For what age: 11+
How many episodes in 8 season: 24 episodes
It is a busy day for the staff of Holby A&E when joyriders cause a train to crash.
An enthusiastic student joins the staff, armed with textbooks and lots of questions and her name is Helen Chatsworth. A unhappy storm sweeps through Holby and a baby is orphaned when her parents are huged in a car crash. Mark Calder is giving Mike and Charlie a hard time, as they fight the cut backs and Mie replaces Norma who has been sent home for drinking on duty. Other casualties include a policeman hit by flying debris, a father stab by his young son, who was defending his mother and two cowboy builders who fell off a roof. Mike has a chat to Karen about her attitude towards the paramedics.
The funfair's in town and there's trouble looming. Jackie Walsh, a pregnant woman, is apparently a victim of muggers but when her brother Kevin turns up, it becomes clear that he is the mugger and she isn't the only victim of his twisted rage. The other problems appear to be in administration, where Mark's feeling the pressure Helen's settling in well and impresses both Charlie and Duffy. Ash finds it hard to accept Ken's appointment and Duffy doesn't know whether to tell Charlie that Ken is gay!
Painful secrets are revealed when a woman insists a car crash victim is not her husband. Clinical nurse Ken Hodges finds that his job, and his personal life, are under review. And he discovers that Duffy can't keep a secret when she tells Charlie his. Mark's brought in Mrs Kingston to monitor staffing levels and clashes with Charlie and Mike. Norma's first day back ends with suspension and Ken gives an old war hero a reason to live. Two kids get trapped in a lift and the emergency services are called to get them out.
Misunderstandings and deceit propel a group of friends towards a distressing climax in Holby's Casualty. The staff have to deal with a daughter, who's been raped and the rapist, who was attacked by a vengeful father. A traffic accident involving the selling of illegal guns ends in tragedy and Mark tells Charlie and Mike that Ken's job is being replaced by a Line Manager.
Nora ends up in Casualty, when she's mugged but her real problem is menopausal. A father wants to die but needs his daughters help and a night out at a disco, ends in tragedy for Ash. A randy lorry driver gets his comeuppance when his â??three wives' turn up and Charlie's baffled with Ken's attitude.
In a desperate attempt to bolster his self-respect, an man takes up a high-risk sport â- with disastrous results. And a male stripper gets a warmer reception than he expected. Mark informs Mike and Charlie that Ken's to be dismissed, to make way for the Line Manager's job and they are furious.
Ash is robbed on his way to work but do the thieves realise what they have stolen? And why is a woman suffering severe abdominal pains?
A grudge match between two stock car drivers creates excitement on the track and lethal behaviour off it. And a young girl seems to know as much about running the casualty department as the staff. There's a bed shortage in the ICU Ward and a wife dies because of it and a gambler who fakes a heart attack, then has a stroke when he finds he had a winning hand. A woman with a brain tumour, shuns her husband. Duffy and Andrew seek professional help to have another baby and Jane Scott finds her first day in administration, tough.
Student nurse Helen Chatsworth says goodbye to her colleagues as her work experience at Holby General Hospital comes to an end. Staff nurse Adele Beckford tries to organise a farewell party for her â- but will anyone have time to give her a proper send-off? As Helen leaves, a new face appears in the department. Locum Tom Harley joins the team as a replacement for Mike Barratt, who has left to set up a casualty operation in Africa. He soon brings a smile to Charlie's face, when he makes Mark squirm. Josh and Ryan clash over handling a patient and a memory man pushes his luck too far and ends up a casualty. A dodgy MOT car racket leads to tragedy and the man responsible, is investigated by the police, because his daughter was involved.
Charlie doesn't know what to do when a young homeless girl, turns up at Holby. She's not ill, she just wants a bed for the night and he is her only hope. Will he follow his heart of his head? Meanwhile, consultant Tom Harley is having a few problems of his own. A daughter has been kidnapped from a religious cult by her father and injured in the process. It's a tense situation, especially when the sect's leader arrives to reclaim his follower. Duffy's pregnant and leaves Charlie a letter on his desk when she finds it hard to tell him, she's leaving.
Newly-qualified staff nurse Mary Shugett, joins the staff at Holby but she gets on the wrong side of Duffy, when she turns up late on her first day.
It's an emotional farewell for the pregnant Duffy as she leaves Charlie and the rest of the staff at Holby to become a full time mother. She finds herself counselling the distraught mother of a cot-passing baby, as Ash and Adele are both keen to step into her shoes. Jane turns detective and discovers a stab victim is an illegal immigrate A gypsy makes plans when he's told he's got TB and not Aids. As Charlie and Duffy make up, Mike Barrett returns.
Mark's up to no good as he gets Jane to leak a story of the closure of Holby and Charlie's missing Duffy. A daughter can't cope with her father and abandons him in casualty but a guilty conscience makes her return where the staff decide she's the one who needs help. Tempers boil over in the kitchen when a restaurant manager trifles with the chef's sweetheart. And a bee sting brings a man to the verge of passing when he and his son are stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Karen's having a hard time swotting for her exams.
The after-Christmas lull is dispelled by the arrival of smoky fire-fighters, a young woman who has lost her sight and an elf with pointed-ear trouble. Then Charlie's life is placed under threat.
A young mother clutches her two-yr-old son, who has stopped breathing, and a distraught mother throws herself into the canal. Two people have intolerable secrets whose crises lead them into Holby's Casualty unit.
A young dancer becomes a conscience-stricken hit-and-run driver. Could the sadistic bully who confronts her in Casualty possibly be her victim? And two competing graffiti artists try to prove their superiority by attempting to scale dangerous new heights.
After a lorry overturns and spills its load across a suburban street, the Casualty team have to cope with injuries caused by toxic chemical waste. And a soldier's anger explodes when he returns home to find his wife is not there waiting for him.
A husband is convinced his wife is having an affair unaware that it is actually his son as a stress management course proves eventful.
Dark secrets are uncovered and powerful emotions released when a tortured servant, an unstable young man with a knife and an angry policeman end up in Holby's A&E unit.
It's a busy night for the paramedics when their call-outs include an attempted suicide, a boy hurt at the ice-rink, a young deaf woman hit by a van after an argument with her husband, and a drug addict who accuses Josh of assault.
How deep is beauty? The future suddenly looks very different for two women who have suffered dreadful head injuries. And what is really happening when the school bully gets his comeuppance?
All the emergency services turn out in force and tempers run high after a disturbed man with a gun holds Lucy and one of his wife's clients hostage in his living-room. And an accident on a dry ski slope brings a teenager into an emotional confrontation with her parents.
A blind girl has fallen down a fire-escape and a drug addict has been beaten up. The team struggle through a heavy workload, but where is Charlie? Matters reach crisis point when a man is found sitting in a cubicle pointing a pistol at his own forehead.
