Tuesday 8 September 1964

In her hotel suite, Barbara Dodge chases a handful of pills down with a swig of brandy and lies back to await the end...

...but her suicide attempt is interrupted by Lydia Stock, who's brought the management to break down the door.

Barbara's rushed to Oxbridge hospital, where an anguished Guy Marshall learns what she's done.

In the time it takes for him to rush to her side, Barbara's busy practising her charms on the usually brusque Dr Grant, who comes over all giddy when she flirts with him.

Barbara explains to Guy that she was consumed with jealousy when she saw him with Michaela.  They kiss and make up, and he tells her he'll move back to the States as he needs to be with her.

But a damper's thrown on the reunion by Lydia, who reveals that the attempted suicide trick is one Barbara's played many times in the past to keep hold of a man - all of whom she eventually got bored with.

Dr Grant recovers his normal prickly manner when he visits Mr Seaton, making short work of the hapless graduate's inferiority complex: "Isn't it about time you got that chip off your shoulder? It does no good to you and it's rather boring for everyone else".

Grant then dashes off to the Royal Hotel for lunch before the moment he's been eagerly awaiting for weeks: the announcement of the new chair of the medical board.  He and fellow consultant Mr Arnott (John Sanders) discuss Barbara trying to kill herself over Guy.  "What's the fellow got?" muses Arnott.  "Nobody ever took an overdose on my account."

Mr Seaton receives a visit from his fiancée Ruth Ames (Anne Stallybrass), and tells her that his bronchial condition has put paid to his hopes of a job in the East.  She surprises him pleasantly by revealing that she doesn't care if he's got a successful career and a fancy lifestyle, she just wants them to be together.  There's still his dragon of a mother to get round, though.

Rex Lane-Russell is happy to see that Private Baines' adrenal apoplexy is improving, but disaster's just around the corner when Sister Doughty reveals that they're out of biscuits!

At the Royal, the meeting of the medical board has convened, and Grant and de la Roux are already at each other's throats...

...while at the hospital Barbara's wiles have ensnared a new victim in Rex, who she implores to plead her case to Guy.

Back at the meeting, Leon Dorsey's stunned to find himself nominated as chair of the board alongside Grant and de la Roux.  They all get equal votes, so the decision rests with outgoing chair Dr Wallace (Walter Horsbrugh), who chooses Dorsey.  Overwhelmed, Dorsey rises to his feet to accept.

And then promptly collapses...