THERE are some characters in soaps I couldn't care less about, some I actually wouldn't mind seeing meet a sticky, painful end. Tess Bateman, the clinical nurse manager (yes, it's a real job apparently) in Casualty is one such person.
Miserable, self-righteous, pompous, cold - she's been something of a pet hate figure of mine for quite a while. In fact, she's one of the reasons I stopped watching Casualty during its last series (yes, it still runs in series sequence, it's off air for at least a fortnight between each season). Her and the increasingly boring staff v management and consultant/important doctor sleeping with nurse stoylines.
But the two-part opener to series 25 (25!) was little short of spectacular. Which is the least you'd expect from Casualty. A reality TV crew following the cast managed to get involved in an exploision in a block of flats - with paramedics about nine floors up - then film paramedics running over the girl who'd caused the explosion and who, in the meantime, had fallen out with Tess when being treated for burns.
Tess then chased her after finding her office overturned by this girl - only to end up empaled on a spike in a derelict building site. And that's where she stayed for most of the two episodes.
At first, gory as it was, I wasn't too fussed about Tess. But the drama which built up around it - the riot which exploded in the wake of ambulance crash, the discovery of video of Tess empaled on the spike by staff who found Tess's phone with the ambulance-crushed girl, and their reaction ... great writing, great direction. This was a drama back to its best.
What knitted it all together so well was that interviews with the characters, supposedly for this documentary, were interweaved with the action, showing how, despite their differences of opinions on each others' professional worth, ultimately, they all played together as a team.
Of course, they found Tess, but only after sending out some medics undercover to try and find her on this estate. Given that it was a sink estate, seemingly with far-right sympathies, perhaps including a black woman doctor and young public school-educated medic in this team wasn't the best way to stay un-noticed. And, of course, it was the porter - told he wasn't needed when the team set out because he didn't have any medical experience - who saved the day by taking it on himself to go anyway. He helped find Tess, by recognising the sound of a train in the video footage.
At this point, it ran the risk of becoming a little too sickly. It didn't, though. It was quite good, in fact. Tess, of course, survived - the spike missed all vital organs (much less likely to hit a heart when you don't have one) and the team lived to fight another day.
Casualty now feels much slicker, it's had the Holby City makeover - and looks and feels all the better for it. The opening wekeend has also set several hares running which should ensure the storylines which flow between episodes aren't just about going to war with management or trying to stitch each other up (not in the literal sense.)
It's a welcome return for Casualty, I'd say. It had only been away for a fortnight, but in terms of quality, it's like meeting up with a friend not seen for much longer than that.
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