S15 E23 (2 Feb 01) : Something from the Heart by Graham Mitchell
Episode Summary
Fin and Mel bring American Richard Hall into A&E. He has been mugged in the park and received a stab wound through the heart. The Police arrive to interview his wife, Debbie, but she insists on staying with her husband. She explains that they had been to the bank to cash some travellers’ cheques – the mugger, who was in his late teens, must have seen them leave and followed them to the park. He approached them and demanded money before taking her bag. Richard tried to stop him but the man lashed out and then ran off, leaving her husband lying on the ground. Andrew examines her hand wound and she tells him that they came to England for their daughter’s wedding and stayed on to do some sightseeing. Max goes in later to tell her that Richard’s condition is critical and concedes that she should expect the worst.
MP Jane Taylor conducts an interview about the state of the NHS on the local radio. Afterwards she goes to the Riverdale Hotel. At the reception desk she asks if there were any messages left for Louise Webster. The receptionist hands her an envelope containing a key for room 363. She goes and stands in the doorway of one of the hotel’s meeting rooms and listens to Mark Fletcher talking about his tools company. At the same time Stephen Tate is trying to persuade the woman on the door to let him in without a pass. Seeing David White, a reporter from the Holby Post, appear Jane makes a hasty exit. After the meeting Steve is waiting for Mark and asks him for a job – he explains that he hasn’t worked in 18 months. Mark tells him to go and see him next week. As he leaves the meeting, he is accosted by David White who wants to know if there is any truth in the rumours about Fletcher and a married woman. Mark walks into the lift and refuses to comment. In room 363 Jane Turner is talking on her mobile as Mark enters. When she has finished her conversation, Jane tells Mark about her concerns about the reporter and they discuss their relationship. Mark tries to persuade her to run away with him as she’s said often enough that her marriage is a sham. She tells him that she can’t afford to be exposed and he is being idealistic to not care about the press. She insists that in her position she must be pragmatic. Her mobile rings again and, whilst she is talking, Mark goes into the bathroom. Hearing the door slam, he comes out again and discovers she has left.Downstairs Robert Lomax wanders from the hotel foyer into the kitchen. As he is passing through there is a huge explosion. Hearing it, Mark leaves the room looking for an escape. Back in the foyer Jane is wandering around in a daze, she tries to go back up to Mark but, as she tries to climb the stairs, she is pushed back by the people coming down. She trips and hits her head on the corner of a sign. Steve finds her in the foyer and leads her out of the hotel. Josh and Penny receive a call to go to the hotel. Robert comes out and says that there is still someone in the kitchen. He also explains that there was an explosion in the kitchen, probably due to gas. Steve goes back into the hotel and carries the woman out to the emergency services. The fireman discover that the gas mains at the back of the building are exposed and on fire. Jane tells them that there is someone still trapped in room 363 so they go back in to search. Mark is still trying to get out of the building, he finds a door but, discovering the fire outside the door, he goes back inside just as the ceiling falls in. He is trapped under the fallen rubble. As Josh is examining Jane’s head injury, a fireman comes out to tell her that they have found Mark. Josh goes to Mark who wants to know if his ‘colleague’ Jane Taylor has got out.
When Jane arrives in reception Charlie takes her through to a cubicle, masquerading again as Louise Webster. He examines he injury and tells her that a doctor will be along shortly to staple it. Outside Colette takes a newspaper containing a feature on Jane Taylor from another patient and unwittingly leaves it on the desk. Back at the scene the fireman explain to Josh that they can’t put the fire out, as it would cause a further explosion. They radio in to the department to ask for a team to take out some blood and analgesia to the scene. Andrew volunteers to go. Charlie picks up the newspaper and realises his patient is in fact the MP Jane Taylor. He volunteers to staple her wound himself. He goes into the cubicle, confronts her with the paper and asks who Louise Webster is. She explains that she had come to Holby to do a few interviews. Charlie believes that she adopted a false name in order to not lose face, having blasted off about the state of the hospitals on the radio that morning. He tells her that he’d always wondered what he’d do if he found himself in a situation where he had a staple gun in one hand and a politician in front of him. In this situation he decides to sort out her wound and then suggests that she comes in to the department for a few days to see what the NHS is really like. She explains that she had her reasons for behaving as she did and they were not what Charlie thought. Initially Jane had told Charlie that there was no one he could contact for her. However as he is finishing stapling her cut she tells him that there was someone he could have contacted but she had ended it. She tells him that they could have gone away to go together but the press and the fact that she had two children stopped her. She wants to be with Mark but doesn’t want her children to find out via the newspapers. She explains that it was Mark who got her into politics. They met at teacher training college several years ago and then when they met up again a year ago at a conference she had realised what she was missing. Charlie asks her if it will be damaging to her career. She tells him that she can’t afford any black marks. She wants to be honest with her children about the kind of relationship she has with their father and to be with Mark.
When Steve arrives in A&E he tells Colette that he rescued a woman at the hotel and he asks where the payphone is so he can go and tell his family. He phones his ex-wife, Liz, and tells her that he is in hospital and is going to be kept in for a few days. He asks her to come and see him and to bring their son Matty. Liz and Matty arrive in the department and she is annoyed to discover that Steve is not ‘at death’s door’. They argue about Steve not being allowed to see Matty. Later Colette tells Steve that the woman he dragged out of the hotel didn’t make it. He is upset as he thought he had saved her life. Colette reassures him that her death was not his fault. He tells her that Liz has met someone else and is going up north. The court stopped him from seeing Matty, except for one hour every other week at the community centre. In reception Matty asks Liz if they can stay until he knows his dad is better. Liz later tells Colette that it wasn’t her that stopped Steve from seeing Matty. When her ex-husband lost his job he became violent and a ‘headcase’. He beat her up pretty badly several times and then went for Matty. She took out an injunction against him because Matty was scared. Liz leaves Matty in reception with her handbag whilst she goes out for a cigarette. When she comes back inside she discovers that both Matty and Steve have disappeared. She tells the police that Steve has taken her car and he has threatened to take Matty before. The police discover Liz’s car empty at the side of a road. Steve has taken his son to a secluded spot where hey used to go together years ago. Steve explains that he wanted to see Matty on his own before he went away. He tells him that he never intended to hurt him and that he was ill at the time. Matty is the most important thing in his life and he wants him to know how sorry he is. He drives Matty back to the hospital and gives him some money and a photo of them together. Matty goes off to his mum who is smoking in the car park. She sees her car but Steve has gone.Andrew goes into the cubicle to examine Robert Lomax who has a deep laceration to his left leg. He is very keen to leave. When he has returned from x-ray and they have cleaned up his leg, Colette tells him that he is free to leave. As she goes out of the cubicle she picks up a hotel room key that he has dropped for room 367. In reception Debbie Hall tries to phone her daughter on honeymoon and leaves a message for her. As she comes off the phone Colette asks her which hotel room they had. She tells her it was room 367 at the Riverdale Hotel. Colette calls a policeman over who asks if Mrs Hall would recognise her husband’s attacker again. She assures them that she would. They take her into Lomax’s cubicle and she bursts into tears.
Back at the hotel Andrew can’t understand why Mark is in so much pain, especially as the beam does not appear to be directly crushing his legs. The fireman explains to him that they have secured one end of the beam and they are preparing to lift it. When they pull the beam clear, they discover that Mark’s leg is impaled on a pipe. Andrew realises he is fixed to the ground and he is very concerned that he may have punctured his femoral artery. The fireman explains that they will have to be quick as the ceiling is still not secure. Outside David White, the reporter, is talking to a colleague on his mobile. He explains that Mark Fletcher is trapped and he has a hunch that Jane Taylor will turn up at the hotel. He also suggests that someone should be sent to her family home as she has two children and this could be ‘a juicy one’. At the hospital as Jane and Charlie are talking when Max comes in and whispers to Charlie that they may need to amputate Mark’s leg. A car takes Max and Charlie out to the hotel. Jane jumps into a taxi behind them. At the scene the press are out in force and David White is asking all the emergency services for interviews. The medical staff deliberate as to whether or not to lift Mark off the pipe. Eventually they decide that it would be the best course of action. As Jane gets out of the taxi the press spot her and try to get her to give an interview. Charlie spots her at the front of the crowd of press and tells Mark that she has come back. When they have lifted him free, Charlie tells the police to let Jane through the barricade. She then goes with him to the hospital in the ambulance. He is taken into resusc and then up to theatre. Jane tells him that she will be waiting for him when he comes back. She thanks Charlie for all he has done. He asks her if she will be okay with the press who are waiting outside. She replies that she can’t hide now and that she’ll tell them something from her heart – unusual for a politician. She goes out into the car park and is bombarded with questions.
Notable Facts
* Sandra Dickinson plays Debbie Hall.
* Marina Sirtis plays Jane Taylor.
* Shaun Scott plays Mark Fletcher.
* Nicholas Tizzard plays PC McCormack.
7.82m
