with Chrissie nearly destroyed his marri
age, when he finds himself working with her at Holby, he can?t fight his attraction and they end up living together and then marrying. He is unaware that the baby she is carrying may not be his.

Ric Griffin Has a bit of a power struggle going on with Tom. Also he has a turmounulous personal life like so many other at holby city. He has had several wifes and has several different children from his different wives. He nearly married Diane and Sam (a doctor who has since left)

Alex Adams Surgical registrar. He's very ambitious and has temporarily left to work on a research programme with Anton Meyer. He had a relationship with Sam which broke up after she spiked his drink which led to a drink driving charge. He stole Sam away from Ric on the eve of their wedding day. Also he had a fling with Jess Griffin which led to her getting pregnant and then aborting the baby.

Jess Griffin Student Nurse. Daughter of Ric Griffin, fell for Alex who left her pregnant and broken hearted.

Dianne Lloyd Surgical registrar She's tough and ambitious. She's had a relationship with Ric and almost married him in the past, they?re close and still flirt together. She had a fling with Danny that didn?t work out

Danny Shaughnessy Student nurse. He's Kath's son and has a bit of a rocky love live. He had a fling with Dianne that didn?t work out. He thought he?d found happiness with immigrant Maria, but she went back to her presumed dead husband who suddenly appeared in Holby. He slept with Lisa, but after his mum is arrested for her dad?s murder they are at loggerheads

Kath Shaughnessy sister on Keller ward. She's calm and good with patients. A devout catholic, she went through a huge crisis when leaving her husband who beat her up. She fell for a priest, but fought her feelings. She fell for Terry, Lisa's terminally ill dad and helped to end his life when he asked her. She's been arrested for murder after Lisa go
t her dad's body dug up and post mortened

Lisa Fox Midwife. She's very competent at her job, direct and strong willed. She had a stormy relationship with Mubbs after she realised he wouldn't commit to her. She slept with Danny. After her dad died she suspected Kath of helping him along and has got his body dug up for a post morten

Mubbs Hussein Obstetrics registrar. He's ambitious, arrogant and go getting in his professional and personal life, He?s had a thing with Lisa and two timed an ex nurse with her mother

Ed Keating Registrar. He's a protege of Tom and admires him greatly. He is in a bit of a tight spot recently with some unorthodox surgery they have carried out together on Tom?s junkie brother's mates. His affair with Chrissie has led to him maybe being her baby's father.

Ben Saunder Midwife. He?s seeing the gay security guard from Casualty which is an excellent cross over between the two programmes.

Sandy Harper Junior staff nurse. She's caring, considerate and good with patients. She often gets on the wrong side of her strict boss Chrissie. She had an unreciprocated crush on Alex and feelings for Ben before she knew he was gay. Seems to be attracted to unsuitable men.

Phew so thats the cast of Holby City and their rather complicated love lives. Wouldn't fill you with hope if this was a real hospital! There is always at least two different affairs going on at the same time. It must be the long hours they work which stops them finding partners outside the hospital! The big on going storylines at the moment are Kath's killing of Terry Fox in an effort to stop his pain in last Tuesday's episode she is arrested and I foresee a lengthy court case. Also the paternity of Chrissie's baby is likely to be an explosive revelation in the future. Sandy has been unknowingly date raped by a friend of her horrible ex boyfriend. Past explosive story lines have been Alex?s d
rink driving charge, a murder of doctor, chrissie's affair with an ex doctor and Tom?s brother's friends kidnapping him and forcing him to perform ad hoc operations with household equipment on a man injured in an armed robbery.

Patient storylines are just as dramatic, but are condensed into one episode. The maternity ward is often the scene of dark secrets. You don't see many happy nuclear families. A favourite storyline is a baby whose father isn't the women's partner, the father is usually a shocker the man's best friend or even one of the woman's pupils at school. Problems with mother and child are frequent, Last Tuesday's episode saw a lesbian mother die in childbirth and a single mum give birth in a toilet, the waltons it aint!

No hospital drama would be complete without long drawn out gory surgical procedures and there are plenty of them. Along with tense words over the operating table and professional differences of opinion. The medical stuff is absorbing, because there?s always shocks in the storyline. It?s not as predictable as it sounds, you do find some real twists in the storylines. Holby City is pure escapism the tangled lifes of it's cast make compelling viewing it's almost like watching Eastenders

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