Programme Guide

Series 1
Originally Broadcast: September 1st – December 8th, 1975
Originally Transmitted: 7:20pm to 8:10pm

1. Arrival - By Adele Rose.
Two girls are leaving home. Maureen Morahan from Ireland and Patricia Rutherford from Bath … they are heading for Saint Angela’s hospital in Battersea … to a new life, as student nurses. Six Writers In Search Of Six Characters – The six girls pictured opposite are the central characters in a big new drama series about student nurses – their lives, their work and the challenges they face. Six out of the ten scriptwriters are women; and here Joan Bakewell finds out how they set about writing for their chosen characters, how they tried to ensure the documentary accuracy of their episodes – and why BBC-1’s Angels is being jokingly referred to as “Z-Beds”: Quite literally a case of six characters in search of six authors! Paula Milne thought them up – the six girls whose experiences as nurses provide the plots of BBC-1’s fifteen-episode serial Angels. Then, being coordinating script editor, it was her job to farm out her own characters and their stories for others to develop. Outline profiles of the six central nurses were written into a seventy-eight-page briefing document known as “the Bible”. This was sent to the six women who between them were to write the bulk of the scripts (There are also four male writers – P J Hammond, Len Rush, Alan Janes, and Leslie Duxbury). Each writer then chose her own nurse. Initially they all had the same reaction. As writers, they felt an immediate interest in the different characters, but the need for documentary accuracy alarmed them all. “I was very daunted at the start: I felt I must get all the technical details right,” admits Deborah Mortimer, at twenty-seven the youngest of the six. “I went round a couple of hospitals – Hammersmith and University College – but then steered clear of anything very technical. The only way to do it was head on!”. Jill Hyem, one of the orginators of Waggoners’ Walk on Radio Two, was “horrified. I have a revulsion against research: I’m not good at telephoning people I don’t know”. Anne Valery, whose first commissioned work for television this is, has a deep inferiority complex about writing. She started writing recently, in her mid-forties , after earlier careers, including intelligence work in the ATS, acting in twenty-four films, including Kind Hearts And Coronets, cabaret with Jack Buchanan, making the front cover of Picture Post as a photographic model, and a spell in Spain under house-arrest for anti-Franco activities. “I find I `crab up’ to a script: too frightened to begin,” she says. She was desperate to meet one of the other writers. But producer Ron Craddock kept them all apart: “He felt if I read someone else’s script I’d think I’d got mine all wrong,” she says. Even Adele Rose and Susan Pleat – both veterans of writing for ITV’s Coronation Street and both living in Manchester – realised it would be an exacting business. Susan: “Once I realised Angels was not about the love life of nurses I wanted very much to get the documentary feel”. Adele: “The nuts and bolts frightened me. I felt intimidated by the need to get under the skin of the subject”. Keen to get the hospital background right she made contacts at Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester, where she was given the run of the wards, interviewed tutors and student nurses, attended their prize-giving and coffee evenings. “I was impressed by the matey-ness, the easy informality between senior staff and students”. Anne Valery’s passion for detail took her to several hospitals for research: five days in the Central Middlesex in Acton, to the open heart surgery unit at Hammersmith, and the female medical ward at Harlesden. “They got so used to me when I’d turn up they’d say: `Oh, I’m glad it’s you. Go and was Mrs So-and-so’ and I would”. None of this chatter masks her girlish anxiety about her script’s success: “I sent it in, then went to bed because I thought it was so bad”. All the writers are now happily able to hand on their creations as fully-rounded characters. Their only shared reservation about such a documentary-style series concerns its title, Angels: too sugary to be real, they think. But as the producer Ron Craddock comes from working on harsh-reality Z-Cars, it’s hardly surprising that among themselves the series is known jokingly but not inappropriately as Z-Beds! Fiona Fullerton Plays Patricia Rutherford Starring in Episode One Written By Adele Rose: Adele Rose starts the series off with Arrival, telling of the intake of two young nurses including her choice, Patricia. The brief “Bible” gives Patricia a private education, A-levels, university friends, an upper-class background and a father who’s a company director in Gloucester. Adele, who was born in Salford, went to Broughton High School and whose own father was a businessman, took over from there. “It turned out Patricia came from an altogether richer set: stockbroker belt. She seemed to have all the confidence that would imply, but as I got to know her she was full of doubts. All the advantages of money don’t give you divine confidence”. She spoke the last phrase with such fervour I wondered if it was something she knew about personally. “Yes, because I’ve never had it either. I’m just a great hole inside me”. How does all this highly developed awareness of a character come out in the dialogue? “Well, Patricia’s an actress – she takes on a role. She plays rather flip, jokey. She talks a great deal without saying much, but you get the feeling that underneath she’s longing for a real heart-to-heart”. Julie Dawn Cole Plays Jo Longhurst Starring In Episode Three Written By Deborah Mortimer: Deborah Mortimer, meanwhile, has grasped an aspect of staff / student relations she did not like and which led her to take up the character of Jo as her creation in episode three. “It was the story-line that particularly interested me: I liked the idea of writing about someone holding their own against the system”. The “Bible” version of Jo is fairly sketchy: a nineteen-year-old Londoner, vivacious, effusive, she gets into conflict with hospital discipline. Deborah Mortimer went into this further. “I found that at the end of each stint on every ward the sister writes an appraisal of each student nurse. It’s a huge report, some fifty matters to be graded and comments on each section. Sometimes the sister can go overboard and launch a totally insensitive attack. It happens more than it should. Such a clash of personality appealed to Deborah. A sense of drama might be expected to come easily to the daughter of Penelope (and step-daughter of John) Mortimer. Had the family influence been strong? “It’s like doctors’ children, you try to fight it. But it seemed a natural way to earn a living”. Erin Geraghty Plays Maureen Morahan Starring In Episode Five Written By Pat Hooker: Pat Hooker is Australian and already has a handful of radio plays, and some stage and television work to her credit in Australia. She feels she has two things in common with her chosen nurse, Maureen, an eighteen-year-old convent-educated girl from rural Southern Ireland, newly come to London. She is a domesticated family girl, spontaneously at ease with patients, and having a quality of simple commonsense. Pat Hooker left Australia in 1965 for London and shared then the cultural shock of arriving in the big city. “It was hair-raising. I arrived at eleven at night with one pound left. When I got to the bank the next day I hadn’t filled out the right form back in Sydney. I had no money. It took me six months before I settled into England, two years to settle into London. Like Maureen, I was shocked by English coolness”. Pat is the only one of the six to have another job than writing. Recently she’s been a verbatim shorthand writer at the Middlesex Quarter Sessions. Wasn’t that hard work? “Yes, but I got background material for five plots in the first couple of days”. Her other insight into Maureen comes from belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. “Maureen is used to church on Sunday. In England she meets this cool, formal thing about religion. I was brought up a Catholic: it’s not a personal hobbyhorse, but a useful springboard”. As for the hospital background, she was apprehensive at first: “I thought, well, I had my appendix out when I was fourteen, and that’s all I know about hospitals. It’ll mean months of research”. Lesley Dunlop Plays Ruth Fullman Starring In Episode Seven Written By Anne Valery: Anne Valery, who takes up the story in episode four, and also writes episode seven, finds she “crabs up” to a script: “too frightened to begin”. To put off the actual moment of writing she concocted an elaborate background for Ruth, her chosen nurse. In doing so, she leaves the briefing far behind. She defines Ruth as the twenty-year-old daughter of a Leeds train-driver. Anne Valery elaborates: “Ruth is Jewish – her grandfather came over from Russia in 1892 after one of the pogroms. Her father is a shop steward, her mother works in a family planning clinic. They are a close, warm family with two brothers hoping to go to university and an elder sister who is a librarian. Ruth is politically minded, a women’s libber. She reads Maureen Duffy, Philip Roth, Edna O’Brien, Dickens and Bernice Rubens, likes brass bands and bets on horses and the pools”. None of this figures in the script. Indeed, if it did, it would be at variance with other writers’ conception of Ruth. But it does wind up the exuberant Anne Valery to writing pitch. She is the only writer of the six to have imagined what her nurse looks like: “She’s five foot eight, dark brown hair, strong features. Wears a caftan at home, is untidy, relaxed …”. The fictional facts spill out. But is this character perhaps an autobiographical character? “Well, I’ve always been political. I’m a member of the Labour Party, irritating though they are. I campaigned for Shirley Williams when I was twenty-two. I think bits of Ruth are like me. In the end she would destroy her career if it came to a real moral issue. I like to think I would do the same”. Karen David Plays Sita Patel Starring In Episode Nine Written BY Jill Hyem: Jill Hyem, by contrast, is a cultural gulf away from her choice, Sita Patel, the Ugandan Asian nurse. Sita’s family were prosperous middle-class until driven from Uganda. They went through resettlement in England, where social workers steered her towards nursing. Jill seized on the Ugandan / social worker background as something she already knew about. Her husband is a social worker and from him and his colleagues she absorbed details of the tensions between nursing staff and social workers, and facts about Ugandan settlement. More than that, she and her husband had at one time offered a home to homeless Ugandans. “We were vetted by the WVS; they brought us blankets. We read the right books and turned the house upside down. Then no one took up the offer. It was disappointing”. Jill, who began as an actress, turned to writing for radio and now finds full-time writing “an ideal occupation if you have a child”. Her stories lean heavily towards social issues, fuelled by her husband’s professional involvement. “My episodes deal largely with Sita’s off-duty life, and how she is used to a socially different code of behaviour. I’ve made her dialogue slightly stilted grammatically because she wouldn’t have mastered English idioms”. Her research took her to Hammersmith hospital – “I found it useful just to stand in the hospital corridor or to sit in reception”. With her strong awareness of social realities the thing she likes most about Angels is its documentary nature: “It isn’t a saccharine-sweet series,” she says. “There’s plenty of bedpans, bedbaths and vomit”. Clare Clifford Plays Shirley Brent Prominent In A Later Episode Written By Susan Pleat: Susan Pleat – the sixth of the writers – will be making her contribution in the second series. Her nurse is Shirley: at twenty-two, she is in her third year of nursing, a stolid, self-sufficient girl, plain and dumpy, she wears contact lenses but is occasionally caught in spectacles. She is irritatingly efficient, single-minded about her career and destined to be a matron. Why did she choose what might seem dramatically unpromising material? “Because Shirley was more shadowy than the others. I felt I could make something of her. And I chose geriatrics as her special interest because I wanted to know more about it myself: the two came together perfectly”. Susan, who is in her thirties, lives in Didsbury, Manchester. She grew up in Nottingham, went to Oxford University and, after a single novel (rejected), turned to writing drama. Many Coronation Streets and a handful of single television plays later, she likes to tackle some new area – “and if I can make people think at the end, the whole exercise is more valid”. In the interests of research she went to a weekly social evening for the old at her local hospital, stayed to help and was soon wheeling patients back and forth: “I feel that ageing is so much a psychological problem”. Shirley’s problem is psychological too: “Her plainness makes her turn to her career for satisfaction, she remains inhibited, finds it hard to communicate. But old people find it hard too and Shirley finds this a relief: relationships are at a level where she can cope”. Susan, like the others, has come to understand, explain and gently defend her particular nurse.
(Radio Times, August 30, 1975 – Article by Joan Bakewell). With Marsha Fitzalan, Ronnie Masterson, Geoffrey Palmer (Lawrence Rutherford), James Giles, Jack Le White, Bert Palmer, Elspeth MacNaughton and Debbie Ash.

2. Initiation - By Adele Rose.
Maureen and Patricia’s first day as student nurses … for Patricia a day of first impressions … for Maureen a day of problems … With Christine Akehurst (Pauline Smart), Debbie Ash, Esmond Webb, Trisha Mortimer, Charles Cork and Sebastian Marshall.

3. Appraisal - By Anne Valery.
Jo makes a controversial decision regarding a patient, and has to defend it to Sister Easby. With Peggy Phango, Keith Jayne, Debbie Ash, Reginald Barratt and Barbara Bolton. 4. Staff - By Anne Valery.
An average day on Female Medical – patients making demands, cleaners causing chaos, and in the middle of it all, Staff Nurse Hollis. At home she has a demanding husband. With Taiwo Ajai, Jeillo Edwards, Rosalind Elliot, Toni Palmer, Margaret Boyd, Mary Warden, Marguerite Young and Hilary Mason.

5. Off Duty - By Pat Hooker.
Leisure time can be a problem for student nurses new to London. Patricia and Maureen have different ways of coping with it. With Debbie Ash, Olive Mercer, Sheila Manahan, Karl Howman (Barney), Jane Lowe and Candy Du’Barry.

6. Case History - By Leslie Duxbury.
As part of their training, nurses have to select and get to know a patient and do a case history on him. Jo Longhurst decides on a particularly difficult one. With James Grout (Mr Cooper), Lewis Fiander, Richard Dowies, Bert Rogers, Tariq Yunus, Michael Jamieson and Winifred Sabine.

7. Nights - By Alan Jones.
Ruth Fullman is on night duty with an agency nurse – not a pleasant prospect for her. With Myra Frances (Audrey Steiner), Peggy Sinclair (Miss King Number Seven), John Duttine (Doctor Frank Crozier), Ken Parry, Richard Butler, John Stuart and Anthony Dawes.

8. On The Mat - By Len Rush.
Ruth Fullman is on the maternity ward, and she finds herself suddenly involved with a patient – an involvement which has definite ramifications on her private life. Meanwhile, Maureen Morahan has a different kind of problem – a problem which prompts her to seek advice from the hospital chaplain. With Marjie Lawrence (The Sister), Cheryl Hall, Bill Owen, Lucita Ljjertwood (Sister Isabel Ford), Kevin Flood and Robert Gary.

9. Model Patient - By Jill Hyem.
A distressed patient and a lingering visitor. Just two of the problems that Sita Patel has to cope with on Men’s Surgical. With Ginette McDonald, Robin Brown, Maev Alexander, Peggy Phango, Norman Tyrrell, Frank Lee, Dorothy Alison, Stephen Bent, Anne Kidd and Ron Pember.

10. Saturday Night - By Jill Hyem.
Some nurses are on duty, and some are off-duty – which means a chance to go to a party … Let off steam … find a fellah. With Tel Stevens, Elizabeth Adare, Judith Hepburn, Colin Higgins, Wayne Brown, Brian Anthony and Graham Faulkner.

11. Casualty - By Len Rush.
Maureen and Patricia celebrate their last day in the classroom … while in Casualty, Sita copes with a distraught, and peculiarly uncooperative patient. With Debbie Ash, Gordon Griffin, Rowland Davies, Derek Anders, Andrew Branch, Allan McClelland, Michael Burrell and Valerie Murray.

12. Interim - By P J Hammond.
A day of uncertainty – the day of the SRN results and Shirley is tormented by doubts … Not only about the results but about nursing itself. With Roy Spencer, Royston Tickner, Ginette McDonald, Sally Lahee, Lane Meddick, Jo Garrity, Dorothy Alison, Chris Range, Melia White and Keith Jayne.

13. Linda - By Deborah Mortimer.
A traumatic day. For Pat and Maureen their first day on the ward … for Linda a day of decision. With Rita Webb, Wayne Brown, Deborah Makepeace, Christopher Strauli, Sheila Kelvin, Anthony Garner, Harry South, Grace Arnold and George Tovey.

14. Confrontation - By Anne Valery.
An angry exchange causes a down-tools and Ruth finds her loyalties divided. With Peggy Sinclair (Miss King Number Seven), Bill Owen, Rita Webb, Betty Romaine, Kevin Elyot, Harry Landis and Ronald Hines.

15. Commitment - By Adele Rose.
For Ruth and Shirley, a day to remember. The day they get their SRN badges. For Patricia, a day of decision. With Susan Field, Jeremy Wilkin, Lesley Roach, Dawn Perllman, Pamela Duncan and Nancy Gower.

SERIES 2
Originally Broadcast: April 6th – June 29th, 1976
Originally Transmitted: 8:10pm to 9:00pm

1. Round The Clock - By Adele Rose.
A distressed mother in the Children’s Ward, a truculent patient in the Female Ward. Sita and Shirley in trouble. Angels In The Realms Of Reality – Angels, BBC-1’s wildly popular series set in a London teaching hospital, is back – at a later time which producer Ron Craddock thinks will help it to be “much stronger”. But how close to the real nurse’s life has the series been so far? We got three of the Angels actresses together with three career nurses to compare fiction with reality; Jeremy Bugler reports on their meeting: When the BBC started to plan and prepare Angels, word went round that the production staff had nicknamed it Z-Beds. For if Z-Cars had broken new ground by showing the police at work, warts, faults and all, then Angels would do the same for nursing, they felt. The programme makers wanted Angels to be as faithful and as honest a dramatisation of what life is like for young nurses as British families will accept on their screens before nine o’clock. So actresses were dispatched to work on the wards in far-flung hospitals, doing the jobs of auxiliary nurses and learning to give as good a blanket-batch as the next nurse. The Angels script editor Paula Milne worked to two weeks at “a London teaching hospital”, and a technical adviser, Saga Tyndale, was hired. A fat document on the hard graft and grumbles of young nurses was written, read, and remembered. Now, with Angels returning and likely to garner again its huge twelve million audiences, it its pertinent to ask how accurate it all is. Does it evade issues that matter to nurses? And does it, for all its careful attention to bed-pans, glamorise nursing? We tried to find out by getting three of the actresses in the series together with three career nurses from St James’ Hospital, in Balham, South London, where some of the location shots for the series are filmed. Our Angels were Clare Clifford, who plays the newly-qualified staff nurse Shirley Brent; Julie Dawn Cole, one extrovert, playing another, Jo Longhurst; and Fiona Fullerton, who plays the assured, articulate, middle-class Pat Rutherford. Our real nurses correspond to the “rank” of the three girls in Angels, and all of them had watched some of the programmes. The staff nurse was Marion Butler, a twenty-one-year-old Irish girl from Ballinascarthy, County Cork, and the kind of strong, compassionate nurse you’d like to have in your ward if you felt you might need help fast. There was Laura Robbins, a twenty-two-year-old student nurse half way through her training and very committed (I’m a Christian and I know this is where God meant me to be”). And there was the new nurse, Hazel Smith, who had just finished her preliminary training; a quiet eighteen-year-old who says she’s known she was going to be a nurse since she was a child. So in a little sitting room in the St James’ nursing home, I started the discussion, lobbing in a couple of questions. There followed an hour and a half of impassioned talk in which the eyes of the actresses grew wider and wider. “No!” they’d say at intervals. “How could you?”. And the nurses would reply: “We don’t think about it”. The actresses would come back: “But how terrible for you!” and the nurses would say calmly: “We’re trained to expect it”. The nurses gave Angels good marks but not full marks; it was real, quite real, but not the real thing. The programme had got an awful lot of things right, they said. It showed how nurses get irritated at petty restrictions (Marion Butler, wearing an illegal pair of platform shoes: “There are so many rules that you have to break some of them”). It showed how the hospital routine could dominate and flatten nurses; Laura Robbins talked about trying to get a certain day off, planned weeks ahead, but being told at the last minute she couldn’t go. It was very good on the training, on the depressions that hit nurses and make them wonder whether it’s worth going on; on the friction between nurses and sisters, and between nurses of different experience; on some difficult patients, especially the ever-present “moaner” on every ward, and on the disappointment some nurses feel when they find they’re doing a lot more slaving than learning in their training period. Where they criticised, it was not with niggles about details, but with points about the essence of a nurse’s day-to-day life on the wards. For a start, there was the sheer pace of work on the real wards, quite different from the wards of Saint Angela’s, the Angels hospital. “None of your wards is like a real one,” said Marion Butler. “There’s so little going on with you. On my ward, from Monday to Friday, there’s a stream of people. You’ve got the cleaning ladies, the X-ray people, the electricians, you’ve got the consultants on their rounds and the houseman – there’s hardly a moment except at night and at weekends when the place is still”. The real nurses felt Saint Angela’s was a very leisurely place. It showed up, they said, in the programme where someone’s heart stopped (a cardiac arrest), and the nurses battled to save his life. “The way you showed it, the man wouldn’t have lived at all – it was so slow,” said Marion Butler. “If there’s an arrest, you race to the telephone to dial six-six-six, you have to literally run faster than you can. Doctors chase to the ward, you have to bang on his chest …”. Laura Robbins chipped in: “When you have finished dealing with a cardiac arrest, if you don’t feel that you’ve just run fifty miles, then you haven’t done it properly”. Surprisingly, the nurses felt life on the real wards was more not less dramatic than on Angels. Laura Robbins insisted that a good nurse was a bit of an actress in herself: “You have to be … You’ve got to clean up a bed, and it’s all shitty, or you’ve got to change someone’s dressing and it’s – Ugh! (she pulls a face) – but you can’t show it. You just have to smile, and say, `”Now, dear, I’m just going to tidy you up’ …”. The subject of death and dying came up. Angels hasn’t shirked death, but perhaps its early-evening timing in the first series made it handle the subject with caution. The nurses felt the same way young nurses are not spared at all the trauma of watching people die hadn’t been stressed enough. Quiet Hazel Smith spoke up and said, here she was, only twelve weeks in the wards, and she’d seen thirty to forty people die. She had a death in her very first week – not surprising for she works on St James’ acute medical ward, for the seriously ill. Laura Robbins remembered: “My first death was a woman of fifty, cancer of the lung. I had to stand there and watch her die. I’d been on the wards six weeks. Her children were there. They were my age. She could have been my mother”. Perhaps the gap between being an Angel and a nurse came out most when the conversation took a bizarre turn. Someone mentioned knowing a nurse who had “laid out” her own father, who had just died. The actresses were horrified. Two of the nurses said they’d like to do it. Marion Butler: “The last thing you can do for them is to wash them and lay them out, that’s the last thing you can do for somebody. Wouldn’t you like to do the last thing and wouldn’t you like to do it right?”. Angels, said the nurses, could do more to show how a young nurse has to comfort the dying, console the relatives, and control herself. If that’s an understandable omission for the series in its first run, the nurses did feel there was some real evasions. Pay for example. Nurses are always talking and worrying about pay, despite last year’s rise. Fiona Fullerton pitched in, loyal to her programme: “Well, you can’t dwell on something like that. It’s been mentioned two or three times and that’s enough”. The nurses would not let her get away with that. Marion Butler, a girl I’d like to have on my side in a pay dispute, said that nurses get little money for such hard work; they don’t expect to be well paid, but they never stop wondering about being so badly paid. A nurse’s relationship to hospital doctors had also been glossed over, they said. The actresses looked interested to hear no little feeling being expressed on the way doctors take nurses for granted. Laura Robbins spoke about the way doctors throw needles on the beds for nurses to pick up, or walk off with instruments. “For them, no matter how intelligent you are, you’re a nurse, you’re there to do the dirty work, you’re under them …”. All of them felt Angels could do a good programme on a doctors’ work-to-rule in Saint Angela’s, just as the recent junior doctors’ dispute had caused tension in hospitals everywhere, including St James’, Balham. At the end of the discussion, the bearded face of Angels producer Ron Craddock popped round the door. He’s a gently spoken man, a veteran of almost two-hundred Z-Cars episodes and a sometime voluntary worker in psychiatric hospitals. How did he react to the charge that Angels isn’t realistic enough? He laughed a little wryly. In the early days of planning the series, the BBC promotion people were worried that its realism would frighten viewers away, he said. He thinks Angels does pretty well. “You cannot present actual reality on television in a series like this. It would be unacceptable. As it is, we get people complaining about small touches of realism, like nurses who have untidy hair”. (Radio Times, April 3, 1976 – Article by Jeremy Bugler). With Barbara Keogh, John Dallimore, Stefan Gates, Norman Streader, Caroline Funnell, Peggy Atchison, June Brown, Judy Buxton, Jane Collins, Alec Linstead, Saba Milton and Collin Dunn.

2. Vocation - By Paula Milne.
A suicide attempt … Miss Windrup’s thirtieth anniversary … both disturb Nurse Sandra Ling. With Wayne Browne, Marcia King, Lois Ward, Sheila Keith, Josie Kidd, Terence Conoley, Bill Treacher and Deborah Makepeace.

3. Ambition - By Leslie Duxbury.
When training ends a career opens up … the future looks bright for Jo, Sita, Shirley and Sandra Ling … but for Alison Salter there are other considerations. With Wanda Lynch, Jacqueline Redhead, Tel Stevens, Jo Garrity, Betty Romaine, June Watson, Betty Bowden and Oscar James.

4. Legacies - By Anne Valery.
Shirley at home, Shirley at work and Shirley faced with himself. With Peggy Ann Wood, Lloyd Lamble, Mary Maude, Phillip Davis, Jean Kent, Cynthia Etherington, Don Henderson, Patricia Trueman, Sheri Shepstone, Phillip de Costa and Christopher Coll.

5. Day Hospital - By Susan Pleat.
Patricia makes a relationship with an old relative and Shirley is pleased to be working on the Geriatric Ward. But there are two accidents. With Paul Jesson (Jim Murphy), Aimee Delamain, Irene Handl, Sylvia Coleridge, Jack Wright, Nicola Blackman, May Warden, Amanda Knott, Judith Nelmes, Kate Crutchley, Barbara Cochran, Antony Carrick and Jeanne Muckford.

6. Weekend - By Jill Hyem.
Jo gets involved again … with the brother of a patient. Patricia, Maureen and Miss Windrup have other problems too. With Peggy Phango, Nancie Jackson, Pamela Duncan, Maggie Flint, Duncan Lamont and Carolyn Hudson.

7. Concert - By Susan Pleat.
Shirley reluctantly leaves her work on the Geriatric Ward for an evening with Roland. She never felt sure about it; she was right. With Paul Jesson (Murphy), Colin Higgins (Gordon Massey), Norman Tipton (Roland), Sylvia Coleridge, Betty Hardy, Irene Handl, Heather Emmanuel, Leslie Dwyer, Bart Allison, Kitty Attwood, John Scott-Martin, Maria Holmes, Gavin Povey and Douglas Milvain.

8. Facing Up - By Deborah Mortimer.
Patricia, Maureen and Sandra Ling are involved in the hopes and fears of two expectant mothers … and how it affects their lives. With Conrad Asquith, Patricia Hassell, Jumoke Debaqo, David Rush, Declan Mulholland, Alma Tangyuk, Vanessa Paine, Marc Zuber, Frederick Jaeger, Jennie Goosens, Ken Kitson, John Bardon and Mellan Mitchell.

9. Accident - By Alan Janes.
An accident in a chemical factory … Nurses Sandra Ling, Jo Longhurst and Shirley Brent all have a part to play in what follows. With David Troughton, Jennie Goosens, Barry Lowe, Graham Ashley, Andrew Bradford, Marcia King, Patricia Lawrence, Terence Conoley, Roy Holder, Penny Leatherbarrow and Barbara Young.

10. Home Sweet Home - By Pat Hooker.
Holiday time for Maureen and Patricia. A whole week to see family, friends, boyfriends again … a week of discovery. With Georgina Anderson, Geoffrey Palmer (Lawrence Rutherford), Ronnie Masterson, Pauline Quirke, Aiden Murphy, Sally-Jane Spencer, Rosie Kelly, Gabriel Kelly, Wendy Williams and Bay White.

11. Coming To Terms - By Len Rush.
A testing time – Patricia has a patient with a problem … Sita and Jo have exams looming. With Julia Vidler (Sister Bodinetz), Kathleen Byron, Gregory De Polnay, Paul Luty, Edward Wilson, Sue Jones-Davies, John Dearth and Debbie Ash.

12. Celebration - By P J Hammond.
Shirley amongst her psychiatric patients – who has the problems? With Annette Robinson, Mitzi Rogers, Joseph Brady, Alan Lake, George Waring, Jack Chissick, Kate Brown, Mollie Maureen, Anne Ridler and Willie Jonah.

13. Walkabout - By Paula Milne.
With Miriam Margolyes (June Morris), Graham Tonbridge, Natalie Kent and Maurice Denham.

SERIES 3
Originally Broadcast: September 6th - December 20th, 1976
Originally Transmitted: 7:20pm to 8:10pm

1. Solo - By Leslie Duxbury.
Jo’s on her first day alone as a Community Nurse … two comparatively simple cases of continuing treatment for injuries. But there’s not only the physical side of nursing. Ministering Angels: There are four of the original nurses left in the third series of Angels which opens this week. Shirley, Jo, Patricia and Maureen have all stayed the course. Shirley, played by Claire Clifford, is on the psychiatric ward, Maureen (Erin Geraghty) is in general nursing, but Jo has moved out of hospital to become a district nurse, a role in which she will be seen in episode one. “I know,” says Julie Dawn Cole, who plays Jo, “everyone thinks district nurses are middle-aged ladies bicycling through leafy country lanes and always dropping in for cups of tea. Well, I spent two days going round with a real district nurse in London and it is nothing like that. It’s trying to get to twenty or thirty cases a day, battling through heavy traffic in a mini. I don’t know how they do it”. Authenticity is the keynote to the series and like the others she has not confined her study of nursing to the scripts. When the show was first beginning she worked for two weeks as an auxiliary nurse in her local hospital. “We’ve been encouraged to go and talk to nurses,” she says, “but when I got there they were incredibly helpful, and they said `instead of just talking to us why don’t you come and actually do something’”. Not that experience has left her with any desire to forsake the uncertainties of acting for the rigours of nursing. She’s been doing it since she went to stage school at the age of twelve, had an unnerving first year after school when she was going to twenty auditions a week and failing the lot; then she went along to the BBC expecting, she says, to land a part in a BBC-2 play and ending up in Angels. “I am hoping to do some pantomime this Christmas,” she says. “That’s the only trouble with Angels – I miss the singing and dancing”. (Radio Times, September 4, 1976). With Avis Bunnage (Sister Norton), Patricia Denys (Sister Aitken), June Ellis, Nat Jackley, Elissa Derwent, Brian Godfrey, Liza Moss, Margie Young, Alan Gerrard and Jacob Noel.

2. Expectations - By Paula Milne.
Pat has a fella; a patient whom she likes … and a background. With Scott Anthony (Frank Rustler), Richard Caldicott (Doctor Collins), Norma West, Jumoke Debayo, Brenda Cowling, Ian McKenzie, Richard Steele, Barbara Ashcroft, Cherrald Butterfield and Herbert Ramskill.

3. My Patient - By Susan Pleat.
Jo is committed to nursing in the community; Shirley in the hospital. Through Mrs Dawson, Jo has a chance to see what both the hospital and Shirley have to offer. With Patricia Denys (Sister Aitken), Linda Polan (Ivy), Daphne Heard (Mrs Dawson), Mai Bacon, Jessie Matthews, Rosamund Greenwood and Johnny Wade.

4. Decision - By Alan Janes.
For Pat, the memory of hospital and a bad night duty is erased by a couple of days on the town with Dad. But she returns to work to be confronted by a very difficult nursing situation and all her doubts return … more strongly. With Geoffrey Palmer (Lawrence Rutherford), John White, Nicol Gordon, Michael Troughton, Patrick Troughton, Willie Jonah, Louise Nelson, Timothy Peters and Terence Conoley.

5. Patterns - By Pat Hooker.
Shirley has a devious anorexic patient and a boyfriend. Both are a problem. With Katherine Faye, Mel Churcher, John Price, Denis Lill, Diana King, Eric Dodson, Rosemary Blake, Elaine Donnelly, Tom Kelly, Barrie Cookson, Janet davies and Noelle Finch.

6. Babes In The Wood - By Julia Jones.
Maureen is on maternity. She gets on well with nice young Evie, but nature efficient Pamela – that’s different. With Gwyneth Strong (Evie), Ann Firbank (Pamela), James Hayes, Pat Ashton, Janette Legge, Penelope Beaumont, Jean Gilpin, Eileen Helsby, Solita Byron, Jill Goldston, Michael Lees, Nigel Greaves and Brian Capron.

7. Signals - By P J Hammond.
Sandra and her field work instructor have to make a call … the Pagets have a health hazard. With Maggie McCarthy (Trudi Broadbent), Sharon Mughan, Gillie Graham, Paul Humpoletz, Nigel Havers, Ian Barritt, Joan Hart, Ivor Danvers, Gilly Brown and Sandra Clee.

8. Coping - By Paula Milne.
Night duty is not easy at the best of times, but when Maureen’s Senior Ward Nurse does not turn up, it all looks very bleak. With John Duttine (Larry), Carolyn Jones (Miss Trapp), Nicola Blackman, George Sweeney, Simon Chandler and Brenda Cowling.

9. Health Visitor - By Len Rush.
Sandra has another day “in the field” as a Health Visitor … there’s sad old Tommy Blackshore and the new Khan baby … ordinary but quite dramatic in the daily life of the health visitor. With Maggie McCarthy (Mrs Broadbent), Desmond Parry (Doctor Hegarty), Colin Douglas, Lynne Carol, Alaknanda Samarth, Renu Setna, Charles Rea and Arnold Bell.

10. Ties - By Paula Milne.
Joe has had enough of Sandra’s tidiness; and she leaves the flat to go home – to more trouble, returning to the hospital unexpectedly … With Tenniel Evans, Vallerie Phillips, Ralph Lawton and Madhav Sharma.

11. Somewhere To Go - By Bill Barron.
Jo has a seemingly straight-forward diabetic patient. Shirley simply has a straight-forward disagreement with the Ward Sister. With Mary Heely (Heather Williams), Tim Preece (Doctor Yorke), Joan Scott (Doctor Hubbard), Patsy Smart, Hilary Mason, Gabrielle Hamilton, Madge Ryan and Anthony Chambers.

12. A Place Of Safety - By Deborah Mortimer.
Sandra is on another day’s field work instruction. She observes something at the Butler’s and is able to put theory into practice. With Maggie McCarthy (Trudi Broadbent), Dorothy Frere, Howard Southern, Cherith Mellor, Simone Welch, Ben Davies, Pamela Vezey, Chris Leonard, Michelle Bassett and Graham Lines.

13. A Woman Of Poverty - By Anne Valery.
Jo has the case of the nice old Mrs Rudolfs and Sandra has the enduring Vera … but the two patients come between them. With Betty Hardy (Mrs Rudolfs), Jo Rowbottom (Vera), Fanny Garby, Michael Lacey, Norman Bird, Sue Jones-Davies and Barbara Atkinson.

14. There’s Always Tomorrow - By Leslie Duxbury.
Maureen has a bad time with Nurse Gale. Jo and Sandra have a good time with Bob and Mike. Between the two is Kev Bailey. His time … well, he’s in hospital. With Deborah Makepeace (Lynn Gale), Christopher Coll (Doctor Tyler), Graham Chinn (Bob), Jay Benedict (Mike), Lee Walker (Kev Bailey), Jo Garrity, Shirley Allan, George Tovey and Fiona Gray.

15. Façade - By Anne Valery.
Shirley invites Dorothy home to meet her father. They don’t get on; and what’s more Shirley is in trouble with her sister. With Stephanie Cole (Miss Hombro), Constance Chapman (Dorothy), Preston Lockwood, Dorothea Phillips, Olu Jacobs, Jill Racy, Maria Charles, Jean Dallas, Stella Tanner and Robert Pugh.

16. Challenges - By Paula Milne.
Shirley tries to duck a challenge, so does her blind patient, but if she takes hers he will take his. With Sandra, Maureen and Jo, she is in the Christmas Show – and expects to be a disaster. With Christopher Benjamin (Samuels), Susie Jenkinson (Barbara Anderson), Sam Dale, Miriam Margolyes, Susie Jenkinson, Edward Judd, Cotchie D’arcy, Shirlley Allan, Reg Lever, Christian Bulloch, Hilda Barry, Oscar James, Glen Cunningham, Bart Alison and Gary Ginivan.

SERIES 4
Originally Broadcast: April 3rd – April 24th, 1978 (Parts 1-4); May 8th – May 15th, 1978 (Parts 5-6); May 23rd – May 30th, 1978 (Parts 7-8); June 5th – July 3rd, 1978 (Parts 9-13)
Originally Transmitted: 7:20pm to 8:10pm

1. Decisions - By Paula Milne.
While Anna tries to sort out her marital problems over lunch with her disapproving father, Sarah and Katy are assigned to Saint Angela’s in the Intensive Care Unit – they are soon to admit a new patient. New Girls At Saint Angela’s – A new series of Angels brings six new faces to Saint Angela’s Hospital. The dedicated young actresses who take the parts talk here to Victoria Hainworth about their roles as the dedicated young nurses: Joanna Monro plays Anna Newcross: Of the six new girls joining this fourth series of Angels, Joanna Monro is probably the most assertive. She is, after all, an actress’ daughter, her mother being the well-known television star Frances Bennett. It was her own idea to audition for Angels. “I begged on bended knee. I had watched all the last series,” she says, “and I loved it. You find out about six girls and their lives. The fact that they’re all nurses as well just gives it extra interest”. But the interest she derived from her week of nursing research in the women’s medical ward at Saint Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, was more in its application to acting than to medicine. But she found that she got rid of a whole lot of taboos. Up till then she hated hospitals, hated the smells and hated what she calls “the whole thing of wounds”. Since then she has got so involved in her part that it has become almost real. “In the next episode I get my first stripes. I really feel like a nurse”. Kate Saunders plays Brenda Cotteral: “I must be bullet-proof with all these,” says Kate Saunders, pointing to the badges on her denim dungarees. At seventeen she is the youngest of the new actresses joining this series of Angels. “I was the most stodgy, dull child,” she announces. “How I ever came to be an actress I can’t think”. Stodgy and dull are hardly apt epithets now. She is assured, articulate and very funny. She left school in February last year, having also trained with the Anna Scher Children’s Theatre School. “I had glandular fever for the audition for Angels,” she explains. “I had a voice like Dame Edith Evans, a bloated neck and bright red curls. They couldn’t believe it. But I got the job and I don’t regret it for a moment”. She plays seventeen-year-old Brenda Cotteral, a first-year student at Saint Angela’s. “Brenda’s from Berkshire,” says Kate, as though that explains everything. Hospital life turned out to be an experience she doesn’t want to repeat in a hurry. “I learnt a lot in my week at Saint Mary’s, but I hated it, hated it”. Carol Holmes plays Jean MacEwen: “I watched all of the first series of Angels,” says Carol Holmes, a redhead from Lesmahagow outside Glasgow. “I also watched most of the second series. I enjoyed it because it was something interesting and new in drama”. Carol’s interest in drama stems from a love of Shakespeare and poetry that stayed with her long after she left school at sixteen. “I loathed, hated and detested school,” she says unequivocally. At the age of twenty-one, after working five years as a secretary, she joined the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. She was spotted by Jenny Jenkins from BBC General Casting and was chosen to play Sister MacEwen, a Glaswegian who comes South for intellectual stimulus. Shirley Cheriton plays Katy Betts: “I’m the odd one out of the group,” says Shirley Cheriton, twenty-two, who plays Katy Betts. “I don’t smoke and I don’t drink. I’d rather dance or do sports”. Like Katy, Shirley is a real Londoner. She went to Vauxhall Manor Comprehensive and couldn’t wait to get out. She trained for four years at the Italia Conti School and has not stopped working since. For Angels, she spent a week training at Saint James’, Balham. “It was good, but upsetting seeing people ill and dying”. Shirley is very pretty in a traditionally English way. Her manner off-stage is quiet and diffident, very different from what she has to display as Katy. “I’m very shy,” she confides sotto voce. “In the series I shout away. It’s strange how you can become such a different person when you’re acting”. Shelley King as Jay Harper: “I started off by playing Macbeth in the school play,” says Shelley King. She is dark, lively and quick. One imagines a forceful interpretation of King Duncan’s murderer. Now twenty-two, and an outstanding student at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, Shelley had not even finished her training when she was offered the part of second-year nurse Jay Harper. Shelley is of Anglo-Indian parentage and Jay is Indian. Shelley came to England thirteen years ago from India and has become thoroughly anglicised. Shelley did her week of research at St James’, Balham. “It was very useful to be able to watch the way nurses act. They can’t afford to personalise. Some are very businesslike and completely disassicuare themselves. Others just switch off as soon as they get home”. She says she has enjoyed her first professional job enormously. “I wasn’t expecting to. I thought all the others would think that I’d have a silver spoon in my mouth, having landed the part straight after school. But we all get on so well it’s rather like being back at school”. Claire Walker plays Sarah Lloyd-Smith: “I’d never been in hospital before my week’s training at Saint Mary’s,” Claire Walker admits. “I was absolutely dreading it. And it was a shock. I said after the first day that I wouldn’t go back”. Claire played the star role of Katy in the Sunday serial of the same name. Now nineteen, she is getting married in the summer. Sarah Lloyd-Smith, the second-year nurse she plays, I also nineteen. It is a very different part from others she has played, but she loves the group that has formed with the others. (Radio Times, April 1, 1978 – Article by Victoria Hainworth). With Emma Ware, Michael Turner, Gwen Cherrell, Robert Gillespie (Mr Wyatt), Warwick Evans, Shelley King and Marilyn Finlay.

2. First Impressions - By Paula Milne.
Jean and Anna arrive for their first day at Saint Angela’s hospital. Jean, the new young Casualty sister, soon discovers that life there is more explosive than she imagined, whilst for Anna there is an unexpected arrival. With Phyllida Law (Ann Kingsley), Neil Stacy (Doctor Sullivan), Gwen Cherrell, Emma Ware, Elspeth MacNaughton, Freda Dowie, Karl Johnson, Michael Cashman, Adam Bareham (Keith), Phillip Joseph, Barbara Atkinson and Gregory Munroe.

3. Present Imperfect - By Anne Valery.
Katy’s on night duty in charge of a noisy female surgical ward. When the day staff leave there are still two empty beds – one of them soon to be occupied by a fellow member of Saint Angela’s nursing staff. With Fanny Carby, Mark Harris, Arthur White, Christine Collins, Caroline Hinton, Oriane Grieve, Margaret Burton, Barbara Lott, Rosamund Greenwood, Judith Liebert, Gabrielle Day, Mike Hayward, Diana Davies and Angela Mason.

4. Barriers - By Alan Janes.
Sarah’s problems are two-fold; the sister in charge of her ward and her depressed isolated patient. She decides to ask her father, the Senior Heart Consultant of the hospital, for help. With Richard Kay, Sally Lahee, Celena Duncan, Michael Bilton, Michael Cashman and Rose Hiller.

5. A Matter Of Choice - By Deborah Mortimer.
Sarah and Jean just can’t agree on a flat and life at the hospital is demanding, but then Sarah receives an exciting and tempting invitation. With Richard Kay, Antony Carrick, Angela Mason, Mitzi Rogers, Judi Maynard, Phillip Joseph and David Simeon.

6. Maternity - By Julie Welch.
Brenda finds her feet on Maternity but Anna down in Casualty discovers that as a nurse she must keep her thoughts to herself. With Floella Benjamin (Staff Nurse April Yallop), David Hatton, Valerie Hill, Jacquie Cook, Philip Bloomfield, Steve Hodson, Peggy Phango, Shirley Allan, Alison Groves, Sally Lahee and Phillip Joseph.

7. Branching Out - By Jill Hyem.
It’s moving day for Sarah, Jean and the patients in Male Geriatric. Anna, too, makes an unexpected journey but Jay finds herself left behind. With Marion Mathie (Sister Yeats), Adam Bareham (Keith), Emma Ware, Sally Home, John Gill, Norman Rutherford, Mark Drewry, Brian Hall, Phillip Joseph, Douglas Keith and Marjorie Hogan.

8. Human Error - By Peter Ransley.
An error is made – a “human error” – Sarah finds it almost impossible to sort out her loyalties – are they to the hospital or to her patient? With Chai Lee, Neil Dalglish, Katherine Stark, Robert Morris, Julia Lang, Ann Mitchell, Anna Korwin, Richard Kay and Marian Kemmer.

9. Casualties - By Alan Janes.
It is just another night at Saint Angela’s for everybody, except for Jay, that is. Then news comes through that involves everyone. With Diana Davies, Douglas Keith, Mark Drewery, David Simeon, Julian Holloway, Derrick Gilbert, Terrence Hardiman, Norman Hartley, Peter Childs, Dyfed Thomas, Margaret John and Ernest C Jennings.

10. Fraternity - By John Kershaw.
Brenda befriends a new member of the Saint Angela’s staff, much to the concern of Miss Windrup, who thinks he’s a troublemaker. Katy has other reservations about him. With Phyllida Law (Mrs Kingsley), Elspeth MacNaughton, Peter Blake, Michael Cashman, David Simeon, Eric Mason, John Dawson, Kay Gallie and Jeremy Rancheu.

11. The Visitor - By Leslie Duxbury.
Female Surgical with Katy and Jay on “days”, Sandra Ling and Brenda on “nights”. All would be plain sailing except for visiting. With Karl Howman (Terry Jordan), Lynne Miller, Alun Lewis, Janet Davies, Christine Collins, Sally Watkins, Gilly Flower, John Dunbar, David Simeon and Alison Key.

12. Penalties - By Paula Milne.
Another Saturday – another football match, which means hard work for the police, for Jean and all on duty at Saint Angela’s. Katy’s plans for her free afternoon are changed with startling results. With Mark Drewry, Colin Jeavons, George Tovey, David Simeon, Gary Watson, John Barden and Michael Troughton (Police Constable Stewman).

13. Values - By P J Hammond.
Anna, on nights, goes home to face a final battle for independence. Brenda, Jay and Katy are with Sister Easby on Male Medical. For Jean and Sarah it’s far from domestic bliss. With John Ringham, Gwen Cherrell, Stephen Kemble, David Sinclair, Frank Jarvis, Lindsay Campbell, Barry McGinn, David Simeon and Mary Healey.

SERIES 5
Originally Broadcast: September 3rd – December 19th, 1979
Originally Transmitted: 6:55pm to 7:20pm

1. 03.09.1979: By Alan Janes.
The start of a new twice-weekly serial at Saint Angela’s hospital, Battersea … some familiar faces … several new ones … young people thrown in at the deep end – in conflict with each other and senior staff and sometimes even with patients! Angel Faces – It is fifty-two years since Saint Angela’s Hospital first opened its doors to care for the local community of Battersea. We first met some of its dedicated nurses in 1975 and now the “Angels”, as they are effectionally called by their patients, are back on our screens with a new twice-weekly serial. Here, Judi Goodwin gives some potted histories of the nurses whose professional and personal lives we are now going to share: The four years that have passed since the first series of the Angels began have seen many changes at Saint Angela’s, as in all National Health Service hospitals. Greater emphasis on equal job opportunities has meant more men among the nursing staff. And for a change it’s the men who are demanding equal rights. There has been considerable re-thinking about the role of the nurses too. Now they are emerging from their traditional, subservient “Florence Nightingale” roles into a new breed of professionals making an equal, though different, contribution to running the hospital. This new thinking, very necessary to attract more recruits, has filtered through to all levels of the nurses’ training and welfare. The strict discipline of the nurses’ home has now been replaced with a more free-and-easy attitude. The nurses’ home at Saint Angela’s is currently being converted into self-contained flats, so the nurses will have their own keys to come and go as they please. Girls who are on the pill and have the vote don’t take kindly to being treated like school children, so Saint Angela’s is beginning to treat its students as adults. The Angels can now wear jeans to lectures, instead of uniforms, and the new director of nursing (a man!) is trying to encourage informal tutorials, instead of traditional methods of teaching. The appointment of a male director of nursing has been a bombshell in itself, particularly as he is young and rather trendy. His progressive ideas to stop treating his students as a source of cheap labour will inevitably lead to staffing problems at Saint Angela’s, particularly at a time of escalating costs and government cuts. Already the hospital is having to cope with ward closures and there are long waiting-lists for patients in need of routine operations. How will the Angels respond to the challenges of their new role, and the pressures of tightening purse-strings which threaten the smooth running of the hospital? Name: Katy Betts. Age: Twenty. Post: Third-year student nurse. Lives: With her loud, cheerful family in a flat over her father’s greengrocery shop close to the hospital in Battersea. Background: Katy is proud of her cockney background. Though living with four brothers, sister, Mother and Father and Grandmother, cramped and chaotic, she’s happy. She went to the local comprehensive school where she had to learn to be tough to survive. Previously Worked: As a sales assistant in Boots and in a local council crèche. Went Into Nursing Because: It sounded exciting and more glamorous than working in a shop or an office. Problems: She’s worried about taking her final exams this year and finds it difficult to fit studying into her busy social life. Finding a quiet corner at home isn’t easy and looking after her ailing Grandmother takes up a lot of time. But she’s trying hard. Love Life: She’s still engaged to Hughie Evans, a psychiatrist at Saint Angela’s, but sometimes wonders if the engagement is just a licence in his eyes for their love affair. The date is not yet set for their wedding but she is looking forward to having her own home and children. Hobbies: Likes television, disco dancing and fashion. Favourite Pop Stars: John Travolta and the Bee Gees. Favourite Foods: Prawn cocktail, steak and wine at the wine bar. Fish and chips. Favourite Drinks: Rum and blackcurrant, crème de menthe. Birthsign: Cancer. Like the typical Cancer subject, she tends to react to emotion rather than reason. She has the Cancer traits of being a home-lover and is devoted to her family. In love she is too easily offended but always eager to kiss and make up. The patients adore her but she’s inclined to get too involved with them emotionally. Ambition: To be married. Name: Fleur Barrett. Age: Nineteen. Post: Second-year student nurse. Lives: With her parents in Pimlico. Background: Born of Guyanese parents, Fleur was fostered to an English couple in Essex until she was four. She was a bright child and made the top stream of the comprehensive school. Her parents strive to be more English than the English themselves and, to Fleur, her black skin and her Guyanese origins are purely incidental. Now her civil servant father works in the Department of Employment, her mother works in the local council crèche. Went Into Nursing Because: Her parents decided it would be a good, solid English career. Problems: Her tactless tongue sometimes gets her into trouble. Late nights, parties and too many dates mean she’s often tired and suffering from a hangover on duty in the mornings. Her parents worry about her, so she tells them white lies. Love Life: Her bubbly personality wins her plenty of admirers and she has lots of boyfriends, preferably rich ones. Hobbies: Likes parties, fast cars, expensive clothes and jewellery and she’s into astrology. Favourite Foods: Loves eating out, particularly scampi and chicken in a basket. Favourite Drinks: Champagne, Martini. Birthsign: Leo. She’s a typical dynamic Leo – friendly, active, and sometimes fiery. A natural leader with all the Leo-style generosity of nature. Though she might occasionally say rash, tactless things without thinking, she has none of the sour sarcasm of many a Leo. Ambition: She’s terrified of exams but she hopes to complete her training and become a staff nurse. Eventually, she hopes to marry someone rich and live in Richmond. Name: Anna Newcross. Age: Twenty-four. Post: First-year student nurse. Lives: In a flat with her three-year-old daughter Emma and her mother. Went Into Nursing Because: When she found herself without a husband, she needed to earn her own living and the illness and the death of her father at that time brought her into contact with hospitals. Problems: Anna doesn’t get on with her mother and she finds caring for her child and their home puts pressure on her work life. She misses classes and arrives late on the ward, which frequently gets her into trouble. Friends: Very few. She finds her fellow students rather young. No time for men in her life. Hobbies: She has little time but she likes cooking and sewing and reads theatre reviews of shows she never goes to. Favourite Foods: All good food. Birthsign: Gemini. Gemini subjects often have two sides to their life and this is Anna. She is juggling the demands of her home life with the new challenges of her career. But the circumstances of her life are forcing her to be more moody and introverted than the usual witty, lively Gemini personality. Ambition: To qualify as a nurse and to get the problems in her life sorted out. Name: Jean MacEwen. Age: Twenty-three. Post: Sister in the Accident and Emergency Department. Lives: Shares a flat with Sarah Lloyd-Smith. Background: She is Glasgow-born and trained at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. She is very conscious of what her parents gave up to educate her and worries that she is still not in a position to help her father financially. Coming from a depressed area has made her militant and she feels strongly about women’s liberation. Went Into Nursing Because: Her Scottish canniness about money made her choose a secure job with a pension. Also it’s a field where women have an equal chance of reaching the top. Problems: The strangeness she felt when she first arrived has now been overcome. She has developed a natural authority and is good with patients and her nursing staff. Love Life: She has a new boyfriend, Dave, who is half-Italian and a fireman. He makes her laugh and, she says, “he’s down-to-earth”. Friends: Sandra Ling and Sarah Lloyd-Smith. Hobbies: Cordon Bleu cooking, reading biographies, watching television documentaries. Favourite Foods: Because of Dave, Italian food. Favourite Drinks: Malt whisky and fresh ground coffee (she never drinks instant coffee). Birthsign: Aries. She is a typical Aries – a bombastic, fiery leader. She has a quick temper, argues with doctors like mad. Ambition: To be a senior nursing officer. Name: Rose Butchins. Age: Nineteen. Post: Second-year student nurse. Lives: Has a room in the nurses’ home. Background: Rose was born in Leeds. Her father is a baker, her mother works in a sweet factory. She was brought up in a house without love. Her background has made her sharp-tongued and aggressive, a fighter and realist. She takes violence, drunks, life and death in her stride. Previously Worked: As a supermarket check-out girl. Problems: She has no respect for authority, and her refusal to observe ward etiquette gets her into hot water. She’s scruffy, argumentative and far too blunt, but her practical nature fills her patients with confidence and they adore her. Love Life: Nil. Friends: None. Hobbies: Likes walking in Battersea Park, singing and music. Favourite Music: Punk rock and Beethoven. Favourite Food: Chips, trifle. Favourite Drink: Dandelion and burdock pop. Birthsign: Scorpio. Rose is truthful, passionate, devoted. The sting in her tail is her instinct for revenge. She likes to dominate but whereas many Scorpios can control their temper and passions, Rose lets fly. Ambition: To become a staff nurse. One day to take some O-levels and take the SRN course. Name: Ron Frost (Martin Barrass). Aged: Eighteen. Post: First-year student nurse. Lives: In the nurses’ home. Background: He’s Yorkshire-born. His Mother and Father run a Salvation Army hostel in London. Mother is a SRN. Though Ron hasn’t inherited their religious fervour, he’s a very caring person. He still won’t touch alcohol or tobacco. Previously Worked: In the local council rating office. Went Into Nursing Because: He wanted to do something that would help people. Love Life: As yet, he hasn’t had much success with women. Friends: He likes Jay as a friend. He fancies Anna. Hobbies: Playing the cornet, heavy rock music, swimming. Favourite Food: Kebabs and chicken and chips. Birthsign: Capricorn. Like the mountain goat, a Capricorn subject will climb high, until he reaches the peak. Very loyal to his family and friends. Ambition: To have his own home and family. To qualify and become a charge nurse. (Radio Times, September 1, 1979 – Article by Judi Goodwin). With Rachel Beasley, Jeremy Steyn, Janette Legge, Philomena McDonagh, Barry Lowe (Mr Coral), Maggie Ollerenshaw, David Simeon, Oliver Maguire (Mr Merril), Larrington Walker (Mr Hedge), Yvonne Gidden (Mrs Hedge) and Gwen Cherrell.

2. 05.09.1979: By Alan Janes.
Mr Coral notices something in Sarah that makes her different from the other nurses. Would she bend the rules? Would she break them?

3. 10.09.1979: By Alan Janes.
Can Anna stay a nurse and be a mother? Night duty … Mr Hedge has a real emergency. An urgent telephone call to Mr Merril about Emily. Coral gets worse – and Sarah must make up her mind. With Larrington Walker (Mr Hedge), Oliver Maguire (Mr Merril), Barry Lowe (Mr Coral), Philomena McDonagh, Rachel Beasley, Janette Legge, David Simeon, Stephen Reynolds, Yvonne Gidden (Mrs Hedge), Peter Dawson, Josephine Welcome and Anne-Marie Davies.

4. 12.09.1979: By Alan Janes.
The morning after the night before … Is young Emily strong enough to survive? Can Mrs Hedge find the strength to go it alone? Sarah faces the toughest decision of her life.

5. 17.09.1979: By Chris Barlas.
Ron Frost is working in Casualty at the weekend. What is it about Saturday nights that makes everybody so up-tight? With Delia Paton (Sister Mabey), Stephen Reynolds, Anne-Marie Davies, Tony Anholt, Marilyn Le Conte, David Simeon, Graham Poutney and Floella Benjamin (Marigold Glasspole).

6. 19.09.1979: By Chris Barlas.
Drunks … drugs … prostitution … as is Katy Betts didn’t have enough to cope with!

7. 24.09.1979: By Chris Barlas.
For some people … like Sister Jean and her boyfriend – Sunday is a day of rest. In the hospital, it’s business as usual. And with Marigold Glasspole on Sister Mabey’s ward, business means trouble. With Foella Benjamin (Marigold Glasspole), Delia Paton (Sister Mabey), Marilyn Le Conte, David Casey, Anne-Marie Davies, Tony Anholt, David Simeon and Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings).

8. 26.09.1979: By Chris Barlas.
Anna’s party. A chance to forget the tensions at work – if that’s possible. Sandra Ling gives Jean some surprising news. And an unexpected guest shows up.

9. 01.10.1979: By Peter King.
Pat Banks is in hospital for an “investigation”, all very routine … But Jay Harper soon begins to wonder. With Carole Hayman (Pat Banks).

10. 03.10.1979: By Peter King.
Sarah’s last days as a nurse. And she’s not the only one to depart – as Anna Newcross finds out to her cost. With Anne-Marie Davies, Doremy Vernon, Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), David Casey and Jeremy Truelove.

11. 08.10.1979: By Peter King.
New girl Beverley Slater arrives at Saint Angela’s. Jay visits Pat’s husband and discovers there’s no furniture in the house. With Kate Docherty, Michael Howarth, Derek Martin, David Casey and David Sinclair.

12. 10.10.1979: By Peter King.
Jay won’t be warned. She’s stubborn, moody and ready for a fight.

13. 15.10.1979: By Janet Preger.
Sister Jean goes home to Glasgow to face up to her father. Anna Newcross returns to Saint Angela’s to face the music. With George Irving, David Simeon, Christine Moore, Adam Bareham (Keith), Julia Nelson, David Casey, Michael Balfour, Sidney Golder, Deborah Manship (Sister Price), Karl Johnson, Neville Barber, Kenneth Hadley, William Armour, Francie van Eck, Ray Lavender, Christopher Ryan (Harry) and Jameson Clark.

14. 17.10.1979: By Janet Preger.
Sandra Ling’s secret is out. And Jay Harper finds it hard to disguise “her” problem.

15. 22.10.1979: By Janet Preger.
Jay is suspended from duty. Jean and her brother fall out over Dad. Anna gives Keith an answer about the divorce. With George Irving, David Simeon, Christine Moore, Adam Bareham (Keith), Julia Nelson, Dorothy Frere, Sidney Golder, Neville Barber, William Armour, Jameson Clark, Nick Stringer, Michael Balfour, Christopher Ryan (Harry) and Doreen Cameron.

16. 24.10.1979: By Janet Preger.
The day of Katy’s assessment. And a day of reckoning for Sister Jean and Anna …

17. 29.10.1979: By Bill Baron.
Jay is allowed back on the ward. But her troubles aren’t over yet … is she jumping from the frying pan into the fire? With John Abbott, Deborah Manship (Sister Price), David Casey, Brian Walton, Benadette Burdis, Graham Poutney, Carol Gillies, Ann Windsor and Tony Caunter.

18. 31.10.1979: By Bill Baron.
Dave is putting pressure on Sister Jean. Or is it really blackmail – because she’s a woman?

19. 05.10.1979: By Bill Baron.
Anna’s late again. And as far as Rose is concerned, enough is enough. With Tony Caunter, John Abbott, Roy Purcell and Graham Pourtney.

20. 07.10.1979: By Bill Baron.
Emergency! And Anna must prove herself. Katy sits her “finals” … she knows she’s a good nurse – but can she get it on paper?

21. 12.10.1979: By Valerie Georgeson.
Jay Harper starts on Casualty. Ken Hastings asks Jean to keep an eye on her. Everyon’s keeping an eye on Jay. With Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Meriel Brook, Vera Jakob, Eileen Beldon, Virginia Clay, Jeanne Doree, Susan Richards, Madoline Thomas (Mrs Carr), Hazel Bainbridge, Clifford Mollison, Marc Zuber (Doctor Choudry) and Catherine Terris.

22. 14.10.1979: By Valerie Georgeson.
Anna takes an interest in Mrs Carr. Well – she’s so “independent”. But then so is Anna … Poor old Ron!

23. 19.10.1979: By Valerie Georgeson.
Katy Betts is being shunted from ward to ward. One patient she doesn’t want to run into is her own gran.

24. 21.10.1979: By Valerie Georgeson.
Will Anna and Ron finally get it together? Or is she just leading him on? With Vera Jakob, Susan Richards, Eileen Beldon, Virginia Clay, Madoline Thomas (Mrs Carr), Hazel Bainbridge, Meriel Brook and Jeanne Doree.

25. 26.11.1979: By Bill Lyons.
One thing Fleur Bennett has to cope with is a foster-mum. One thing a barmaid has to cope with is amorous drunks. With Nicholas Donnelly, Bill Horsley, Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Antonia Pemberton, Vivien Stokes, Robert Blythe, John Rolfe, Barbara Angell and Jeannie Crowther.

26. 28.11.1979: By Bill Lyons.
Fleur’s in court.

27. 03.12.1979: By Bill Lyons.
The GNC Inspector arrives … Ron and Anna have a date … and Katy has “her board”. With Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Christine Lohr, Meriel Brook, Betty Woolfe, Sylvia Coleridge, Barbara Angell, John Rolfe and Ian Thompson.

28. 05.12.1979: By Bill Lyons.
Rumours at Saint Angela’s … Will someone in authority have the courage to confirm or deny them?

29. 10.12.1979: By Gilly Fraser.
Non-stop night-shift in Casualty. Where will all those patients go if rumours about “closure” are true? With Eve Aubrey, Maureen Morris, Pauline Letts, Jane Booker, Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Yvonne Bonnamy (Beattie Begley), Tammi Jacobs (Jackie Dyer), Tammi Jacobs (Jackie Dyer), Sneh Gupta (Jamlia Khan), Dev Sagoo (Mirza Khan), Marc Zuber (Doctor Choudry) and Lucita Ljjertwood (Sister Isabel Ford).

30. 12.12.1979: By Gilly Fraser.
“They warned me about Gynae at the Nurses’ Home. It’s all that emotion. It’s putting me right off women!”.

31. 17.12.1979: By Gilly Fraser.
Katy finds out if she’s passed or failed her “finals”, and Rose’s past catches up with her … With Venicia Day (Faith Bogle), Jane Booker (Leigh Simmons), Tammi Jacobs (Jackie Dyer), Yvonne Bonnamy (Beattie Begley), Sneh Gupta (Jamlia Khan), Lucita Lijertwood (Sister Isabel Ford), Pik-Sen Lim (Doctor Yeo), Doyle Richmond (Jo), Marc Zuber (Doctor Choudry), Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Walter Sparrow (Reg Begley), Deidre Costello (Sherry Butchins) and Dev Sagoo (Mirza Khan).

32. 19.12.1979: By Gilly Fraser.
“If we’re not careful, they’ll dismantle the health service brick by brick …”. Will Saint Angela’s Casualty Department be spared …?

SERIES 6
Originally Broadcast: September 1st – December 24th, 1980
Originally Transmitted: 6:55pm to 6:45pm

1. 01.09.1980: By Valerie Georgeson.
The return of the twice-weekly serial at Saint Angela’s Hospital, Battersea … The fight against the closure of Casualty continues … Can it be saved? Some familiar faces and some new ones are caught up in the conflict … Will the bureaucrats give in? Angel Faces – BBC Television Autumn Season – This week Radio Times highlights programmes in BBC Television’s new season. H E Bates’ Fair Stood The Wind For France is the new “Love Story”; Doctor Who returns, this time with Adrienne Corri; Leap In The Dark looks at the supernatural; Horizon examines the information revolution of our age; on page seventy-four we meet Stephanie Turner, star of Juliet Bravo; and on page seventy-seven Andrea Newman talks about her new serial, Mackenzie – Angels – More dramas – both personal and vocational – unfold this week as the nurses of Saint Angela’s Hospital return to our screens. Two new “Angels” john their ranks: Adrienne, a down-to-earth, warm country girl from Northern Ireland; and Elizabeth, an efficient, slightly snobbish “county” girl from Essex, Deirdre MacDonald meets the actresses who play them, Fay Howard and Susan Gilmore: Fay Howard is twenty-two and passes easily for eighteen, the age of the new Angel she’s playing, a girl called Adrienne O’Shea. The Irish country accent, warm nature and sensible approach prescribed in the script for the character don’t come hard in the performance. Her real name is not Fay Howard but Katherina Fay. When she gained her Equity card, she lost the right to use the name; Equity had one already among its membership. She acted under Katherine Fay Howard for a year until they made her drop that, too, and Fay Howard emerged. Adrienne O’Shea, by the way, likes her first name to be pronounced “Adreen”. Adrienne is supposed to be from a coastal village, thirty miles from Belfast, where her mother runs a market garden. Fay is in fact from Rostrevor, near Newry, thirty-five miles away from the bruised city. Her father (Fay’s) is an architect. Adrienne is described as a natural nurse, born to it. “I think you have to be,” says Fay. She spent three days and one night getting the feel of bedbaths, badages and blood pressure at St James’ Hospital in preparation for the part, and was enthralled by the workings of a hospital. “It’s almost a morbid interest, but full of hope, too. But I know, deep-down, that I could never be a nurse”. She has wanted to act for as long as she can remember. “My family always said I was born to it. I’ve never wanted to do anything else”. She left her “marvelous, extrovert” school in Newry before taking her A-levels to study acting at the Arts Educational School in the Barbican in London. She obtained her Equity card in the course of a spell with the Riverside Theatre Company in Coleraine back in Northern Ireland. “If I’d stayed in Northern Ireland,” she says, “I’d never be out of work as an actress”. But she wanted to range farther. She came back to London and she played a French girl during the Occupation in the BBC-2 Premiere production, The Silence Of The Sea, to be screened later this year. “I had only two lines to speak but I was on screen all the time and I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in all my life”. After Angels rehearsals, Fay retreats to her flat in North London to write essays and devour text books. She has never been able to abandon her academic studies. She took A-level English, History of Art and Modern Architecture and she’s pursuing the English to degree level by unstinted efforts in correspondence courses and polytechnic classes. “I can’t help myself, no matter how much it costs me. I seem to have become an eternal student. I have to keep in mind that I might be unemployed after 15 December when we finish recording this Angels series. Then I might do some kind of technical course – stage lighting, or stage management, perhaps”. She is also just embarking, without much relish, on a short-hand course so that she can “fall back” on clerical work if she has to. “But, really, I would prefer waitressing if I couldn’t be acting because you meet so many more people and the hours leave time for going to classes”. At the moment what she would most like is a second term at Saint Angela’s, a chance for first-year student nurse Adrienne O’Shea to develop into second-year student nurse … and for Fay Howard to develop into a fully-fledged television actress. Susan Gilmore was born Susan Gilbert but Equity already had one of those. She acted as Elizabeth Gilbert briefly and then, for six weeks, as Susannah Sheridan until that was deemed to be too similar to Equity member Susan Sheridan. Hence, Susan Gilmore. Susan is playing first-year student nurse Elizabeth Fitt and it is her first television part. “It’s like being the new girl at school. It’s like being in a repertory company, too. The others are so much more experienced. But they’re all very nice – and there’s no sense of hierarchy in the cast”. Nurse Fitt is the ice-maiden Angel. “I’m cool, super-efficient, emotionally very shy and quite sensitive. Upper-middle class, I think,” says Susan, stepping into the character. “Even Nurse Butchins, who is a real toughie and does not like me very much, admits that I’m a good nurse”. Stepping back, Susan Gilmore says she thinks she likes Elizabeth Fitt. “I think that underneath she’s quite a sympathetic person – but I think you have to like the character you’re playing to be able to do the job properly”. Susan is nearly twenty-six, four years older than Fay Howard and four years older than Student Nurse Fitt. She read English and Drama at Bristol University before training at the Old Vic School in Bristol. She joined the English Speaking Theatre in Vienna, playing to sixth formers for a time and winning the prized Equity card in the course of that, and came back to repertory in Worthing. “I played a dumb broad, Velma, in West Side Story in Worthing. It was a bit avant garde for Worthing, really – it didn’t exactly pack out – but we loved it. Worthing audiences prefer a happy ending, I think”. After a round of interviews and auditions Susan was invited to join the National Theatre as an understudy. She finds she has to restrain herself for the “small scale” of television. “You have to try to be so real in a television studio – no grand gestures: they’d look so silly on camera”. Her tour of duty for practical experience in a hospital in preparation for the part of Nurse Fitt was shorter than Susan would have liked. “I’m hoping to go back and see some more,” she says. But she shares a flat with a real nurse at Saint Thomas’ Hospital and that helps. “She’s away in America at the moment but we’ve talked about nursing, and the part I’m playing. I was surprised at the way real nurses could crack jokes over people who were really ill, but I think they have to have that sort of detachment. It doesn’t mean they care any less. My flatmate says you can’t be sentimental, that you have to find a way of insulating yourself in order to be a good nurse”. (Radio Times, August 30, 1980 – Article by Deirdre MacDonald). With Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Deborah Manship (Sister Price), Lucinda Curtis, Sian Frederic, Joseph Charles, Stephen Reynolds (Russell Potter), Larry Noble, Osmund Bullock, Tony London and Martin Fisk (Dave).

2. 03.09.1980: By Valerie Georgeson.
The office fire stretches Casualty to its limits. Will the demonstrators help out in the emergency?

3. 08.09.1980: By Valerie Georgeson.
Jean McEwen’s ex-boyfriend Dave is still in intensive care – meanwhile Fleur should be studying for her state finals but her mind is on other things. With Martin Fisk (Dave), Deborah Monuhie, Kevin Whately (Norman Pollard), Larry Noble, Osmund Bullock and Joseph Charles.

4. 10.09.1980: By Valerie Georgeson.
Fleur now sees Ron in a new light after his rescue at the party. Will Jean get involved with Dave again? And how will Rose accept Norman Pollard’s peace offering?

5. 15.09.1980: By Valerie Georgeson.
Rose and Norman go off for their weekend together. But is she reading more into the relationship than is actually there?

6. 17.09.1980: By Valerie Georgeson.
Jean McEwen is pulled down from cloud nine, just as Rose learns the truth about her bloke. With Kevin Whately (Norman Pollard), Osmund Bullock, Larry Noble, Ben Roberts and Martin Fisk (Dave).

7. 22.09.1980: By Chris Barlas.
A dramatic setback to the campaign to save Casualty … Mr Rivers, on Male Surgical, contracts a nasty infection … And in the kitchens an unofficial strike.

8. 24.09.1980: By Chris Barlas.
Will the nursing staff get blamed for the spread of infection on Male Surgical? The Kitchen strike becomes “official”. And for Anna Newcross, the fright of her life. With Raj Patel, Paul Ridley, Renu Setna, Patrick Jordan, Terry Scully (Mr Rivers), Ben Roberts, Denys Graham, Robert Fyfe (Bevan), Barbara Angel, Adam Bareham (Keith) and Sally Scott.

9. 29.09.1980: By Chris Barlas.
Bevan still won’t apologise, so the kitchen strike goes on. Fleur has a tricky meeting with Ron’s parents. Anna confronts her ex-husband. And someone on Male Surgical is the “carrier” of the infection. With Adam Bareham (Keith), Stephen Reynolds (Russell Potter), Raj Patel, Ben Roberts, Renu Setna, Paul Ridley, Patrick Jordan, Terry Scully (Mr Rivers), Howard Southern, Jim Wiigins, Margaret John, Barbara Angel, Alison Groves and Christina Lohr.

10. 01.10.1980: By Chris Barlas.
The protest meeting is the last chance to save Casualty … The hospital administrator kills two birds with one stone: sorting out Mr Rivers and the strike. The riddle of the infection is solved. And Fleur takes her final assessment.

11. 06.10.1980: By Margaret Simpson.
Russell Potter has a rival for the job in Casualty … on Sister Price’s ward, the staff have to deal with a “private” patient. With Stephen Reynolds (Russell Potter), Deborah Manship (Sister Price), Christine Lohr, Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Peter Schofield, Anne Berry, David Troughton (Kevin), Frank Singuineau, Ceniz Saner and Richard Tolan.

12. 08.10.1980: By Margaret Simpson.
It’s Sister Jean’s last day and her departure is not a happy one. Russell Potter has annoyed Beverley and she wants out …

13. 13.10.1980: By Margaret Simpson. Someone from Anna’s past turns up at the hospital – as a patient … With Richard Tolan (Terry), Stephen Reynolds (Russell Potter), David Troughton (Kevin), Christine Edmonds, Marianne Borgo, Cameron Miller, Christine Lohr, Martin Penrice and David Simeon.

14. 15.10.1980: By Margaret Simpson.
Anna has to cope with the lot. Patients – staff … and gossip …

15. 20.10.1980: By Cherry Potter.
Mrs Claudia Hughes is terrified and refuses to consent to a vital emergency operation … Can young Beverley change her mind? Is there time …? With Marcia Tucker (Mrs Claudia Hughes), Stephen Reynolds (Russell Potter), Marsha Millar, David Troughton (Kevin), Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Pauline Quirke, Sarah Lim, John Flint, Joseph Iles, Leonard Kavanagh and Rowena Ingram.

16. 22.10.1980: By Cherry Potter.
Russell and Kevin have their interviews for the Casualty job. And Beverley has to listen to some home truths.

17. 27.10.1980: By Jane Hollowood.
Katy’s husband Roger doesn’t want much. Just the impossible … With Gary Whelan (Roger), David Troughton (Kevin), Johnny Shannon, William Biggs, Neil Fitzwilliam, Janet Dale, William Lindsay (Doctor Drew), Penny Smith, Richard Tolan (Terry), Cindy O’Callaghan and Richard Davies.

18. 29.10.1980: By Jane Hollowood.
Terry is driving Rose around the bend. Is blood really thicker than water?

19. 03.11.1980: By Jane Hollowood.
Katy learns that it is hard being a nurse and a policeman’s wife. With Richard Tolan (Terry), Janet Dale, Neil Fitzwilliam, William Biggs, Johnny Shannon, Penny Smith, David Troughton (Kevin), Stephen Reynolds (Russell Potter), Gary Whelan (Roger), William Lindsay (Doctor Drew) and Richard Davies.

20. 05.11.1980: By Jane Hollowood.
Bonfire night. “Fireworks” for three couples.

21. 10.11.1980: By Peter Whalley.
“Welcome to the operating theatre, Nurse Barrett! In this department we play it by the book …”. With Stephen Reynolds (Russell Potter), Margaret Stallard, Kathleen Byron, Richard Henry, Albert Moses, Cynthia Powell, Robert Brown, John Roden, Kate Edgar, Christine Ozanne, Michael Parker, William Lindsay (Doctor Drew), Gillian Bailey, Rebecca Everett Briggs, Vivienne Martin and Leilah Flanagan.

22. 12.11.1980: By Tony Holland.
“Welcome to the Children’s War! It’s total honesty here …”.

23. 17.11.1980: By Peter Whalley.
Fleur assists at an operation. Russell and Kevin hear about the Casualty job. And a member of staff is taken ill. With Stephen Reynolds (Russell Potter), Margaret Stallard, Kathleen Byron, Albert Moses, Keith Bartlett, David Troughton (Kevin), John Roden, Kate Edgar, William Lindsay (Doctor Drew), Michael Packer, Charlie Hawkins, Richard Tolan, Gillian Bailey, Rebecca Everett Briggs, Christine Ozanne, Vivienne Martin and Leliah Flanagan.

24. 19.11.1980: By Tony Holland.
Two’s company, three’s a crowd … as Elizabeth and Adrienne discover. And watch out – there’s a thief about!

25. 24.11.1980: By Tony Holland.
Still no trace of Leilah’s mother. And Adrienne spends Sunday with her London relatives … a day she’d rather forget. With Leilah Flanagan, Charlie Hawkins, Michael Packer, Valerie Lilley, Jeremy Dimmick, David McKail, Ann Curthoys, Beverley Michaels, Christine Ozanne, Bill McGuirk, Julie Legrand, Kate David, Helen Gemmell, Ken Sharrock and Willian Lindsay (Doctor Drew).

26. 26.11.1980: By Tony Holland.
After three years of training Fleur Barrett gets the results of her finals …

27. 01.12.1980: By Bill Lyons.
The wedding’s off, so Ron tries to get into Fleur’s good books.

28. 03.12.1980: By Bill Lyons.
Katy leaves Saint Angela’s … and her last patient is a nurse. With Ruth Goring, Dianna Berriman, Beverley Michaels, Mervyn Pascoe, Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Christine Lohr, William Lindsay (Doctor Drew), Ben Roberts and Lyn Ashley.

29. 08.12.1980: By Bill Lyons.
Elizabeth and Doctor Drew are alone at last. Beverley Slater’s condition is diagnosed … With Ben Roberts, Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Michael Troughton, Christina Lohr, William Merrow, June Bland, Thomas Bapstiste, David Carrs and Brian Carroll.

30. 10.12.1980: By Bill Lyons.
Beverley’s father makes a confession. And everything points to one person being the Saint Angela’s thief.

31. 15.12.1980: By Bill Lyons.
The thief is caught in the act! A surprise visitor turns up on Intensive Care. The carol singing ends in tragedy. With Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), David Carrs, Christina Lohr, Ben Roberts, William Lindsay (Doctor Drew), June Bland, William Merrow, Denys Graham and Jeillo Edwards.

32. 17.12.1980: By Bill Lyons.
Everyone tries to carry on as if the awful events of last night hadn’t happened. Good news for Beverley. Bad for Michelle’s mother. And Ron and Fleur wonder if they’re marrying each other or their parents.

33. 22.12.1980: By Gilly Fraser.
Ron and Fleur’s wedding day … and Anna is still unconscious … With Debby Cumming, John Fowler, Gwen Cherrell, Shelley King, Michael Howarth (Ken Hastings), Christina Lohr, Deborah Manship (Sister Price), William Lindsay (Doctor Drew) and Stephen Reynolds (Doctor Drew).

34. 24.12.1980: By Gilly Fraser.
Christmas at Saint Angela’s. Old friends turn up for the show. And a child is born …

SERIES 7
Originally Broadcast: September 7th – December 30th, 1981
Originally Transmitted: 6:55pm to 6:50pm

1. 07.09.1981: By Peter Whalley.
The return of the popular twice-weekly serial about hospital life. There are big changes as some of the “Angels” are on the move … from run-down Saint Angela’s in London to bright, new Heath Green Hospital in Birmingham. Ancient and Modern … John Craven’s Back Pages – Angel Spreads Her Wings: “A lot of the cast went out once to watch the film Alien and while we were standing in the queue someone fainted. Everyone expected us to be able to do something”. Kathryn Apanowicz who plays Nurse Rose Butchins in Angels (Monday 6:55pm and Tuesday 6:50pm BBC-1, Tuesday and Wednesday in Wales) is talking about occasions when her fictitious character overlaps with real life. For two years Kathryn did not find herself identifying with the role. Now, into her third series, she tries to detach herself. “People constantly say to me: `It’s not really like that in hospital’, or are always asking me what I feel about nurses. But it’s just a part”. Regular viewers will notice some changes in Rose. “The character is much more mature,” says Kathryn. “She was a real loud-mouth – now she thinks more about what she says. She’s a gentle person”. And she’s also on the move. Rose decides to leave Saint Angela’s in London for Birmingham and a spanking new hospital, Heath Green – and you can follow her fortunes there. The man who helps her with her luggage on the day she arrives is nurse Den Booth. “He’s a twenty-seven-year-old second-year pupil who’s worked in a factory beforehand,” says Ken Sharrock who plays the part. Unlike Kathryn, who first appeared on television at the age of eight, Ken has come to the small screen in a roundabout way. Although he always wanted to act, his previous jobs included working in the Merchant Navy, on an oil rig and as a porter in a hospital. Both Kathryn and Ken agree that rehearsing and recording Angels leaves them little time for hobbies and other interests. The last series finished in December – work on the new series began in February. It gave Kathryn just enough time to slip off to Morocco. The golden glow you’ll notice on her skin is the remainder of her holiday tan. Because scenes for Angels are shot out of sequence she has had to keep up her tan for the whole series. As a picture of health, Nurse Rose Butchins is a shining example. (Radio Times, September 5, 1981 – Article by Katie Griffiths). With Doyne Byrd, Arthur Kelly, Eric Richards, Deborah Manship (Sister Price), Roderick Smith, Amanda York, Christine Pollon, Rachel Laurence, Myrtle Devenish, Vicki Chambers, Sharon Miller and Alan David.

2. 08.09.1981: By Peter Whalley.
Saint Angela’s behind her, Beverley settles into her new home. And Rose has a good reason for not wanting to return to London.

3. 14.09.1981: By Peter Whalley.
At Heath Green Hospital in Birmingham – Beverley starts on the “unit” and Tracey spends her first day on the ward. In Londonb – Anna’s night out is cancelled because of tragic news for Elizabeth Fitt. With Deborah Manship (Sister Price), Christine Pollon, Roderick Smith, Brian Miller, Myrtle Devenish, Amanda York, Eric Richards, Arthur Kelly, Vicki Chambers, Gary Whelan (Rogers), Edmund Pegge and Jason Kemp.

4. 15.09.1981: By John Drew.
Elizabeth returns to work too soon. She goes about like a zombie refusing to cry. Anna knows that she must “break”, or she’ll never be able to accept the situation.

5. 21.09.1981: By Sheila Yeger.
Den visits Rose in London. Elizabeth has a rough time on the “unit”. And Katy gets love to a surprise that could wreck her marriage. With Deborah Manship (Sister Price). Nicholas Wolff, Marsha Fitzalan, Sydney Arnold, Gary Whelan (Roger), John Richmond and Angela Vale.

6. 22.09.1981: By Sheila Yeger.
Katy and Roger the morning after. Being married is like playing a game where no one knows the rules … the same goes for Ron and Fleur.

7. 28.09.1981: By Sheila Yeger.
Katy and Valerie begin to break the ice and Roger hears some unpleasant home-truths – as Anna tackles Elizabeth about her future. With Patsy Smart, Sydney Arnold, Angela Vale, John Richmond, Deborah Manship (Sister Price), Nicholas Wolff, Marsha Fitzalan, Gary Whelan (Roger) and Bernard Finch.

8. 29.09.1981: By Sheila Yeger.
Rose Butchins leaves Saint Angela’s for the last time. And Fleur is rushed to maternity – twice!

9. 05.10.1981: By Glenn Chandler.
Rose arrives in Birmingham to start her SRN course at Heath Green Hospital. Back to school! Rules and regulations! Will she have second thoughts? With Graham Seed, Charlotte Howard, Deborah Manship (Sister Price), Gary Whelan (Roger), Walter McMonagle, Caroline Harris, Christine Ozanne, Martin Raynor, Jacqui Ross and Gwen Cherrell.

10. 06.10.1981: By Glenn Chandler.
The “arrangement” between Katy, Roger and Sister Price reaches boiling point … who’ll explode first?

11. 12.10.1981: By Tony Holland.
Rose’s first day in the ward at Heath Green Hospital, Birmingham. And she’s dreading it. With Gary Whelan (Roger), Lynda Booke, Michael Clue, Caroline Jay, Fran Fullerwider and Deborah Manship (Sister Price).

12. 13.10.1981: By David Hopkins.
Will Katy let Roger back into the flat? Anna and Ron sit their state final exams. Beverley and Tracey have a night out – and get more than they bargained for.

13. 19.10.1981: By Glenn Chandler.

14. 20.10.1981: By Glenn Chandler.

15. 26.10.1981: By Chris Barlas.
At the Birmingham hospital: Rose gives everyone a really bad time. In London: Ron gives Fleur an ultimatum. With Brian Hayes (Mr Marrit), Betty Alberge, Andrew Boxer (Mendell), Alan Igbon, Annie Hayes, Jean Campbell-Dallas and Stephen MacDonald.

16. 27.10.1981: By Chris Barlas.
Mendell, the voluntary worker, seems too good to be true. Whereas Mr Marritt, the patient, isn’t quite the fake he appears to be.

17. 02.11.1981: By Chris Barlas.
Den doesn’t get to his sparring session in London after all. Instead he and Fleur are involved in a different kind of punch-up. At Heath Green: Tracey’s convinced that the voluntary worker is a liar. With Annie Hayes, Andrew Boxer (Mendell), Brian Hayes (Mr Marritt), Alan Igbon, Stephen MacDonald, Steven Sweeney, Jesse Birdsall, Jill Meers (Tracey’s Mother) and Betty Alberge.

18. 03.11.1981: By Chris Barlas.
In London: Anna accepts an invitation from Doctor Kidd and Ron and Fleur plan their future. In Birmingham: Marritt and Mendell have to face facts. And why is Rose so good at sorting out other people – yet is such a mess herself?

19. 09.11.1981: By Peter Whalley.
Beverley Slater is nearly halfway through her renal course at Heath Green. And it’s in the kidney unit that the story of Brian Sykes continues. Back in September he was new to dialysis … and he found that his condition seriously affected his relationship with his fiancée, Sue. But a lot can happen in two months … With Jack Holloway, Vikki Chambers, Stephen MacDonald, Brian Miller, Ashton Edwynn, Valerie Phillips, Janis Winters, Myrtle Devenish, Amanda York, Adam Hussein (Doctor Norman), John Rowe and Tony Waters.

20. 10.11.1981: By Peter Whalley.
Is Doctor Norman being helpful to Beverley because he fancies her?

21. 16.11.1981: By Peter Whalley.
In Birmingham: Brian and Sue get married. In London, Rose turns up to surprise Den. Only thing is, she’s the one to get a surprise. A nasty one – like a kick in the teeth. With Roderick Smith (Brian), Vikki Chambers (Sue), Valerie Phillips, Amanda York, John Rowe, Janis Winters, Ashton Edwynn, Brian Miller and Jock Holloway.

22. 17.11.1981: By Cherry Potter.
Instead of turning on the water works, Rose turns hard. So brittle in fact that if she’s not careful she’ll snap.

23. 23.11.1981: By Cherry Potter.
The police believe that the man who attached Councillor Skelton will seek medical help. Maybe he has already – at Heath Green Hospital? Detective Sergeant Coles interviews Tracey: has she seen anyone fitting the attacker’s description? With John Golightly (Councillor Skelton), Maurice O’Connell (Detective Sergeant Coles), Steven Gardner, Maggie Flint, Raj Patel, Iona Banks, Jill Meers (Tracey’s Mother), Anne Mannion and Joanne James.

24. 24.11.1981: By Cherry Potter.
After what she has been told about him, how can Tracey possibly nurse Councillor Skelton?

25. 30.11.1981: By Cherry Potter.
Tracey’s mother gives the police details they need in order to arrest Tamara’s father. Rose breaks down and tells Beverley and Linda exactly what happened in London … With Jill Meers (Tracey’s Mother), Joanne James (Tamara), Elizabeth Morgan, Neil Brennan, Jamilla Massey, Iona Banks, Maurice O’Connell (Detective Sergeant Coles), Janis Winters, Steven Gardner and John Golightly (Councillor Skelton).

26. 01.12.1981: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
Rose is sent off to the “Eye Ward”. It is the one place she’s squeamish about. Squeamish? Rose Butchins?!! With Adrienne Frank, Sally Anne Messe, Pearl Hackney, Janthea Williams, Jan Harvey (Evelyn Shaw), Jeffrey Vanderbyl, Joyce Latham, Michael Howard and Ian Cinderby.

27. 07.12.1981: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
After talking to Rose about her fear of hospitals, Evelyn Shaw refuses to sign the “consent-for-operation” form. The Doctor is furious and reports Rose to the Ward Sister. With Sally Anne Messe, Ian Cinderley, Janthea Williams, Pearl Hackney, Adrienne Frank and Jeffrey Vanderbyl.

28. 08.12.1981: By Jane Hollowood.
A mystery patient is admitted to Rose’s ward. Beverley and Ben change their digs. Beverley moves into Tracey’s parents home. Den takes a double room in a bed and breakfast place … With Elizabeth Robillard (Jessa), Paul McDowell, Carole Walker, Ann Rye, Janis Winters, Susanna Best, Isabelle Lucas, Jill Meers, Darren Jones, Stacy Davies, Neil Coker (Darryn), Harriet Reynolds and Veille Rofaila.

29. 14.12.1981: By Jane Hollowood.
Den makes no progress with his patient, Jessa. Rose’s patient gets worse when his father turns up. How long can Den keep Anna hidden from Rose? With Elizabeth Robillard (Jessa), Jill Meers, Darren Jones, Neil Coker (Darryn), Davyd Harries (Mr Daley), Neville Rofaila, Isabelle Lucas, Stacey Davies, Ann Rye, Janis Winters, Harriet Reynolds and Susanna Best.

30. 15.12.1981: By Jane Hollowood.
Darryn goes to the same school as Tracey’s brother. Could he be in trouble as well? Rose gets an unwelcome visitor at the nurse’s home.

31. 21.12.1981: By Jane Hollowood.
Anna decides whether or not to have the baby. Rose forms a good nurse-patient relationship with young Darryn. But Mr Daley, Darryn’s father, is not so easy to get along with. With Davyd Harries (Mr Daley), Jill Meers, Stacey Davies, Darren Jones, Isabelle Lucas, Susanna Best, Janis Winters, Paul McDowell and Carole Walker.

32. 22.12.1981: By Peter Whalley.
Having been refused permission to see his son, Mr Daley takes it out on Rose. Anna makes up her mind on marriage. Brian Sykes is offered a donor-kidney. With Janis Winters, Roderick Smith, Brian Miller, Robin Griffith, Dilys Price, Helen Cleaves, Amanda York and Richard Steele.

33. 30.12.1981: By Peter Whalley.
Brian has his kidney transplant, but will his body reject it? Rose Butchins is in court on an assault charge, and the verdict could wreck her career … With Amanda York, Roderick Smith, James Beckett, Ian Burns, John Southworth, Janis Winters, Vikki Chambers, Christine Pollon, Richard Steele, Pam St Clement, Rowena Ingram, Malcolm Kaye, Dennis Holmes, Davyd Harries and Ann Cunningham.

SERIES 8
Originally Broadcast: September 6th – December 21st, 1982
Originally Transmitted: 7:05pm to 7:30pm

1. 06.09.1982: By Tony Holland.
A familiar face from Saint Angela’s in London turns up at Heath Green Hospital in Birmingham to take charge of a lot of new Angels … Hospital Corner – When the new series of “Angels” starts this week, two new leading characters will get their wings – warm-hearted, accident-prone Alison (Juliet Waley) and the abrasive loner Vicky (Pauline Quirke). The two young – but surprisingly experienced – actresses talked to Renate Kohler: Ever since Pauline Quirke landed the leading part of Vicky Smith in the new series of Angels earlier this year, she has never spent more time in hospital – and not in the interests of background research, she is quick to point out. “Members of my family have been dropping like flies. I’ve been doing hospital visiting as never before,” says Pauline, who was twenty-three in July. “Even my fiancé went down with antibiotic poisoning and we had to postpone our wedding”. This enforced access to hospitals plus the bone-wearying discipline of rehearsals for the twice-weekly Angels have given Pauline a new awareness and sensitivity to the subject of nursing. “It has made me realise that you either have a vocation for the work or you haven’t. I wouldn’t last five minutes but now I really appreciate for the first time what nurses do”. Pauline is joined on the wards of the series’ Heath Green Hospital in Birmingham by Juliet Waley, who is twenty-two. Playing another new lead, the big-hearted, well-intentioned but crashingly clumsy Alison Streeter, Juliet is amused to see certain similarities. “I am a bit accident-prone,” she admits, “and when I drop things my flatmates immediately say, `Oh well, typical Alison’. But I don’t walk into disasters the way she does”. For both actresses, Angels will be the first long-running series. For several reasons, it is a prospect they view with some satisfaction. Both are perfectly modest, yet agree they will like becoming household names and faces. Pauline has heard about the effect that previous Angels have on the public from other actresses in the series. “You know,” she says, amazed, “people think you really are a nurse. They come up and tell you their intimate medical secrets!” On a more serious note, she values the opportunity for gaining insights into her character, the abrasive loner, Vicky. “As the series wears on, you begin to understand the person you are playing better and better. So, when there is a line in the dialogue that simply doesn’t fit, you recognise it and change it”. For Juliet, working in a regular series is an important addition to her experience as an actress. “We work with many different directors, sometimes two different directors in a week, and many different writers. The pace of the schedule is unlike any other kind of theatrical work. You have to be word and gesture perfect within a very short time to fit in with recording”. While both actresses are new to this particular series, neither is new to the public and they have been performing for almost a decade. Pauline Quirke, statuesque and possessed of a cockney accent as pretty as iron filings, is a “graduate” of Anna Scher’s Children’s Theatre in north London. She signed on when she was ten and made her debut at the age of eleven, as a mini-arsonist in an episode of Dixon Of Dock Green. Insouciantly neglecting her schooling, sjhe has worked in radio and television – including a chat show of her own – more or less ever since. “I was never there for the lessons and never there for the exams. In the end, they said I had to choose between school and a career in acting. I chose acting. I couldn’t do anything else now”. Juliet started ballet at the early age of three, wanting nothing else in life but to dance. “But I was doomed. My technique was bad and, physically, I was all wrong. I might have made it to the back row of the crop de ballet but my ego was too big for that, so I turned more and more to acting”. Her first public performance was when she was thirteen, as the heart-catching young Jane Eyre. Recently, she was in BBC-2’s Frost In May. She has adventurous plans for the future, but right now believes “knowing that I will be working non-stop until November gives me the confidence to concentrate on being a good actress”. Pauline, who did finally get to marry husband Peter a month after he left hospital, is relaxed about the future. “I shall enjoy being a married lady. If I never get work as an actress again … well, I think I’ll just go out and ... break my heart”. (Radio Times, September 4, 1982 – Article by Renate Kohler). With Eamon Boland, Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Norman Commer, Lynda Bellingham, Lynda Rooke, David Brashawe, Christine Ozanne, Robert Grose, Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Al Ashton (Mike), Mark Strickson and Paul Ridley.

2. 07.09.1982: By Tony Holland.
Are mixed wards a mixed blessing?

3. 13.09.1982: By Tony Holland.
The financial situation in the Willoughby household is so desperate that Dick is forced to consider drastic methods of raising cash. With Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Paul Ridley, Lynda Bellingham, Eamon Boland, Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Mark Strickson, Al Ashton (Mike), Christine Ozanne, Jonathan Leighton-Clarke, Paul Marks, Lynda Rooke, Norman Comer and Terry Molloy.

4. 14.09.1982: By John Drew.
Are patients Kathy and Pete getting too friendly for the ward?

5. 20.09.1982: By John Drew.
Kathy Stone says “sorry”. Mr Willoughby is interviewed for a job. Vicky Smith goes to meet her real mother. With Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Jackie Abbey-Taylor, Lynda Bellingham, Paul Ridley, Eamon Boland and Patrick Waldron.

6. 21.09.1982: By John Drew.
For Tracey and Alison, a busy shirt of accident and emergency. It all starts when the Mobile Accidents Unit is called out to a factory. With Al Ashton (Mike), Mark Strickson, Alexander Jackson, Lynda Rooke, Neil Comer, Willie Jonah, Marcia Turner, Barbara Angel, Hazel Bainbridge, Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby) and Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby).

7. 27.09.1982: By Sheila Yeger.
Tracey and Mike go out together. Vickey welcomes two new patients to Gynae. Alison pays back a debt … With Al Ashton (Mike), Christine Shaw, Emily Richard, Nancy Gower, Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Lyndam Gregory, Roger Bizley, Deidre Dee and Martin Routledge.

8. 28.09.1982: By Sheila Yeger.
Tensions at home are bad enough for Tracey. Nasty telephone calls at work she could do without.

9. 04.10.1982: By Sheila Yeger.

10. 05.10.1982: By Sheila Yeger.

11. 11.10.1982: By Margaret Simpson.
New students Dave and Janet are excited about meeting the patients on their very first ward. Linda Mo wouldn’t mind if she never met a patient again!

12. 12.10.1982: By Margaret Simpson.
Sister sends Alison off the Accident and Emergency Unit for incompetence. Dick Willoughby has his interview for the ambulance service. With Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Peter Birrel, Bernadette McKenna, Linda Polan, Thelma Whitely, Eric Mason, Chris Sanders, Stanley Page, Richard Simms, Diana Mull and Robert grose.

13. 18.10.1982: By Margaret Simpson.
A patient tries to help Vicky find her mother. Linda goes to London to see her father, who never wanted his daughter to be a nurse. Janet and Dave have their first emergency …

14. 19.10.1982: By Ginnie Hole.
Ambulance-man Chris Carr delivers his first baby. Dave gets a surprise when a familiar face turns up on his ward as a patient. With Martin Autledge (Chris Carr), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Peter Birrel, Bernadette McKenna, Linda Polan, Thelma Whitely, Eric Mason, Chris Sanders, Stanley Page, Arnold Lee and Candace Glendenning.

15. 25.10.1982: By Ginnie Hole.
The premature baby is still on the danger list, and Alison has a tough job coping with the young mother. She also has another job that’s nothing to do with nursing.

16. 26.10.1982: By Ginnie Hole.
The consultant tells Mr Coombs that he can go home only if he takes things easy. Dave, realising that there’s no chance of that, gives his patient some surprising advice. “Moonlighting” Alison gets an unexpected customer … With Harold Goodwin (Mr Coombs), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Shirley Davies, Margaret Ward, Brenda Fricker, John Alkin, Simon Needs and Dirkan Tulaine.

17. 01.11.1982: By Roger Parkes.
Linda Mo pays her first visit to the Pathology Department. Vicky Smith gets some bad news. With Naomi Butch, Derek Waring, Desmond Strokes, Chris Hunter, Christine Collins, Peter Craze, Susan Jeffrey, Shope Shodeiride and Peter Halliday.

18. 02.11.1982: By Roger Parkes.
On “Medical”, Janet and Dave have a problem patient. In “Path”, Linda gets a few shocks. At the Nurses’ home, Nargis breaks the good news.

19. 08.11.1982: By Roger Parkes.
Vicky goes to London for her mother’s funeral. Alison finds a ward she can enjoy. Linda Mosey gets too nosy on “Path”.

20. 09.11.1982: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
After being reprimanded by the Chief of the Pathology Lab, Linda is sure that they won’t want her back in the department permanently. It seems she’s failed again. With Derek Martin, Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Derek Waring, Chris Hunter, Timothy Knightly and Martin Friend.

21. 15.11.1982: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
The hospital decides to appoint a new permanent VSO over Mrs Willoughby’s head. Is that the only reason for her feeling so ill? With Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Sally Anne Meese, Dorothy Daye, Maureen Rivers, Madalyn Morgan and Joyce Cummings.

22. 16.11.1982: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
Mrs Willoughby sees a consultant. Afterwards, even a supportive husband and daughter can’t cheer her up.

23. 22.11.1982: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
Nargis Khan’s engagement party. The squash tournament … both Janet and Dave are determined to win. With Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Ann Aris, Tanveer Ghani and Claire Toeman.

24. 23.11.1982: By Lindsay Wesker.
Vicky finds out why the orthopaedic ward is known as “Frisky”. Tracey gets her engagement ring. Alison’s nursing is very much appreciated by two new patients, but her other job leads into danger …

25. 29.11.1982: By Lindsay Wesker.
Vicky Smith gets the results from her state finals. With Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Robert Grose, John Moore, Lucita Ljjertwood (Sister Isabel Ford), Cynthia Powell, Claire Toeman, Eileen Helsby, Roger Martin, Ann Godfrey, Glen Cunningham, Tony Armatrading, Anny Tobin, Lloyd Lamble (Reg), Ann Wrigg and David Ashford.

26. 30.11.1982: By Rosemary Mason.
On the day trip to Boulogne, Linda’s all over Dave. Alison becomes sick.

27. 06.12.1982: By Rosemary Mason.
The end of Vicky Smith’s search for her real mother … With Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Anny Tobin, Lloyd Lamble (Reg), Arthur Cox, Jacqueline Hill and Sidney Livingstone.

28. 07.12.1982: By Rosemary Mason.
Alison’s patient, Reg, has an illness that won’t go away. Alison believes that she has a similar problem …

29. 13.12.1982: By Glenn Chandler.
A pile-up on the motorway. And an unexpected victim … With Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Nigel Plaskitt, William Vanderpuye, Larry Dann, Jack McKenzie, Delia Paton, Jonathan Blake, Lesley Dunlop (Ruth Fullman), Edward Kelsey, Sylvia Colleridge and Graeme Green.

30. 14.12.1982: By Glenn Chandler.
Vicky’s behaving like a zombie. Charge Nurse notices that some pills are missing.

31. 20.12.1982: By Glenn Chandler.
Exam results for Tracey and Alison. Linda and Dave split up. The culprit who stole the pills is discovered. With Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Derek Martin, Edward Kelsey, Sylvia Coleridge, William Vanderpuye, Harry Waters and Lesley Dunlop (Ruth Fullman).

32. 21.12.1982: By Glenn Chandler.
Linda Mo says her goodbyes. Dave has the tables turned on him for once. Nargis gets married. But what future for the Willoughbys?

SERIES 9
Originally Broadcast: September 6th – December 22nd, 1983
Originally Transmitted: 7:10pm to 7:35pm

1. 06.09.1983: By Gilly Fraser.
Josh Jones, a new student nurse at Heath Green Hospital, causes quite a stir when he starts on the wards; a homeless girl is admitted for glue sniffing. Enrolled Nurse – The ever-popular Angels, charting the exploits of a team of hospital nurses, returns to BBC-1. And, as in a real hospital, newcomers enter the student nurse ranks as others qualify and leave. D A N Jones examined recruit Tony Armatrading and here he offers a prognosis: “And now, all you members of the cat race – not to mention the human race – here’s one for Russett Drugs!”. The young black disc jockey roars, like a big cat in a lion-tamer’s act. “Rr-ro-arr-rr! Remember, all you cats! This is a rat-trap!”. What is going on? Tony Armatrading is playing a student nurse in a Birmingham hospital clubhouse disco, held in aid of an anti-vivisection campaign called “Animal Rights”. It is a scene from the latest season of the long-running hospital-drama series Angels. Later in the story, Tony might be convinced, by a successful treatment of a diabetes patient, that the use of animal experiments to produce healing drugs for humans is morally justified. Or again he might not. “We bring in a bit of documentary,” says the producer, Ben Rea. They certainly do. Besides diabetes and vivisection, Angels will be dealing with such problems as glue-sniffing for the young, hospices for the dying, stress-induced asthma (leading to wife-beating), childbirth for “elderly primates” (hospital jargon for women over thirty), the laundry problem (how do all those sheets get washed?) and the private lives of ambulance men – one hero saving the life of a woman trapped under a train, another caught up in a National Front riot. Ten years ago, Angels used a South London hospital as its setting. But now the student nurses working out their time are firmly rooted in the Midlands. The hospital they use does not operate an Accident and Emergency department, but they have made available an unused ward which has been converted into an Accident and Emergency ward for filming. When the student nurses pass their exams they may drop out of the series. Tony Armatrading is one of the new student nurses this year. He was a patient for one episode last year, and the Angels organizers offered him a more steady job, as a nurse. He is twenty-one, one of six children born in Birmingham to parents from Saint Kitts and Antigua. He went to a grammar school, passed some O-levels, then decided to be an actor. He was attracted by an advertisement for black actors he saw in the newspaper shop where he worked. Extras were wanted for Empire Road, a black version of Coronation Street. “I’ve been in the theatre business since I was seventeen,” he told me, “and the longest time I’ve spent pout of work is six weeks. People say I’m mature for my age and I do have a knack of working things out the logical way. You may think it’s Joan organising things for me. But that would be definitely out of order – and anyway she has no power in my side of the business”. His big sister Joan Armatrading is a famous singer, now on a world tour. Her latest album is The Key. Tony is musical too. He has travelled the country with a musical about Jelly-Roll Morton, playing the bass guitar as well as acting. “The parts I get offered are as Americans or British blacks”, he says. For black actors, television series like Angels, about essential jobs and services – hospitals, buses of factories – offer good opportunities for employment. Obviously plays about banking, journalism, police or the Stock Exchange don’t offer quite so much scope”. Another of the new student nurses is Joy Lemoine from Nigeria. She waswearing a badge with “NT” on it. National Theatre? I asked. “No,” she said. “Nursing Times”. The Angels actors were pleased to see the Nursing Times taking a friendly interest in their production, since real nurses are often sniffy about fictional ones – all Hattie Jacques and nymphomania. So Joy was glad to be wearing their badge. But she has, in fact, been working at the National Theatre, well cast as Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After she had been cast in Angels, she offered the writers a fictional background, about a Nigerian girl who had been to school in England (Joy went to Roedean) and wanted to be a nurse in an English hospital, against her wealthy parents’ wishes. She offered the writers some possible Nigerian names for her character, they chose “Ayo Ladipo”, and now she;s destined for prominence in the series along with television veterans like Pauline Quirke. You may remember her contentious programmes, Pauline’s Quirkes and Pauline’s People. “All that was eight years ago,” says the Hoxton girl, “when I was about sixteen. I was dealing with unemployed people. It would be more up-to-date now – because there were only about eleven unemployed in those days”. Tony Armatrading watches the veteran with admiration. “The old pros say there’s no romance in this business,” he told me. “But I’ve seen Pauline so many times on television – and when they asked me to join her on Angels, honestly, I was star-struck!”. (Radio Times, September 3, 1983 – Article by D A N Jones). With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Robert Grose (John Willoughby), Gillian Freedman (Belinda), Rachel Stilwell (Karen), Vivienne Burgess (Mrs Manson), Michael Forrest (Mr Bowen) and Dorothy White (Mrs Bowen).

2. 08.09.1983: By Gilly Fraser.
Susan Willoughby tries hard to turn Alison into a presentable bridesmaid for Tracey’s wedding, and Janet heads for a showdown with Vicky.

3. 13.09.1983: By Gilly Fraser.
Chris and Tracey get some bad news before their wedding, and a young cancer patient demands to know the truth about her chances. With Gillian Freedman (Belinda), Vivienne Burgess (Mrs Manson), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Dorothy White (Mrs Bowen), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Michael Forrest (Mr Bowen) and Rachel Stilwell (Karen).

4. 15.09.1983: By Bill Lyons.
Chris and Tracey’s wedding day finally arrives. With Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Ralph Lawton (Mr Barlow), Lawrence Rew (Gary), Robert Grose (John Willoughby), John Judd (Burrows), Maurice Dee (Alan Duxbury), Rosalyn Elvin (Mrs Duxbury), Geoffrey Hinsliff (Mr Duxbury), Grahame Rowe (Vicar) and Auriol Smith (Doctor Dubbs).

5. 20.09.1983: By Bill Lyons.
Chris and Tracey’s wedding night isn’t quite what Tracey expected, and Alison plays detective. With Terence Harvey (Mr Carter), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Maurice Dee (Alan Duxbury), Auriol Smith (Doctor Dubbs), Jonathan Newth (Simon Ludlow), John Judd (Burrows), Robert Grose (John Willoughby), Geoffrey Hinsliff (Mr Duxbury), Rosalyn Elvin (Mrs Duxbury) and Susan Derrick (Mrs Aldred).

6. 22.09.1983: By Bill Lyons.
While a young football star is in hospital with torn ligaments, a far more serious problem is discovered. Janet and Dave have their own problems with a patient who isn’t quite what she claims to be.

7. 27.09.1983: By Sue Lake.
Dave is puzzled by Alison’s reluctance to start on obstetrics. Janet and Vicky’s landlady runs into some serious danger. With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), John Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Hilary Mason (Mrs Rose), Aaron Harris (Patrick Brady) and Chris Sullivan (The Policeman).

8. 29.09.1983: By John Oakden.
Janet MacEwan suddenly has a lot of money to spend, and Vicky’s temper erupts on the ward. With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Isabelle Aymes (Staff Nurse Hobbs), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Christine Ozanne (Sister Muncey), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Mary Waterhouse (Sandra Cooper), Graham Weston (John Forrester) and Veronica Duffy (Penny Netherfield).

9. 04.10.1983: By John Oakden.
Alison and Dave are accused of breaking hospital confidence, but who could have overheard them, and what did they hear? With Isabelle Aymes (Staff Nurse Hobbs), Mary Waterhouse (Sanda Cooper), Graham Weston (John Forrester), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Robert Grose (John Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Roy Holder (Andy Malcolm), Veronica Duffy (Penny Netherfield), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr) and Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby).

10. 06.10.1983: By Rosemary Mason.
Vicky refuses to tell Janet where she’s going for an interview, and Edward has some trouble with an older patient about to have her first baby. With Gerogine Anderson (Sister Bernard), Alison Key (Pat Whyte), Lois Baxter (Carol Freeman), John Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Trevor Martin (Mr Osborn) and Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby).

11. 11.10.1983: By Rosemary Mason.
Edward finds out why Alison hasn’t wanted to talk to him. With Lois Baxter (Carol Freeman), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Georgine Anderson (Sister Bernard), Douglas Fielding (Roger Whyte), Alison Key (Pat Whyte), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby) and Trevor Martin (Mr Osborn).

12. 13.10.1983: By Rosemary Mason.
Vicky goes to work in the enemy camp, to the disgust of her friends. With Petra Markham (Felicity), Neville Jason (Russell Brown), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Victor Winding (Colin Simmonds), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Vas Blackwood (Kelvin) and Alton Douglas (Mr Beazley).

13. 18.10.1983: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
Dave passes some disturbing information on to Janet, and the entrance of a new Angel, Ayo Ladipo, leaves the others feeling rather taken aback. With Peggy Shields (Dolly Fisher), Jacki Webb (Sister Shrimpton), Julie Brennon (Kathy Barnham), Emma Watson (Marie-Laure Bresson), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Kathryn Hurlbutt (Staff Nurse Beany), Sarah-Jane Bickerton (Sally Meddows), Pamela Greenall (Mrs Meddows), Julie Shipley (Carmen Bennett), Karen Ford (Christine Farley), Carmen Silvera (Sheila Tunnicliffe), Terence Lodge (Ron Cracknall), Patricia Heneghan (Dee Dickins) and Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke).

14. 20.10.1983: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
Janet’s mother arrives to counsel Janet on her anti-vivisection campaign, but Janet doesn’t get quite the help she expects.

15. 25.10.1983: By Maureen Gladys Chadwick.
On a visit to the hospital laundry, Jean MacEwen’s students are amazed by the scale of it all. With Emma Watson (Marie-Laure Bresson), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Peggy Shields (Dolly Fisher), Terence Lodge (Ron Cracknall), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Val Hastings (Shirley) and Julie Brennon (Kathy Barnham).

16. 27.10.1983: By Ginnie Hole.
Alison secretly plans her future, and Tracey is rushed to hospital. With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Philip Lowrie (Mike Roberts), Caroline Holdaway (Antonia Miles), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Julian Fellowes (Charles Miles), Patricia Maynard (Sister Catherine), Gavin Skinner (Simon Roberts), Robert Grose (John Willoughby) and Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby).

17. 01.11.1983: By Ginnie Hole.
Josh and Ayo do a very unusual favour for a friend, and Chris and Mrs Willoughby fall out spectacularly in front of some patients.

18. 03.11.1983: By Ginnie Hole.
Vicky goes unwillingly to her father’s engagement party … With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Patricia Maynard (Sister Catherine), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Philip Lowrie (Mike Roberts), Caroline Holdaway (Antonia Miles), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Julian Fellowes (Charles Miles), Sarah Porter (Tami), Olu Jacobs (Musa Ladipo), Derek Martin (Len Smith), Ann Penfold (Eileen Malone) and Gavin Skinner (Simon Roberts).

19. 08.11.1983: By Ginnie Hole.
Vicky gets adventurous with her CB, and picks up more than she bargained for. Ayo receives an ultimatum from her father.

20. 10.11.1983: By Glen McCoy.
Chris needs every ounce of his special training when he arrives at the scene of a serious accident. With Philip Lowrie (Mike Roberts), Caroline Holdaway (Antonia Miles), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Patricia Maynard (Sister Catherine), Gavin Skinner (Simon Roberts), Olu Jacobs (Musa Ladipo), Julian Fellowes (Charles Miles), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Robert Grose (John Willoughby), Maureen Morris (Accident And Emergency Sister), Amanda Dainty (Student Nurse Lunch), Amanda Webb (Student Nurse Parker), Liz Lauste (Jenny Taylor), Jeffrey Stewart (Zac), Alan Thompson (Station Manager), Paul Antony-Barber (Doctor Meredith) and Norman Jones (Arthur Verner).

21. 15.11.1983: By Glen McCoy.
Will Tracey really refuse to nurse one of the patients on Accident and Emergency? With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Liz Lauste (Jenny Taylor), Alan Thomspon (Station Manager), Paul Antony-Barber (Doctor Meredith), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Norman Jones (Arthur Verner), Martin Matthews (Terry Mears), Alec Linstead (George Willis), Trevor Gordon (Brindley Grant) and Maureen Morris (Accident and Emergency Sister).

22. 17.11.1983: By Valerie Georgeson.
Mr Willoughby comes to a patient’s rescue, and Alison volunteers for an experiment. With Mamta Kash (Nargis Khan), Jeff Rawle (Jeff Harris), Janina Faye (Cynthia Harris), David Simeon (Doctor Levy), Jo Kendall (Staff Nurse Noreen Thom), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Anthony Carrick (Doctor Sanderson), Petra Markham (Felicity), Martin Cochrane (Charles Fosden) and Dennis Edwards (Doctor Nowell).

23. 22.11.1983: By Valerie Georgeson.
Tracey is worried about her mother’s strange behaviour, and wonders what Mrs Willougby is up to when she comes home very late one night.

24. 24.11.1983: By Valerie Georgeson.
The anti-vivisection demonstration meets some unexpected opposition outside the Russett drugs factory. With Mamta Kash (Nargis Khan), David Simeon (Doctor Levy), Jo Kendall (Staff Nurse Noreen Thom), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Dennis Edwards (Doctor Nowell), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Martin Cochrane (Charles Fosden), Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Petra Markham (Felicity), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Jeff Rawle (Jeff Harris) and Janina Faye (Cynthia Harris).

25. 29.11.1983: By Glenn Chandler.
Dick shows a new porter the ropes, and Josh hears from a long-lost friend who’s a nurse in the navy. With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Sally Sanders (Sister Royce), Ivor Danvers (Doctor Philips), Zienia Merton (Sister Davis), Joan Blackham (Angela Andrews), Jan Harvey (Leslie Naples), Kerry Tovey (Imogen Naples), Peter MacQueen (Steve Gunner), Martyn Hesford (Thomas Bush), Kristine Howarth (Mrs Gates) and Daniel Hill (Doctor Conyers).

26. 01.12.1983: By Glenn Chandler.
Tracey follows Chris down to London to patch up their differences; a case of food poisoning hits the hospital – could it be the canteen?

27. 06.12.1983: By Glenn Chandler.
Steve Gunner is taken ill on duty and the finger of suspicion points to the canteen chicken he ate, but the manageress is outraged at the suggestion.

28. 08.12.1983: By Glenn Chandler.
Chris and Tracey move into their new flat.

29. 13.12.1983: By Jonathan Wolfman.
Janet learns a few home truths at work and the silence is deafening at the Willoughbys. With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Ann Cunningham (Mrs Smedley), Andrew Burt (Paul Thomas), Nicholas Donnelly (Mr Lewis), Jenny Oulton (Sister Huxley), Kenneth Lodge (Doctor Blake), Max Harvey (Mr Smart), James Ottaway (Mr Appleby), Sheila Beckett (Mrs Appleby) and Phillada Sewell (Mrs Waring).

30. 15.12.1983: By Anton Gill.
Ayo suspects a wrong diagnosis in a Nigerian patient which could mean his death, and Janet finds out what `PINC’ is … With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Andrew Burt (Paul Thomas), Tariq Tunus (Doctor Guptara), Peter Wickham (Doctor Miller), Hugh Quarshie (Turi Mimi), James Ottaway (Mr Appleby), Charles Morgan (Mr Barker) and Mollie Maureen (Miss Draper).

31. 20.12.1983: By Anton Gill.
The time comes for Vicky’s favourite patient to be discharged from hospital, and Alison drags the reluctant Edward to dinner with Chris and Tracey. With Martin Rutledge (Chris Carr), Jon Glentoran (Edward Clarke), Andrew Burt (Paul Thomas), Ann Penfold (Eileen Smith), Hugh Quarshie (Turi Rimi), Tariq Yunus (Doctor Guptara), Steve Ubels (Doctor Stoller), Jenny Oulton (Sister Huxley), James Ottaway (Mr Appleby), Charles Morgan (Mr Barker), Mollie Maureen (Miss Draper), Stacy Davies (Dick Willoughby), Jill Meers (Susan Willoughby), Stephen Riddle (Travel Agent) and Peter Wickham (Doctor Miller).

32. 22.12.1983: By Anton Gill.
Difficult decisions face Vicky, Dave, Ayo and Janet. Is it the end of an era at Heath Green?

Thanks to Hannah for the details regarding Bill Treacher

Last Update: 24/06/04

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