The opening scene of tonights Holby City, with Jac driving into work talking to an unseen Fletch was very amusing. Was she talking to him on hands-free while she was driving? No, he was actually at the back of the car, pushing it while Jac steered. It was Fletchs car – obviously Jac would never drive a clapped-out vehicle, and shes too posh to push Fletchs.
Having a rubbish car was just the start of Fletchs problems. He was also having childcare nightmares, and had to resort to asking his oldest daughter, Evie, to babysit the other Fletchlings. Then he got a message that his son Theo was in AAU with some broken fingers, and Evie hadnt been at the house when the ambulance crew arrived.
It turned out that Evie had been meeting Steven Fletcher (Jesse Birdsall), Fletchs dad. It was hardly a joyous reunion when Fletch spotted his father lurking outside the hospital. We discovered that theyd hardly spoken for years, not since Fletchs grandmother had died.
Fletch was worried that his famously unreliable father would let his grandchildren down in the same way hed let his son down. Evie pointed out that Fletch hadnt always been the best of parents himself, and reminded him of the time hed run off with Tess from Casualty. By the end of the episode, with Theo on the mend and social services diverted by Donna, Fletch was ready to allow Steven to get to know his grandchildren – but you could see from his face that hes still extremely wary.
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Last week we saw that Henrik Hanssen has taken to using cedarwood shaving balm and just might have romantic feelings towards permanently worried neurosurgeon Roxanna. It seems that his affection for her goes back a very long way indeed – back to their student days when she used to wear red DM boots. Thats the kind of detail that you remember about your first love. Its also an absolutely brilliant gesture to remind her of this by getting her a brooch in the shape of a red boot for her birthday (which this was). At least youd think it was a lovely idea, but Roxanna reacted by bursting into tears and fleeing in the opposite direction. Poor Hanssen, it had taken him ages – and a pep-talk from Essie – to even get that far. No wonder he looked bamboozled.
Later, Roxanna explained that her late mum had once given her a very similar brooch for her birthday and thats why she got emotional, but by then she wasnt in the mood to celebrate her birthday. Once again, Hanssen was left to dine alone.
Essie had returned to the hospital to have her wound checked, but she stayed around because Julie, her friend from last week, had just had surgery after a road accident. Poor Julie must be one of the unluckiest people in Holby, as recovering from this latest surgery meant that her cancer treatment had to be stopped until shes strong enough.
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Berena fans will have been interested to hear about Serenas recent trip to Nairobi for the opening of Bernies trauma centre, but it seems that she barely saw Bernie, who was busy with work. Meanwhile, Serena was suffering the effects of the long flight.
Ric, too, was a bit sleepy because Donnas kids had kept him awake, so neither he nor Serena was in the mood to be dealing with self-important F2s.
F2s? Yes – Nicky and Meena have successfully passed their first year. To celebrate, they were given the task of looking after the new intake of F1s (one of whom, poignantly, reminded Serena of the late lamented Arthur Digby). Whats Churchill saying? Serena asked Ric, as they watched Meena holding forth in a very self-important style. They decided the young uns needed taking down a peg or 12, and Ric set them a difficult task which they totally failed at. But then for the next task, Meena used some new-fangled app on her phone to give a more accurate answer than anything Ric could come up with. Would Ric really not be up to speed with the latest thinking? He had all that time in prison to read up about stuff. Anyway, he was a bit cross about it and Serena wanted to plot further revenge, but then everyone had a drink at Albies and all was well that ended well.
And Fletchs dad fixed his sons car. He might be a useless dad, but at least hes a good mechanic.
Sue Haasler is the author of the official Holby City book, which you can find out more about here. Her latest novel, Half A World Away, is out now.
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