Friday 30 October 1964

New neighbours Lena Hyde and Amanda Brown are getting to know each other.  Amanda's anxiously awaiting a diagnosis: her cough and temperature are getting worse by the minute.

Guy Marshall's accepted the job in Texas, meaning Charlie Booth will be taking over from him straight away - leaving long-suffering Les Large double the workload in the casualty department.  Nonetheless, Les is able to sneakily pass an injured child on to Charlie.

Louise Mahler and Rex Lane-Russell discuss Les's recent tribulations: Rex thinks the prosecution'll teach him a valuable lesson about driving safely - if he was the judge he'd throw the book at him.

Lena confesses to Amanda that she can't fully remember the details of the crash (which seems unwise, as she's planning to testify that she does).  Amanda reveals that she had a similar experience after a skiing accident when she was younger which saw her mother plunge over a 20 foot drop and break her back.  Not the cheeriest of stories, but Rex manages to cheer Lena up a bit by confirming that all that's wrong with her is the flu, and she'll be out in a couple of days.

Things are a bit more mysterious where Amanda's concerned.  Sister MacNab's worried the patient's falling into despondency ("She's had a hard life," she notes, though that doesn't seem quite the right way to describe someone whose parents took her on skiing holidays, even if one of them did end up crippled as a result).  Rex is still up to his old tricks, insisting that it be he rather than Louise who handles the attractive young lady.

As Guy prepares to take his leave of Oxbridge, Dr Chalmers is happy to inform him that she's solved the problem of what to do with his girlfriend's donation once and for all.

Dr Grant is shocked to see Leon Dorsey up and about as if he'd never had a serious disease of the inner ear at all.  He's still determined to be operating on people again within a week or two, but understandably starts to feel weaker when Grant starts badgering him about removing Chalmers as chair of the medical board.

Sister MacNab informs Grant that Rex has diagnosed Lena as having flu.  The consultant's so appalled he lapses into rhyme: "It can't be as easy as that.  If it is I'll eat my hat!"

Chalmers explains her plan to Dorsey: Barbara Dodge's donation will be split between each of the parties who want it: there's enough to pay for an ECG machine for Grant, photographic records for Dorsey, and there should even be enough left over to fit some decent storage in the staff nurses' flats.  I sincerely hope this is the last we hear of the matter.

Grant takes a look at Lena, and is forced to admit that flu is indeed the trouble.  He does, of course, take the entire credit for the diagnosis.  Grant now seems to be convinced that everything must be flu, pronouncing it to be Amanda's problem too.

Charlie and Les clock off prior to heading to the Feathers for a drink to celebrate Charlie's new job.  They're interrupted by a rather furtive, and very impatient, patient (Duncan Livingstone, credited simply as "Man"), who doesn't take kindly to their sending him back to wait his turn.

Les pops in to see Lena.  He's now decided not to let her perjure herself for him.  He tells her he wishes they could have a chance to be alone together, but the tender moment's interrupted by Sister MacNab.

The sinister Man tries once again to jump the queue, but is told to wait by Staff Nurse Pat Lyle (Colette Dunne).  But he follows after her, demanding to be seen and eventually advancing on her with a hypodermic needle.  Fortunately, Les, Guy and Charlie are alerted by her screams and manage to disarm the maniac.

Well, that was unexpectedly exciting! Come back on Tuesday to see what happens next...