The Royal - Season 1 (2003)

Jill Wetherill helps the Heatons, an elderly couple, whilst Sister Brigid, a secular Irish nun working as a nurse at the Royal, discovers an abandoned baby which she believes is linked to missing teenager Susan. Whilst a Russian sailor is admitted to the Royal, Greengrass attempts to play the system to ensure a longer stay for himself, whilst an official hospital inspection looms.

David Cheriton is faced with the unenviable task of telling young Francesca that she has only a short time to live, though it does lead to a wedding. Efficiency-mad Nigel Harper ruffles feathers with cost-cutting ideas, but the arrival of a famous jockey as a patient in the hospital means that the basic fund-raising scheme of having a raffle to help hospital coffers gives way, thanks to Greengrass, to having a flutter on the horses.

Aidensfield copper Ventress comes to the Royal for a bunion removal and sees a supposed amnesiac, who is not what he claims. Doctors Wetherill and Ormerod get close at Cheriton's house-warming but Middleditch is faced with the news that the hospital may be forced to close and dreads having to tell the staff.

It's Dr. Alway's last day at the Royal before retirement but he, and the rest of the staff, are kept busy, following a bus crash, one of the wounded being Dr. Ormerod's wife Caroline. Whilst Cheriton gets cosy with Staff Nurse Taylor, Bernard Hussey, the NHS administrator, gets in everyone's way and Greengrass is re-admitted, apparently suffering from malaria.