Holby City series 12

The twelfth series of the British medical drama television series Holby City commenced airing in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 20 October 2009. The series deals with the repercussions of the death of ward sister Faye Byrne's son Archie, including the resignation of consultant Connie Beauchamp and the return of former registrar Thandie Abebe-Griffin. It also focuses on staff members' romantic and family lives. F1 Oliver Valentine becomes romantically involved with registrar Jac Naylor and ward sister Daisha Anderson, and his sister Penny embarks on a secret romance with a heart transplant patient. Consultant Linden Cullen is reunited with his estranged daughter Holly, nurse Donna Jackson decides to adopt her half-niece Mia, sister Chrissie Williams gives birth to a son, Daniel, and Faye becomes pregnant by her estranged husband Joseph. The series includes a crossover episode with sister show Casualty and it also has the highest number of episodes to date, as the series contains a small number of episodes which air during the same week.

The series began with 15 roles receiving star billing. Executive producer Tony McHale and actresses Rebecca Grant and Phoebe Thomas announced their intentions to leave the show during the course of the year. Actresses Leslie Ash, Amanda Mealing and Tina Hobley took several-month breaks from filming, and actresses Ginny Holder and Anna-Louise Plowman reprised their roles as Thandie Abebe-Griffin and Annalese Carson respectively. The series received mixed to negative reviews from critics. It was criticised as presenting an inaccurate portrayal of real hospital life, and deemed a soap opera rather than a drama series by former Holby City writer Peter Jukes. It attained strong ratings, however, and was regularly the most-watched show in the 8 pm Tuesday timeslot, frequently drawing a quarter of the audience share.