Not really anymore...but that was a morbid faze. Most are just written out now.

They have, usually, months advance notice of leaving. When James Anderson left they had a year. They probably ask them a couple of months before renewal. The reason manylon of them leave at the same time is that the contacts come up at the same time.

If Digby is leaving it is wrencheaper for David ano Camilla. They were so close.

If I remember correctly, Patsy Kensit's exit was announced in the press more than a year before it actually happened onscreen? Maybe it wasn't quite as long as that, but it was a heck of a long time in advance. Laila Rouass' was as well. She was only in it for about a year and a half, so with Laila I was like, 'What? She's only just joined!'

I think what has often happened is that the actor is considerate enough to say a year or so in advance (if on a long contract) that they will not be signing a new one, even if offered. Or, they are offered a new long one t3 or 5 years) and state they don't want that but are willing to sign a year one to give the writers a chance to properly plot out a good exit. I'm pretty sure this is what happened with Guy Henry, Tina Hobley and Patsy Kensit, all of whose departures were announced a year before theu went on screen. Henry and Hobley both specifically said they chose to only extend their contracts by one year and told the Producers they wouldn't sign again next year.

I think the problem more comes if the actor asks to be released early for some reason or has trouble deciding one wya or the other until the contract deadline. Also, if the Producers had wanted and assumed that they would sign a longer contract after the initial 12 months but then the actor states they want to leave after that initial termm, which i think is what happened with Laila Rouass and possibly Sarah Jane Potts. They are then, virtually begged, to stay on for just a few extra months so they can write them out properly.

To a certain extent it is in the actors interest for the decision to be made, and announced months inn advance. It allows time for them to get a properly structured, and hopefully memorable exit (most actors want to do good work) and also let's casting agents know that they will be available for work from a certain point rather than having to do everything secretly because their former (or soon to be former) employers want it kept under wraps.

I imagine that contract negotiations for anybody that is on a longterm contract (3 years or so) probably does start 6 to 12 months before it is due to finish for everybody's sake and then they'll judge it from there.

Again, this is complete speculation, but i suspect Michael Thomson's was being negotiated Summer 2014 (just under a year before it ended) and perhaps he indicate he was wavering about renewing (seemed to want to do other roles) or they were unsure what direction to go in. Rosie Marcel then fell pregnant so it was decided the best thing would be for Jonny to leave with her meaning he went a couple of months early.

It did used to be the standard that it was announced months in advance, in fact so far in advance you almost forgot it was happening, but then they had a couple of 'shock' exits which worked well and now they seem to keep them all under wraps if possible.

Lucinda Dryzek has tweeted that she is joining the cast....

The only exit I can recall actually being announced in recent times is that of Jules Knight. Even then it was only announced that he would be leaving in mid February and he was on screen until mid April. There was a point to that in that Harry had his accident very shortly after they announced he would be departing which may have been meant to cause some suspense as to whether or not he would recover. They didn't announce Niamh McGrady's exit though, so that led to the exit storyline not being completely given away. Even though most of us in here had worked it out some time beforehand, as was also the case with Michael Thompson's exit.

Incidentally, Niamh mentioned in an interview at the time how they'd asked her to come back for a six month stint following her extended break to film The Fall, so that they could develop the storyline of MC and Harry falling in love and eventually leaving together. So she must have been originally meant to leave before that temporary departure and they obviously knew knew that Jules would be departing about a year in advance too.

I do remember around the time Patsy Kensit and Tina Hobley departed that the exits were announced about a year beforehand.

I'm sure that all the exits in 2010/2011 (there were about 8 of them, Duncan Pow, Amanda Mealing, Poatsy kensit, Luke Roberts, Jaye Jacobs, Robert Powell and Emma Catherwood) were announced several months in advance except for Powell whiiich leaked the week he left and Catherwood which they intentionally kept quiet for the shock. They then seemed to start doing that more often than not with Potts, Milson, Dhillon, Anderson, Luisi, McGrady, Thomson and I'm sure several others all only being announced the week before they went(when the tv mags were published) or immediately after transmission. Hobley, Henry, Rouass, Knight, Akinbole and Drummond were announced.

Yes I remember nearly all of these being announced, but since the late 2013 exits I really can't recall any being announced in advance with the exception of Jules Knight last year.

I don't think we knew that Gemma was going before she left rather suddenly and from at least that point on (which was late 2013,) I can't think of any others being announced in advance with the exception of Louise Delamere tweeting her holby discharge, but then I really don't think that that was authorised by holby.

I'm pretty sure we did know Ty glazer was leaving but only a couple of weeks beforehand and it was a very low key announcement. You're also right about them only seeming to confirm De La Mere after she'd let it slip.

It just seems to be their standard procedure not to announce it now and they might only have announced Jules Knight's as a favour to help him with publicity for his album. If it was solely about building suspence over whether he'd die in the fall, they'd have done the same with Thomson as Jonny was also in a serious life changing (or ending) jeapordy in his final weeks with the stabbing and murder charge so it might have increased belief that he wouldn't be okay if it had been announced he was leaving - hence perhaps increasing interest and viewers.

It just seems to be a choice their Publicity department are currently taking whereas at times previously, they've gone the other way.

Thinking about it, i think we only learnt Linden was going the week before he went and that was because Pow let it slip in the end of season interviews that he'd been killed off. I think they tried to keep it quiet so it would be a shock.

Speaking of which, both his and Penny's deaths did start their episodes but then they did one of those "6 hours earlier" things where we saw what had led up to the final (opening) scene.

ETA. Ii still think something odd happened with Ty Glazer. I'm sure it wasn't always intended that she would leave after less than a year and I've always found it suspicious that she complained that Gemma was written out of character about 9 months in, was over ruled and within weeks she was gone.

Yes, I think that something happened with Ty too. Her ending was particularly short and sudden. Even moreso than Adele's. I think she and Harry were meant to be another long term will they/won't they plot, but despite it looking good on paper, there was just zero chemistry between them and it really didn't work. As I think you mentioned before, MC was probably initially only meant to be a short term obstacle between them, but as it turned out Niamh and Jules had great chemistry together, so MC ended up becoming Harry's big love interest.

Mind you, that in itself shouldn't have been enough to warrant ending Gemma's character only nine months in. You'd think they'd have just ended that and tried the character with a different storyline, or even a different ward. I am sure she was meant to have been there much longer, so I've always thought something happened too.

Don't think they particularly wrote her out of character though. For me she was pretty much the same the whole way through. The character just didn't seem to work in the way that was originally intended and they didn't particularly try anything else.

Re spoilers for April 12th on Radio Times

They did very clearly write Gemma out of character, for one episode at least. In the episode with the car crash involving Malick, she seemed far more interested in gossiping about it than in actually being concerned about the wellbeing of those involved. In the past she had come across as very caring and compassionate, so that was very odd.

The dynamic between her and Harry didn't work, but I also don't think that should have warranted getting rid of her character entirely. When she first joined, I thought Gemma was a fantastic character - very fiery but able to temper it and get on with her job, highly intelligent (she normally surpassed Arthur in exams), an interesting backstory (the age of her son suggested she'd been a teen mum and having worked as 'Dr Honey' implying she's had to do pretty much everything to support them both), had good morals (wanting to be vegetarian) but a bit naive (thinking free-range chicken was fine). Then they set up the situation with Harry, and all they ever did was have Gemma bring her son in, him disappearing and have Harry find him. Then they suddenly wrote her entirely out of character, before being cut from the show altogether.

I agree with Kitkat, it is very odd what happened there. Perhaps the cast and crew found Ty difficult to work with on set - she could have been argumentative about various things and held them up. From what we've seen she may have had good reason given that her character was written very oddly in at least one episode, but there could have been a few occasions. Who knows? She always seemed lovely in interviews, but you never know. Also I daresay longer-standing cast members can get away with that kind of thing more than newer ones - maybe she was punching above her weight and unintentionally wound people up that way.

Fair point George, I had actually forgotten about that particular episode. That was unlike the character as we'd never seen her to be shallow before. To be fair, quite a lot on Holby I think that on the odd occasion a character will do something that they would just never normally do and seems out of character, and I wonder if that's to do with the high turnover on the writing teams.

Although apart from that particular episode, I think that Gemma was fairly consistent in character throughout and they didn't do an awful lot to try anything else with her when it was clear that the Harry/child turning up at the hospital every week thing wasn't working out. I think that she could have been a better character if they'd tried to steer her in a different direction.

I definitely think something odd happened, but I'm not sure it's that Ty didn't get on with the rest of the cast. I think she still interacts with quite a few of them on social media, and is good friends with Jimmy Akinbola. I also remember seeing her on TV with Jules Knight and Niamh McGrady and she certainly seemed to get on well with them, although that could have been for the purposes of the interviews.

Re Jesse

I was thinking more in terms of the crew than the other cast. I work in theatre, and sometimes you get an actor who isn't intentionally trying to be difficult, but is too outspoken in their opinions. It's a difficult one to call as some projects allow more input from actors than others, and I'd imagine that Holby City, having been described by many actors as a 'production line' is quite strict about just getting on with it and not having too much discussion. It's entirely possible that Ty misread the culture of the show, didn't mean to upset anyone but was prone to making suggestions about how something might work better a different way, which caused annoyance amongst the crew. This would be particularly probable if the character had been written in a way which didn't make sense with what she'd done in the past. Again, all speculation, but I've worked with people like that in the past - it's very rare that they mean anything unpleasant by it, in fact I have a tendency to be a bit like that myself so I normally understand them - but it varies between projects how that goes down.

The other possibility is that like Olga Fedori, Ty had some sort of personal emergency that caused her to be released from her contract early. Looking at her IMDb profile, she's done quite a lot of work since leaving Holby City, but only one thing in the year immediately after, which could support the theory that she had something in her life that she had to take a break from work over - although of course IMDb doesn't include work outside of television or film, so there's no certainty that that's reliable. I've tried to find her CV or Spotlight profile, but can't find it.

I'd also point out that just because Ty Glaser is good friends with the other cast members, doesn't mean they had a good working relationship. I've worked with people who have become lifelong friends, who I never ever want to work with again. There are other people that I'd gladly work with again who I wouldn't choose to spend my social time with. This of course doesn't mean that I think they didn't work well together, but seeming to be good friends with someone doesn't mean anything. Working relationships are entirely separate.

That was exactly the instance I was referring to. In amongst many jaw droppingly bad things in that episode where peope were written out of character (Jonny turning on pregnant Jac after 18 months within 5 minutes seemingly just because a couple of Patient relatives and girl he'd known at college and not seen for 10+ years said she was a bitch from their first impression. Right of course but everybody thinks she's a bitch on first impression, hardly news to him and the baby had been coming before everythin), was Gemma just firing gruesome question after gruesome question about the details of the accident and Malick's injuries to a clearly upset and traumatized Digby. That didn't seem in keeping with Gemma to anybody and certainly not her friend Sniffles (Digby). Meanwhile, MC, who did have a history of being a gossip, lazy and sometimes tactless was behaving like Florence Nightingale. Out of character for both (although it marked the beginning of a more mature MC which perhaps was their intention) and felt as though somebody had just swapped their lines over. Anyway, Glazer stated at the time that she had complained about that scene and been over ruled and only a couple of weeks later it was announced she was going.

It was around the time that Kent took over and maybe her face (character wise) just didn't fit or they didn't take kindly to having an actor arguing about scripts (even if only once) - especially a fairly new to the show actor. Somebody like Quarshie might carry a bit more weight or be harder to shut up. Although, we all know that Marcel objected to Jac having a baby and she was also over ruled so longevity didn't seem to help matters there either.

Also noticeable how many actors did leave within Kent's first few months in charge, some he might not have wanted, some might not have liked the way the show (which drastically changed around that time) or their characters were going and quit.

It's also possible that wasn't going to be an abberation but the start of a permanent change of direction for Gemma (as stated, that episode marked Jonny changing from a fairly good guy to a bit of an arse to virtually everybody, including Patients for more than a year) and they decided that if Ty didn't like it, she could go.

Or the new Producers just didn't see potential in the character full stop - she was created by their predecessors after all, one of the last characters they did create along with Digby and there is always a danger a new Producer will axe characters they don't personally like to make room for new ones they create.

Interesting, thanks.

That episode was terrible. Looking back on it, they did seem to be doing a lot of u turns in characters around that time. Jonny was totally changed from an all round good guy to a fairly unlikeable character for quite a few months/maybe a year afterwards.

In my opinion Gemma's was more of a one episode character change. Mind you, she wasn't around much longer after that, so it's possible that it could have been a longer term character change, had she stayed.

Whilst Mary Claire was one of my favourite ever characters, I do agree that they did change her personality to quite some extent following Kent's arrival, and shortly after she became a regular. She was always good fun to watch and humorous imo, but at the outset she was gossipy and lazy. By the time she left (and probably for all of her final six month stint) she was a very kind hearted character who was shown to be competent to the extent that Ric and Serena were recommending her for promotions and Colette was head hunting her for Chicago!

Yes, absolutely that's entirely possible and I could say the same myself.

Also, Jimmy Akinbola probably wouldn't have even filmed with her that much, so it's possible that theirs was a purely social interaction anyway.

If I remember correctly (and I may not, because it was so brief) her character's reasons for leaving were because she realised she wasn't spending enough time with her son? We all know Oliver Kent hates working mothers, a pre-curser to his approach to Jac and Connie...

I can entirely believe she would be sacked for complaining about a script. Kent is well known for being difficult and he certainly doesn't like being criticised or told he's wrong.

Re departures, I don't know which is worse, a surprise one that takes the wind out of you (if you like the character, like Maddy or Penny) or knowing someone you can't stand (like Faye or Chrissie) is going and it taking forever and a day for them to actually be gone!!

Funnily enough I have just watched the episode post crash on RTE and Gemma's comment WERE dreadful, I am not surprised the actress complained. Totally out of character for Gemma, especially with Digby.

A couple of other things stood out for me too. Firstly the amazing chemistry Arthur had with Chantelle compared to Morven, even though they were never a couple. You could tell by the way he looked at her how much he loved her. Of course that may have been Rob looking at Lauren rather than Digby looking at Chantelle!!

The other thing was the arrival of Bonnie. Was Jonny really that insecure that a couple of comments from a nurse taking umbrage at a consultant chastising her for having (mad) relatives in the staff room and said relatives telling him to grow a pair (only in Holby!!) was enough to make him turn on the mother of his unborn child?? He had been bulling her to live with him for 2 episodes before that and she had just agreed to do it and then he waltzs off with Bonnie and forgets all about it?? Ludicrous!!! It copperfastens my belief that he was never good enough for her (from a personality point of view, nothing to do with him being a nurse).

It was lovely seeing Michael being amazing in surgery, too.

God, I miss Spence, Malik and Chantelle.

I kind of enjoy watching the RTE episodes more than the current ones on BBC, Collins! Didn't see that one though!

If that episode was supposed to be the start of a turn-around for Gemma, Ty's complaint may not just have been about that, but about their intentions for the character in a load of future episodes. I have to say, if she chose to leave rather than to stay and put up with it, as a performer myself I rather admire that. A lot of actors would just stick around and shut up.

How do we know that she complained about it anyway? Has she been upfront about that in interviews?

Yes, me too

Although it's starting to get to where Jonny and Bonnie were stomach turning and the vitriol against Jac was hard to bear. Will have to grit my teeth through those bits!!!