S10E09: 'And On The Way I Dropped It'

It’s the night before Luke and Megan’s wedding and the stag and hen parties are in full swing. Well, the stag do would be, if the girls hadn’t already commandeered the Skelthwaite Arms.

At the party, Nisha and Zoe reflect on how Anna’s being focussed solely on work, reminds them they are the new girls, comparatively speaking. When Anna is called away by patient Sylvia Landridge, who seems more interested in company rather than medical advice, Nisha joins her, leaving Zoe to party.

Sylvia’s loyal gardener, Fred, would seemingly wait on her hand and foot though she makes it clear that no such closeness exists.

The morning of the wedding is full of activity as the Boothe’s share a family breakfast, reflecting on how far they’ve come over the past year. At Goddard’s, Harding is relishing reopening the factory, but Anna finds it hard to share his enthusiasm. Billy calls by at Terri’s to practise his father-of-the-bride speech and, caught in the moment, they share a kiss. Shell-shocked, Billy makes his excuses and leaves.

Elsewhere, Zoe is feeling her position in Skelthwaite is rootless and despite his best intentions, Danny is saying all the wrong things to her.

Boarding the coach laid on for the wedding guests, Sylvia confides in Nisha that her happiest time in life was when she was engaged, to a man called George – who Fred worked for. Though he was a man of few words, he wrote her the most beautiful love letters, which still move her years later.

Not long after the coach departs, disaster strikes as barrels come loose from a lorry ahead, crashing into the windscreen. The coach lurches off the road, into a field. At first it appears that there are no serious injuries, but very rapidly it becomes apparent that Anna is struggling to breath and Sylvia lies unconscious.

As a devastated Fred professes his love to Sylvia, Nisha and Zoe perform an emergency tracheotomy on Anna. Will the nurses be able to save their friend and colleague?