Often I find the patients’ stories in Casualty to be a bit expendable – I know there’ll be another lot next week, so I don’t get too involved. But not in last night’s episode, in which the central patients’ stories were gripping, heartbreaking and beautifully written (by Kelly Jones) and acted.

Last week we met Nathan, a little boy with leukaemia. He’d been looked after by his dad since his mother abandoned them when Nathan was tiny. Kate, the mother, turned up and was eventually persuaded to be tested to see if she was a bone marrow match for Nathan. This week, Nathan took a turn for the worse. Although Kate wasn’t a good enough bone marrow match, she wanted to be involved and get to know Nathan in the time that was left. Understandably, his dad David found it hard to deal with Nathan’s deteriorating condition and with Kate suddenly appearing in their lives and taking over in a role that he’d occupied for the whole of Nathan’s life. Scot Williams, Erin Shanagher and Lewis Hamilton (not that one, but equally talented in his own way) all gave incredible performances. The scene near the end where David walked off a cliff with Nathan and ended up standing in the sea clutching the seriously ill child and being talked out by Jeff was almost too sad. And it looked bloody cold as well.  

Elsewhere, Fletch and Tess were dealing with an elderly couple who wanted to be together despite the woman’s son thinking the old man was a molester. Fletch knew he wasn’t, because Fletch is a good judge of character. Is this why he’s attracted to the fragrant Tess, despite the age gap and despite the presence of Mrs Fletch and the Fletchlings? They’ve shared a kiss by a taxi and a little hug in a cubicle, and it’s all enough for Tess to start dropping things and being less than her usually efficient self.

She also had a touch of flu, as did a lot of people in Holby. Dr Zoe Hanna gave Dr Ash strict instructions to close the ED to incoming patients if it got overloaded and reroute them to The Mythical St James’. He ignored this and instead procured a sort of bouncy castle affair to put in the car park to take the excess patients. Zoe was cross when she found out, but was persuaded that this was the sort of thing she would have done herself when she was young and maverick and not burdened with the chains of office. So now Ash has been given a permanent contract, but don’t expect things to be plain sailing between him and Zoe.