The Royal - ITV
The Royal - Episode 2 - Waifs and Strays
This episode of the Royal gave us hippies, old fashioned attitudes and a boy trapped in a sewer. There were many threads in this episode of the Royal - I counted six - Heartbeat is usually content with just two story lines!
The story begins when a woman, Ella Hale (Naomi Radcliffe - you might remember her in the BBC's Born and Bred as scrapyard dealer, Jean Mills), brings a sick baby girl, Anne, to the Royal for treatment. A tale of events begins to unfold when the baby is diagnosed with congenital syphilis. Are the parents responsible? Only it turns out that they are not the parents and the baby was unofficially adopted.
The child's real mother is Paula Saundry, an exotic dancer at a seedy club run by a gentleman called Stan, who seems to have profited out of the adoption deal. Stan thought he was doing Paula a favour "she had no ring on her finger" - this is the 60s though, not the 30s and in spite of the permissive society, attitudes had not changed much.
Dr Goodwin has to find the birth mother urgently because of the risk to her own health. He goes to the club, but is told by Stan he will have to watch the show and see her afterwards. He feels uncomfortable in the smoke filled atmosphere of this kind of "gentleman's" club and his discomfort increases significantly when he is recognised.
Paula agrees to talk to Dr Goodwin, though not before Stan has extracted 10s from him for the privilege of seeing her backstage. Paula only agrees to go the Royal in return for the chance to see her baby. The adoptive parents are less than happy and round of name calling ensues. Paula disappears from the hospital leaving behind a note suggesting she is contemplating suicide.
So that's story one. Meanwhile Nurse Catherine treats an old friend, Billy Yates (her deceased husband's best man) after an accident on a trawler and agrees to go on a date with him. Is she still interested in Mr Carnegie though?
Elsewhere Lizzie is looking for a flat. She bumps into an old pal, Teddy Catchpole, the stationery salesman. He seems to be a bit off colour, so Lizzie and Ken persuade him to see a doctor. It turns out he has diabetes and has to watch his food and worse - his booze intake.
Gordon Ormerod is having car troubles. Mr Rose stops to help him. Gordon has a patient to see, so Mr Rose offers him a lift. The patient is in a camp of hippies. Beads, beards, caftans and selection of caravans and camper vans decorated with flowers abound. Some a little too modern for a hippy camp in the late sixties - but never mind. Mr Rose disapproves - peace and love - not likely!
It is lucky that they are around though, as a young boy from the camp goes exploring in a sewer pipe on the beach (at least that is one thing that has changed for the better) and falls, knocking himself unconscious. Mr Rose and Dr Ormerod have to crawl through the pipe to get him out. There is a race against the tide to save him. Mr Rose is public spirited enough not to mind taking them to hospital in his Bentley. Alan is there with a stretcher trolley when they arrive. I am not sure how he knew - surely no one had a mobile phone to ring ahead!
Meanwhile Dr Goodwin and Sister Brigid find Paula, she has cut her wrists. She is rushed to the Royal and fortunately looks likely to survive. She is though, facing an uncertain future and her baby may end up in care. Dr Goodwin questions the usefulness of his work. Sister Brigid has her faith and offers to arrange for Paula to go to a charity in Scotland, supported by the sisters, to help put girls like Paula back on their feet.
Later Teddy and Lizzie look like becoming an item and Mr Rose saves the boy from the hippie camp whilst in the operating theatre, though it is touch and go and a primitive defibrillator is brought into use - again shades of Casualty.