Casualty Ethan is the boss…
CAN ETHAN FILL CONNIE’S SHOES AS CLINICAL LEAD? GEORGE RAINSFORD ISN’T SO SURE…
There’s a new head honcho in charge of Holby City’s ED this week – and he’s nothing like his fearsome predecessor, Connie Beauchamp! With ruthless Connie recovering from heart surgery, it falls to her young protégé Ethan Hardy to take the helm of the department, and step into her shoes as clinical lead. So has the mild-mannered medic got what it takes to keep the ED running smoothly?
“He’s certainly not up to it at the start – and I’m not totally convinced he gets any better,” chuckles star George Rainsford, who’s played Ethan for the past four years. “He’s previously done one shift as clinical lead, and in the world of Casualty that’s as good a qualification as any! But it takes him right out of his comfort zone – he has a lot of pressure from management, he’s having to tell his colleagues what to do, and Connie is a continuing presence for him. Ethan’s juggling a lot of things at once.”
Connie may be recuperating from a major operation and fighting cancer at the same time, but that still doesn’t keep her away from the ED. And when she comes down from the cancer ward with a patient, she certainly has a thing or two to say about her replacement.
“Ethan doesn’t even know if Connie is aware that he’s taken over from her,” explains George. “So there’s an awkward conversation about that, where she tells him that she does know and gives him a very Connie-esque blessing – she says something along the lines of, ‘Well, you will do a pretty bad job!’. So she’s already twisting the knife and predicting that things won’t go very well.”
It’s not a great start to the job for poor Ethan. And things are about to get worse, as Louise brings it to his attention that Dylan has been drinking at work (see p34) – leaving Ethan with a very big dilemma.
“That’s a massive issue for Ethan to deal with straight away,” sighs George. “It’s tough because Dylan is a consultant, and Ethan’s only just qualified. So
Dylan is of a much higher status, and a difficult person to manage in many ways. It’s not an easy situation for Ethan, especially when Dylan is in denial about his behaviour. But the good thing is that Ethan really cares about people, so he doesn’t want everyone to know about Dylan’s issues.”
It’s clear that Ethan is feeling the pressure as the day goes on – and George admits that being the ED boss hasn’t been easy for him in real life, either!
“For weeks on end I was playing scenes where Ethan was overworked, stressed and slightly fraught, and that does get into you a little bit,” he confesses. “I was in the studio constantly, and I suddenly had a new admiration for Amanda Mealing [Connie], who has that kind of workload all the time. Often after a busy storyline you get a few days off, or at least a scene off so you can go back to your dressing room and have a cup of tea. But when you’re in every single scene, it’s a lot harder.”
So having seen the sacrifices that are required to be a successful people manager, would George ever fancy being the boss of the Holby City Hospital ED?
“I have been in charge of things in the past, but I don’t think that I’m responsible enough to be a boss!” he tells us. “I contradict myself because I’m often the clown of the group, so I don’t think I lead very well from the front.
“Amanda would make a great boss, though – she’s been directing some episodes recently, and she does command respect doing that. And obviously Derek Thompson [Charlie] is our resident godfather, so he’d be good at being in charge of us all. Having said that, he does just disappear to play his guitar at regular intervals!”
Ethan’s certainly not up to being the new boss at the start!