The Royal

- Season 3

(2003)

Student nurse Samantha Beaumont makes quite an entrance, arriving in the middle of the night. The hospital porters get involved with helping a farming family, whilst Brigid and Jill try to persuade a young couple not to reject their new-born child, who has Down's Syndrome. Lizzie goes on a crash diet and is surprised by the result.

Porter Alun gets involved in a road accident with a suspected drunk driver, while Samantha does not impress Matron, and a female patient makes serious allegations against Dr. Ormerod. The rugby match between staff from the Royal and Ashfordly General is revived and the consequences are tragic.

New young doctor Jeff Goodwin arrives at the Royal to replace David, after a traumatic journey in which he is involved in a car accident, punched by one of the other drivers and then robbed of his motor. Annette Cheriton calls in to collect her son's belongings and Meryl is taken by surprise to learn that he had a fiancee.

Jeff raises eye-brows but ultimately wins the day by letting a holistic therapist cure a patient's back injury, following a mining accident. Gordon's father-in-law Henry comes to the Royal and suggests that Caroline's life-support machine be turned off. Gordon agrees though feels some guilt, given his feelings for Jill.

The porters persuade Harper to re-apply for his job following management re-organization and move him into a plush office, where he accidentally puts insect powder in his tea instead of sugar. Romance is in the air for Ken as he meets an old flame on the ward and Alun as he goes after Samantha. Jeff almost commits professional suicide by ordering the closure of a café which he wrongly believes to have poisoned a jazz band - before Matron sees the real cause. Gordon and Jill have an awkward time at a dinner party when their host Frank Welborn tells them he suspects his...

Television presenter Lennie Lemarr brings a film crew to the hospital for a special Christmas broadcast - and Nigel Harper is the star of the show. Gordon and Meryl rescue a boy who has fallen through ice on a frozen lake only for the ambulance taking him to the Royal to get stuck in a snow drift. A Christmas miracle results, though not for Ray Piper, who comes to the hospital after a family tiff which ended with him being hit on the head with a frozen turkey.

Jill and Gordon decide to call it a day but when they try and tell people they seem to know already. Sister Brigid considers leaving the hospital whilst Lucy Klein meets a figure from her past and, with Nigel Harper now a permanent administrator at the Royal, Ken has to work out how to keep him in his place.

The police are called to the Royal after a man with a leg injury turns out to be one of two gun-men on the run and his friend gets ready to shoot. Gordon is called out to a cave to tend some injured fossil-hunters and, whilst Ken tries to find a television set to watch the World Cup, Matron visits Brigid in the convent to talk her into returning to the hospital.

The fair comes to town and the fortune-teller reveals staff futures though Gordon now knows his own. Jeff and Samantha have to cut free the operator on the waltzers who gets caught in the mechanism and take him to the hospital for Mr. Rose to operate on him. He explains that his father, who runs the rides, has been having dizzy spells, and the doctors arrive too late to prevent him from causing further disaster.

A group of drunken lads on a stag night arrive at the Royal very much the worse for wear but the drink they have been consuming is lethal hooch made from industrial alcohol and one of them is blinded as a result. Mr. Rose performs an operation in the home of Ada,who has a gangrenous toe whilst Samantha still can't get it right as far as Matron is concerned.

Gordon is disturbed when he receives poison pen letters. The staff help Sally Bain, a girl whose parents' behaviour has caused her to run away from home. Jeff is shocked to find that a cheese on sale in the area has become contaminated due to the cattle's illness and local gentleman tramp Sebastian Fox-Kirby's death reveals that he was a decorated Naval hero in the war. When his relatives eschew responsibility for his funeral the Royal's staff send him off with full honours.

Gordon is angry that the police feel the need to investigate his wife's death but Jeff and Samantha get cosy together. Routine tests on young Peter Blackwood sadly reveal that the lad is subject to a hereditary heart disease in his family, and disaster strikes for Ken, who needs an operation after lifting a piano, and Lizzie, who crashes into Harper's car during her driving lesson.

Jeff's failure to spot post-natal depression in new mum Sheena almost ends in disaster when she ends up on top of a cliff likely to jump. A prison van crashes, killing the driver and injuring the convicts and a guard, who are brought to the Royal for treatment. Ken recognises an old friend among the prisoners.

Jeff discovers that he has a love rival for Samantha but Gordon and Jill are brought closer when his former father-in-law tells them that he was suspicious of their relationship and hired a private detective to follow them. They announce their engagement. The hospital is evacuated after a suicide victim is brought in, whose body appears to be giving off toxic fumes.