Right, the man with the glasses is Arthur Digby and he had found several suspected moles removed a few weeks ago. Although the initial prognosis was good, he has since discovered that he has secondary tumours on his lungs so it is Cancer which may or may not be terminal. He is engaged to Morven (the mixed race lady) whose father is definitely dying of liver disease unless he gets a transplant very soon and she is not a match so it doesn't look good.

Robbie is a recurring character who has been around a few months. He is a Policeman, about to retire (i believe it is compulsory at 50 or 55 for any rank below Inspector) and has been dating Serena. He is basically quite nice and good to her but hasn't really bonded with her nephew Jason who is Aspergic and she only met a few months ago courtesy of a Sister who was adopted and she didn't know existed until after her Mother died. The sister has also died, making her Jason's only relative hence her feeling responsible.

The blonde lady is Bernie and fairly new to the show. Her husband has appeared but only in a guest capacity, he works at another Hospital so isn't a regular character. I think Alex had only come in as a Locum (so temporary staff) so it is not as though she was walking away from a permanent job. I think she had only gone there to be able to talk to Bernie about their relationship so once Bernie rejected her, she had no reason to stay. That said, I doubt it is the last we have seen of her.

Hope that helps, feel free to fire off any more questions if you stick with it - most of us have been watching a fair while (some like me from the beginning) so should be able to answer most things and are quite friendly!

Thank you for your help. The Arthur story was quite heartwarming and I liked him, although his girlfriend was a bit of a cow but she's going through difficult circumstances so I'll let her off.

I got the feeling that Bernie had been in it a lot longer, I was very invested in her story considering I've never watched the show! I appreciate that a lot of the show is condensed because it's only on once a week, but it did feel very heavy handed at times.

And don't even get me started on Carl, the transgender lady who is pregnant by a man but is now with a lady and in the middle of her gender reassignment. Also, add to that her heart problems, am I right? Far too many storylines at once for me to even contemplate thinking about.

Carl has appeared before so I guess they are assuming that many if not most viewers will remember the story from then. He actually came in as a Heart patient originally and they discovered the pregnancy during that episode. Much hmming and hrring about what he should do and finally decided to keep the baby as it would be the only chance he'd have to become a parent naturally. I think the conception was meant to have been a one off re him sleeping with a man whilst pre surgery.

There aren't loads of characters like that but Holby does have a few 'frequent flyers' - patients that appear multiple times as their illness and treatment progresses. It's actually quite nice, adds some realism to it as people are rarely cured in one op, once you have a serious heart problem you do need at the very least monitoring and often several operations so will have multiple stays in the same ward.

I think Bernie arrive in January, originally as a Patient as she'd been injured on active service as an Army medic. As well as having pressure put on her by her Husband to stay home rather than sign up for another tour and getting away from her lover, there were some complications with her treatment (think she had TB) which meant she wouldn't be able to pass an Army medical for 6 months so that is why she has taken a civvie local job.

It is standard for there to be 3 different Patient storylines each week (one for each ward) plus the ongoing staff storylines so there is a lot going on and you do have to pick up the Patient ones pretty quickly as they are new each week (except for the odd recurring like Carl) but I guess they assume a certain amount of knowledge about the staff's arc and you just kind of learn the shorthand for the patients after a while!

I was very much hoping that the new project for Mr T could be a move to make him regular. I've always thought they could make him regular in some way without his ward featuring. There is no reason why he couldn't get a promotion to a more senior role in the hospital (deputy CEO for example) which would give him a reason to appear regularly on all of the wards. I actually think that Mr T and Hannsen would be a great double act! Although it could, of course, just be a move to have him legitimately appear on Darwin more regularly without there always being a baby related storyline.

I agree with those who have said that this could very well be a leaving storyline for Serena. She will be very missed if she does go, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's not often that they have an ongoing storyline based on a character's personal relationships with non Holby staff members/patients, and when they do, it is often just before they are written out. With both an external love interest and a new relative introduced in such close proximity, I really wouldn't be surprised. Perhaps Mr T could go for her job!!

I agree with those who have commented that we've never really seen Mo worrying very much about becoming a consultant until recent weeks. I think that the first real mention of it was when she was asking Bernie about the perks of being a consultant a few weeks ago. Of course there was no explanation as to how she immediately became a consultant one week after Sir Dennis left, or even as to why this was unusual. Surely the position would have to be tendered for interview again. Or at least there would be a few formalities which would take several weeks to iron out. Holby HR again...

Speaking of which, don't we have quite a high consultant rate now: Hannsen, Guy, Serena, Jac, Mo, Sacha, Ric, Bernie. They massively outnumber any other type of staff member. Particularly considering the fact that there are only 3 nurses!!

I very much thought that Bernie would be a love interest for Ric, so was quite surprised by Alex's arrival. I suppose it could still happen in future. Speaking of Ric it would be a shame if Serena left and they hadn't ever explored the obvious chemistry between their characters!

Without wanting to make light of real life peoples situations I did have to smile at the end of Holby last night, the old BBC helpline "if you want more information on carls condition or along those lines" maybe they could have said "if you want to talk to someone about gender issues please call our help line. I mean if taken literally how many calls will they get for a female with a heart condition who is transitioning to male but has to stop because they are pregnant ?

I think Nurse Cara should be in more stories. She appears to only be on every other week.

Cara was actually on for the last three weeks in a row - her last week at AAU and first two on Darwin. However, I have noticed that several characters seem to be one or two weeks on to one week off. Examples being Ric and Jac. We went through a period of barely seeing Jesse at all for weeks in a row just prior to his departure and we've also seen very little of Fletch recently. Seems to be just the odd scene here and there.

I do like Cara as a character and don't think that they've made proper use of her recently. Hopefully that will change now they've moved her to Darwin, though.

I think Cara could work really well on Darwin, actually.

Fletch really has become a bit part player lately. I am also worried about Jac's lack of presence. I hope they are not doing a Ric/Elliot thing with her.

I have to say I think holby is getting worse and worse.it doesn't feel like a continuing story anymore.it's almost like we're watching a different programme every week. There's no depth to the stories and nothing is followed up on. Arthur was diagnosed with lung tumors one week and it's barely been mentioned since. It's utterly bizarre.

Yes, I also think that Cara will work well on Darwin.

I think they could well be doing a Ric with Jac. In the sense that Rosie Marcel has asked for reduced hours since her return from maternity leave.

A lot of the actors seem to be part time in Holby, we dont see anything like enough of Ollie and Zorsia after all the build up to their romance. Darwin never seems to feature as much as the other department.

I think we might be watching different shows because there are multiple story arcs that are ongoing.

But it has been mentioned repeatedly and it's going to include others soon.

Really happy with the Mr T story this week and with the amount of air time he had as well! A few weeks ago there where two episodes where I thought Mr T should be involved but they just glossed over it (I think they even had an 'extra walk away from the bed scene' as a gyne doc). I don't think he will be a main character but this story line will allow him to be in more episodes (maybe on Keller for the womb transplants) Chizzy tweeted recently that she had spent the day filming with Ben.

I hope that Serena isn't leaving but I don't think she is or won't be leaving for a while.

Up coming SL for Fletch involving a possible new recurring character.

Whilst the ongoing continuity is something i've moaned about a lot and it is true some actors really aren't used as much as others I think it has to be remembered that it is an ensemble show with approx 18 regular actors and half a dozen more recurring. It isn't physically possible for characters to appear week in, week out (episodes are recorded simultaneously for one thing and an actor can't be in two places at once) and people would actually complain if only a few characters dominated. But, as a viewer, if you are invested in a storyline or character, you notice the absence and with it being once a week, 2 or 3 episodes missed is a long time.

I remember actually doing the stats on this a few years ago (Seasons 13, 14 and 15) when complaints were being made about certain characters not being used, others used too much and the results were quite surprising. At that time, the least number of episodes a contracted player did was about 20 and generally there had been an onscreen explanation for them being missing. The most was 46 (which was Sahira and Hansenn who they've admitted were overused at that time and Rouass quit and Henry threatened to quit because of it) and most were about 36 - which equates to 2 out of 3 episodes per year.

Now i guess they could do block storytelling, have people centre stage for maybe 6 weeks and then go missing for 4 weeks but personally i prefer having a more constant presence so one week there, 2 weeks off, 2 weeks there, 1 week off is better.

I actually think Ollie and Zosia have had quite a lot of attention since they got together. We've had a couple of episodes where the relationship has been directly addressed re getting Guy to accept it, an ex girlfirned turning up, key giving. Background scenes of them arriving together, being at the bar, talking about eating together. And, they are still together after 3 months. That's virtually unheard of in Holby!

I'm not entirely sure what more people were expecting to be honest. We're never going to get prolonged scenes of domestic bliss over weeks or months. It just won't even happen in a Soap and in terms of depicting relationships, Holby is a soap.

Well that's how I feel when I'm watching it. You obviously feel differently. It might have been mentioned repeatedly but it's only been a few comments in passing

I have to partly agree too!!
However I think that Diggers story line is about to kick off next week properly and I also think that there will be a SL for Zosh and Ollie too!!

I do feel that there was a bad ommiiission on Digby's storyline re seeing people be told. Only a handful of people (Zosia, Essie, Morven, Hansenn) knew there was ever a problem and to see nobody except Dom and Morven (although of course they are the most important people re Digby's relationships) learn it had progressed and could be terminal is a big miss dramatically speaking and also for the viewers who have invested in the character for over 3 years.

I agree. I would have liked at least a passing reference to Malik having been told (also Chantelle but we don't know if they have stayed in touch) as they were very close back in the day.

I know the writer's cannot pander to all our tastes and wishes but a mention would be nice.

I was amazed they mentioned Joseph a couple of times in the past year in connection with Jac. I thought once they married him off to Jennifer off screen that we would never hear his name again. So it was a nice touch, for me.

This is from an interview with Rob in Inside Soap:

Who is the girl for Arthur: Morven or Chantelle Lane?

"It's funny you ask, as that question is going to come up soon in the show! The thing with Arthur and Morven is that he can really be himself around her, whereas with Chantelle he was always trying to prove something. He put her up on a pedestal, I think."

Brilliant, look forward to that, although it looks like Morven rather than Chantelle based on the above

This may be a strange request and question but on the interview did it read what his age was in real life, as I really want to know and normally it says on interviews like that in inside soap the actors age, I was just wondering. Thanks. If it doesn't say then no worries. Or if anyone knows already, feel free to say.

It doesn't seem to mention his age on any interviews , but if he has kept his own name and not changed it for stage reasons then there is only one Robert Ostlere with that spelling that could fit and that's a Robert Anthony I Ostlere born July 1984

Okay then, Thanks for that anyway.

Personally I think that Joseph would pretty much have been left in the past if Michael Thomson hadn't chosen to leave the show. I still say that they only married Joseph offscreen to try and force those fans still shipping them that it was a lost cause and Jonny was the romance they needed to be invested in now. But, his leaving has changed things somewhat so they've seeded Joseph refs as a way of justifying Janny breaking up, providing a reason for Jac not to get involved in new relationships and perhaps, potentially providing a sunset ending if/when Jac leaves if they can manage to get Roberts back - i suspect that he would be willing to do it (he did always say he would for Rosie) but his schedule might not allow it.

Interesting that Chantelle is going to be mentioned in some way. I do think that comment suggests that Morven is the 'one' though - it's all very well striving to be the best you can be and youur lover being a source of inspiration for that but not healthy (or sustainable) to constantly be pretending to be something you're not or feeling that you aren't "good enough"

Yes, I'm pretty sure he was about 28 or 29 when he started in the show (like Afwedson older than he should be for the character as most F1s are early to mid twenties) so a 1984 birth date would fit with that.