Episode One: For
Better For Worse
This is the brand new episode of series four, and it’s what we’ve all been
waiting for!
The main feature is of course the wedding we’ve all been waiting
for! Jill and Gordon get ready to tie the knot.
Meanwhile at an elderly care home we find out that its residents
are not being looked after properly and aren’t receiving the care they need.
One man in particular (Mr Calder played by Frank Mills) is forced to eat meat,
something that he hasn’t done for fifty years. Also at the care home Dolly
(Elizabeth Spriggs) has to be admitted to The Royal by Dr Goodwin as she has
terrible bedsores, and due to the lack of care she had received she was pleased
to go.
Also this episode Lizzie is devastated to find out that her husband
Dave has left her for another woman.
Finally the wedding arrives and just as poor Jill is walking down
the aisle with her father (John Flanagan- Writer For The Royal) a massive
explosion takes place. The
explosion was caused by Mr Calder who committed suicide using the gas oven, as
well as one of the care workers who sparked the explosion.
We see the staff leave the wedding in order to help out the many
injured residents, rescuing them and taking them back to The Royal where the
hospital is thrown in to chaos.
The happy couple do finally
get married at the church with just a few guests attending. (At last!)
Episode Two: "Beggars
And Choosers"
The morning after the wedding before and the hospital is back to normal
after Jill and Gordon’s attempted nuptials and the explosion at the care home.
The medical storylines are, as usual, gripping stuff. A young boy who gets his
arm mangled in a machine, but he and his dad are too afraid of losing their jobs
to say anything. He is looked after by Jeff, who attempts a daring investigation
into the factory, but the evidence is covered up by the manager. A known local
drunk, Rory, is brought in, but found to be suffering from liver damage and near
to death. Sister Brigid nurses him, and we are sensing it made a large skeleton
in her closet dance like it’s Halloween. And a very important man comes to the
hospital as a patient, making Mr Harper even more twitchy than usual. He turns
out, however, to be very nice and allows Rory to have his private room so the
old man can die with his dog, and also agrees to represent the boy with the
mangled arm free of charge. Don’t you just love it when things turn out well?
As for the staff,
well Jill and Gordon have a party in their garden. A “Belated house
warming/belated wedding reception” party, which is fairly unique. The event,
however, turns into a woman’s rights meeting after Alun lets it slip that
Lizzie’s recently fled husband has got his fancy woman pregnant. “A woman
needs a fish, like a man needs a bicycle,” Lizzie claims the next morning,
dressed in her most revolutionary clothes. Further from the women’s rights
army, Jill is insistent that she wants to keep her maiden name, professionally.
She later tells Gordon she doesn’t mind being Mrs Omerod, just not Dr Ormerod.
Meryl and Sam have begun fighting over Frankie (who appears
naked in one scene, girls!). He takes Meryl out and, by the looks of things the
next morning, the night was a success, despite Frankie arriving late after
helping Jeff with the aforementioned investigative trip. However, Frankie is
“busy” the next night. This upsets Meryl, but she is comforted by a dinner
invitation from Jeff.
That’s the general gist of the episode. It was very good. Some
nice moments with Jill and Gordon, and nice to see Lizzie getting some good
storylines at last. This series is proving to be just as good, if not better
than the other series’.
With special thanks to Mz who
wrote this review.
Episode Three: "No Room
For Ravers"
A lady is brought into the hospital as she thought she had gone into labour but
it turned out to be a false alarm.
Lizzie is having trouble paying her bills so decides to take in a
lodger. She advertises around the hospital and both Jeff & Frankie apply so
she decides to rent 2 rooms instead, much to Kens displeasure!
Mr Harper is on the war-path again when he finds Alun is late for
work. Alun then has to rush off to a rehearsal of his band 'North Faces' for
their first gig. The band makes such a noise that it cause the lady in the flat
above to have a fall and break her hip, and when Mr Harper finds this out, Alun
is suspended from duty.
Samantha & Lizzie decide to show their support for Alun by
getting as many people as possible to go to the gig. Even Sister Brigid goes!
The gig goes well, despite Alun's guitar being smashed by the old lady's son.
Ken & Lizzie become suspicious of Mr Harpers daily lunchtime
meetings at Ashfordly General and a bit of Kens detective work reveals that Mr
Harper had a very embarrassing illness and had been seeing a Natural Therapist,
who turns out to be an ex cleaner of the hospital. A small dose of blackmail got
Alun re-instated and also a pay rise.
Alex Heath visits Dr Weatherill with vague lower back pains, she
prescribes dia-hydro-codeine but when she goes out to lunch with Gordon and sees
Alex lifting heavy boxes she suggests, believing that he is a hypochondriac,
that he waits longer before going to see her as it may clear up on its own.
Frankie invites Meryl out for a picnic. They chat for a bit but
soon get interrupted by a man whose car has broken down. His wife is in labour
(she was discharged from The Royal earlier) and so Frankie has to give them a
lift to the hospital - in his friends camper van - Meryl delivers one baby on
the way but it turns out to be twins and the Mum is hemorrhaging.
Mr Rose invites himself round to dinner at the Ormerods, but they
are soon interrupted by a phone call from the hospital. Gordon & Jill are
needed to help deliver the second baby. They rush off, leaving Mr Rose to
baby-sit for Tom & Katie.
The baby is delivered successful and they manage to stop the Mum
hemorrhaging. Gordon & Jill go home to find Mr Rose asleep having lost the
game of Monopoly to the children!
On a later visit, Alex reveals that he was actually getting
the pills for a friend, Patrick Maver. Jill suggests that Patrick comes to see
her but he says that he doesn't go out so she agrees to go to his house. Patrick
is an ex-prisoner of war and at first refuses to let Jill in. When he finally
does she discovers that he has Hepatitis B but he refuses treatment and believes
her to be an enemy. When Gordon arrives to try and find her Patrick believes
that he is under attack and puts a gun to Jills head, but sadly the situation
ends with Patrick committing suicide.
Special thanks go to Tinx who wrote this review.
Episode Four: "The Rose
Queen"
Anita and her mum Hazel are walking their dog along the cliff top, and Anita is
practicing her speech as she is The Rose Queen in the forthcoming Rose Festival.
Their dog runs off and Anita follows to find the dog. Hazel looks around and
sees that Anita has disappeared so she goes to the edge of the cliff and sees
that her daughter has fallen onto a cliff ledge. Frankie and Jill come to the
rescue, both having to abseil down the cliff to Anita. They see that Anita has
injured her leg, and winch her up on a stretcher. She is taken to hospital in
the ambulance and Mr Rose operates and is able to save her leg. Jill tells Hazel
that Anita's recovery will take a long time, so Hazel talks to Frankie about how
Anita is going to miss The Rose Festival. Frankie then talks to Jill about
fixing it for Anita to take part in the festival.
Mr Sadler, a driving instuctor, drops his wife off for her to
do some shopping. As Mr Sadler drives away, he falls asleep and knocks Sister
Brigid off her bike. Mr Sadler and his wife make their way to the hospital, to
have his head injury looked at. He sees Jeff, who does some tests on Mr Sadler.
Gordon offers to look at Sister Brigid's knee and she reluctantly agrees. Gordon
concludes that there is no lasting damage. Mr Sadler's friend visits him in
hospital and smuggles some alcohol in. Jeff concludes that the alcohol is
responsible for Mr Sadler's snoring.
Jeff is about to go and visit Arthur Graham at home, when
Arthur is brought in to hospital by his wife - he has been up all night being
sick. Jeff suspects that it could be food poisoning from the fish Arthur caught
and had for his tea the previous day. Jeff visits the pond where Arthur
apparently caught the fish, and everything seems OK. Jeff questions Mrs Graham,
who confesses the fish was actually from private land. The test results show
mercury poisoning so Jeff and Ken visit the river where Arthur actually caught
the fish and they find mercury cans that have been dumped. They have come from
the factory that Mr Archer, (who is also the river owner) owns.
Mr Harper gets a new vending machine for the waiting room, which
proves unpopular with the staff and patients, so is removed.
Gordon visits a young boy called Keith, and diagnoses chicken pox.
A few days later, Gordon visits again and Keith is feeling better, although his
dad Barry is not well - he has a rash and high temperature. Gordon is then
called away by the surgery and advises Barry to stay in bed and rest. Gordon
returns to the hospital and realises that Bryy has Encephalitis, which is an
inflamation of the brain. Gordon and Frankie go straight round to Barry's house
and find him collpased on the stairs. They take him to hospital and Gordon then
blames himself for not spotting it earlier. He monitors Barry late into the
evening, when Barry passes away.
Frankie cancels his date with Meryl, and instead goes out with
Anita's mum Hazel, who is waiting for him outside the hospital. They go round to
her house for tea.
Alun helps to make the float for The Rose Festival and adapts a
wheelchair for Anita. All the staff tun out to see Anita as The Rose Queen.
Special Thanks go to Caz who wrote this review.
Episode Five: "Its Whats On The Inside That Counts"
Special thanks go to Stanie who wrote this review
Episode Six: "Duty Bound"
The episode opens with Jeff,
Alun, Lizzie and Samantha meeting up at the pub after work. Jeff gets talking to
Chrissy Maynard, who flintily complains about a knee injury that she incurred
whilst playing hockey years before. Jeff replies saying that she should get it
looked at and Chrissy agrees. The group go back to Lizzie’s house, where Jeff
and Chrissy are getting on very well and end up spending the night together. The
next morning, Jeff is the first to leave for work, leaving Chrissy still in bed.
A little while later, Chrissy arrives at the hospital, for someone to take a
look at her knee injury. Since her previous doctor, Dr Cheriton died; she is
informed that she is now a patient of Dr Goodwin. Now knowing this, Jeff brushes
off Chrissy’s advances as she is a patient and it is against regulations for a
doctor to have a relationship with a patient, which angers Chrissy.
Later on, Jeff is called to see Mr Middleditch who says that he has received a
complaint of professional misconduct concerning Jeff and a patient. Jeff then
talks to Chrissy, asking her to withdraw her statement, but she walks off.
Chrissy goes to the hospital to sign the statement of complaint, but at the last
minute, decides against it and leaves. Jeff sees Chrissy later, and she tells
him that she has dropped the complaint. Jeff is relieved and thanks her.
Arthur Cordell meets Ken to return the pigeon that he found.
Arthur returns home, telling his wife that he had the car stolen while he was
out. The next day, Arthur goes to the hospital for an eye test with Dr Ormerod.
Gordon confirms that although Arthur’s eye sight is alright, he recommends
that he shouldn’t continue driving, for his own safety and the safety of
others, to which Arthur disagrees. Ken then finds the supposedly stolen car just
around the corner from where Arthur believed he had parked it originally. Arthur
drives off, nearly knocking a man off his bike and then knocking a man over. An
ambulance takes all to hospital and whilst there, Ken advises Arthur gives up
driving and he agrees. Ken, Alun and Mr & Mrs Cordell go to the cliff edge
and release the rescued pigeon.
A group of boys are canoeing in the river. Billy Tanner
collides with a fallen tree, knocking him unconscious and trapping him
underneath it. Gordon and Frankie attend in the ambulance and Gordon is winched
down on a rope to pull Billy out. He is taken to the hospital along with Mr
Morrison, the canoeing instructor and Jamie Parson, one of the other boys. At
the hospital, Mr Morrison lectures Jamie abut water safety, insisting that was
to blame for the accident.
Sister Brigid asks Jamie about the accident and he tells her that they were made
to go into the dangerous water. Later, Mr Morrison talks to Jamie again
insisting that the accident was because they were going to fast, and threatens
that if Janie tells anyone what really happened, he’ll be out of the canoeing
group. Jamie says he doesn’t care and Mr Morrison goes to hit him, but Sister
Brigid intervenes, taking Mr Morrison to see the police.
Jill contacts her friend, Dr June Barnes, regarding Samantha’s
pregnancy. Gordon questions Jill about the conversation, who says that it was
about a patient’s unwanted pregnancy. At work, Sam confides in Meryl about her
pregnancy. Whilst working, Sam’s mind is elsewhere and Matron reprimands her
for her poor concentration. Jill overhears this and decides to speak to Sam. She
tells her that she spoke to Dr Barnes, who has agreed to be the second
signature, along with Dr Weatherills, for the abortion. Sam asks if she will
still be able to have children in the future, she still wants them, but just not
in the current situation. Gordon sees Sam leaving Jill’s office and puts 2
& 2 together about the pregnant patient. Sam goes to see Dr Barnes, but she
has been called away, so Sam has to see Dr Sedgewick instead. He examines Sam
and confirms the pregnancy, but doesn’t agree to sign for the abortion. Sam
leaves upset and angry, telling Meryl what happened, and she who advises her not
to do anything rash.
Still upset about the incident earlier, Sam takes the bus into town and has a
backstreet abortion. Afterwards, she leaves in pain, just managing to make it to
a phone box to call Meryl at the hospital. Frankie and Meryl come to her rescue,
to find Sam collapsed in a pool of blood in the phone box. She is taken to the
hospital where Jill operates to clean her up. Mr Rose is upset that Sam didn’t
confide in him earlier. Sam decides she needs to go away for a while and as she
is leaving, Jill apologises for the situation. Sam says that it is ok and
wasn’t Jill’s fault. Sam plans to convalesce and then maybe travel to France
and onto South America. The staff are sad to see her go, as Mr Rose drives her
off into the sunset.
Special Thanks go to Caz who wrote this review
Episode Seven: "Sins Of The Father"
On her first day as The Royal’s new SRN, Stella Davenport who swore she would
“rather stick pins in her eyes than drag herself back” to the hospital, is
accused of stealing an elderly patient’s valuables.
The real culprit of the crime is Alison, the
fourteen-year-old daughter of the new domestic who goes into labour in her
interview leading Mr. Harper to bid a hasty retreat from his office.
Meanwhile Gordon resists his “instinct to go in all guns
blazing” in dealing with Stella, a victim of domestic violence. While Gordon
promises to her son that he will take care of his mother, the boy takes care of
his father. In this scene, it is interesting how long it takes Ken and Alun to
get from one end of the corridor to the other to stop the fight!
Mr. Harper turns out to be right for once when he says that
“scooters only mean one thing – trouble”. Having sold Dave’s bike,
Lizzie gets her own scooter. But when taking Alun out for a ride, she is
distracted by his teasing her about Jeff and they take a tumble.
Jeff perceives an atmosphere at work and asks Lizzie if anyone has
said anything to her about him.
June Whitfield makes a delightful guest appearance as Esme, an elderly
patient with a cut hand and a sense of fun.
The drama is as usual, neatly mixed with humour and the sixties. An
excellent episode.
“If you’ve any sense, you’ll nip round the chip shop and get
yourself four specials!”
Wise words from Ken when it is revealed that Lizzie is unaware of the
difference between cloves and bulbs in making garlic bread!
“He’s gonna rip her off. You can tell by their hair.” – Alun
about the man who buys Lizzie’s bike
“Ghastly, vulgar monstrosity that it is. Was.” – Esme on her
daughter’s ceramic jardiničre that she cut her hand on
“Your ability to communicate with patients is part of what makes you
such an excellent nurse,” – Matron to Stella our new SRN
Episode Eight:
"Everybody Needs Somebody"
Matron's day gets off to a bad start when she's attacked by a thief (Chris)
stealing drugs from the hospital storage room. She attempts to stop the robber,
but she is knocked down in the struggle that follows. Later we find out that he
was stealing the drugs for his pregnant girlfriend who is addicted to methedone,
and that he didn't want to do it and feels guilty about hurting Matron. While
riding away after meeting with his girlfriend, his motorcycle skids out and he
falls off and dislocates his hip.
Meanwhile, Dr. Omerod has a patient (Hattie) with open tuberculosis
- and she works as a lunch lady at a local school. Fearing children may have
been infected, Dr. Omerod arranges for all of the children to come to The Royal
for testing - resulting in a rather large amount of chaos!
Meanwhile, Georgie, the drug-addicted girlfriend, sneaks into the
hospital to visit Chris - who was taken there after the accident, but still
hasn't been exposed as Matron's attacker. Georgie runs into Jill, who turns out
to be her doctor, and who urges Georgie to go through methedone withdrawal
before her addiction starts to harm her baby.
Jeff starts feeling that certain people (Mr. Rose, in particular)
are treating him differently lately - as a result of the rumors that he was the
father of Samantha's baby, which he denies. Some patients are even refusing to
see him, and while he's helping one patient in the ward, she slaps him! He asks
Jill if Sam ever told her who the father of the baby really was, but she doesn't
know. Later he talks to Frankie, who says that he beleives him, even if no one
else does...
Matron (who's arm is in a sling as a result of her struggle with
Chris) starts acting differently as well - although for a different reason.
Since her attack, she's been feeling insecure and spending most of her time in
her office. When she isn't told that the schoolchildren are coming until their
arrival, she takes it personally and feels people think she isn't needed. Jill
eventually talks to her about it, but it doesn't go well: Matron walks out on
Jill and eventually ends up running into Chris in his bed. She recognises him as
the theif and alerts the rest of the hospital staff.
As the testing on the schoolchildren continues, it is discovered
that one of them, Polly Crookshank, is TB-positive: Polly also has a heart
condition, which is a complication to matters. She's quickly confined to bed and
is barrier-nursed in the same room as Hattie. Hattie's husband delivers the bad
news that several cows on their farm also have TB and need to be put down.
While his cows are being shot, Hattie's husband takes a walk on a beach to
get away from it. He steps into some hidden quicksand and rapidly starts
sinking. Meryl and Gordon, and the Coast Guard have to come to his rescue.
Back at the hospital, Polly gets upset and runs away. Alun, whom she is
particularily fond of, chases after her and persuades her to come back inot the
hospital. She collapses from her heart condition, but Alun and Jeff help her and
she ends up OK in the end.
Jill starts formulating a hypothesis about why Chris was stealing
the drugs, and draws the correct conclusion. She convinces Georgie to confess
about Chris' motives, and, once Matron learns how bad he feels about attacking
her, Jill eventually gets Matron to drop the charges against him, too. Georgie
decides to finally go through her withdrawal with the drugs, as well.
With the situation resolved, Matron gets back to her normal self. Jeff is
still being bothered, professionally and personally, by the rumors flying around
about him, however...
Special thanks go to Paddleperson who wrote this review
Episode Twelve:
"While The Cat's Away"
Gordon makes a home visit to one of his patients, David
Wallis, who is suffering from cancer. He asks him to come into hospital to be
treated but David declines, so Gordon says that he will send Sister Brigid round
to talk to the family about it. The next day Sister Brigid visits and advises
David to go to hospital and he agrees to do so. Mr Rose goes to see David and
tells him that if they operate they can prolong his life and give him more time
with his family. David declines and asks if a party can be held for him at the
hospital, as a celebration of his life. It is agreed, and the next day a party
is held for him, during which he passes away.
Ken, Alun and Lizzie are discussing Matron and Lizzie confirms that
she is definatly leaving as she is coming to collect her belongings the
following day. Frankie approaches Lizzie to ask if she'll let him stay at her
house again, but Ken tells Frankie to clear off.
Mr Harper collects all the keys from the porters room and in
reception. The following day when Lizzie, Ken and Gordon are wondering where the
keys are, Mr Harper appears with a large bunch of keys and tells them that he is
economising and instituting a strict economy drive because the hospital is 'in
the red'. He tells them that any member of staff requiring supplies will have to
produce a chit signed by head of department.
Mr Harper tells Ken that he has cancelled the order for the new
boiler as they can't afford it. Under his new cost cutting regime, Mr Harper
also warns Ken that he might employ a professional boiler expert and get rid of
Ken. Mr Harper tinkers with the boiler, causing it to explode in the middle of
the night and flood the basement of the hospital, wrecking most of the hospitals
archives. Mr Middleditch informs Mr Harper that the hospital is not 'in the red'
- Mr Harper had forgot to include the bequest from Mr Middleditch's grandfather
in his calculations. Mr Middleditch orders Mr Harper to put all the keys back in
their correct places immediatley.
Matron arrives back at the hospital and she goes to see Sister
Brigid and tells her that she has decided to stay. Sister Brigid is relieved at
this news as she doesn't really want to be a Matron.
Thelma and her husband Dennis arrive at the hospital wanting to see
Jill. They go through to her office and Jill examines Thelma, who has been
complaining of headaches. Jill informs Thelma that she should be admitted to
hospital for further tests. After further investigation, Jill suspects that
Thelma had Cranial Arthrirtis, but won't know for sure until the test results
are back. In the mean time, Dennis talks to Jill and says that he thinks it
could be a brain tumour, which his mother died from. Dennis approaches Gordon
about his wifes condition, and Gordon says that he can't comment on another
doctor's case, but that headaches can indicate a brain tumour. Dennis then goes
to speak to Jill, who tells her that he has been to see a senior doctor, Doctor
Ormerod, who has said that Thelma has indeed got a brain tumour.
Jill confronts Gordon about it and he tries to explain but Jill
interupts. Gordon apologises. Thelma's test results come back and confirm Jill's
diagnosis, but she needs to speak to her urgently about her results and
medication, but they have left already. Gordon goes after them in his car,
catching up behind them near the seafront. Another car pulls out in front of
Gordon's, causing him to swerve and make his car spin off the road and crash on
to the causeway below. Alun is passing on his scooter and witnesses the
accident.
Frankie, Jill, Jeff and Stella attend the scene. When they arrive,
Jill sees the car and realises that it's Gordon who's lying in the car
unconsious. Jill rushes to his side, but can't find a pulse, so Jeff takes over
while Meryl comforts Jill. (The camera then pans out to a lovely scene across
the water.)
Will Gordon live or die......?
Special thanks go to Caz who wrote this review