| Howard Bellamy | |||||||||
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| Doctors character | |||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Ian Kelsey | ||||||||
| Duration | 2012–2015 | ||||||||
| First appearance | "The Player" 28 May 2012 | ||||||||
| Last appearance | "When There's Hope" 26 October 2015 | ||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||
| Introduced by | Will Trotter | ||||||||
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Howard Bellamy is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera Doctors, portrayed by Ian Kelsey. Howard first appeared on 28 May 2012, where he is introduced as the practice manager of the fictional Mill Health Centre. Kelsey was cast in the soap following the departure of Julia Parsons (Diane Keen), the practice manager prior to Howard. He is an ex-army captain, and producers deliberately made his personality different to Julia's. Howard was based on a real person since producers had heard of a situation where somebody quit the army to become the practice manager of a doctor's surgery. Kelsey spoke to a real-life practice manager to aid his accuracy in the role.
Howard's storylines in the programme included suffering from bulimia, his on-off relationship with colleague Emma Reid (Dido Miles) and dealing with the miscarriage of their child together. After a brain aneurysm, Howard dies, and made his last appearance on 26 October 2015. Kelsey received numerous nominations at award ceremonies for his portrayal of Howard, including being longlisted for a British Soap Award for Best Actor, as well as being nominated for Best Daytime Star at the Inside Soap Awards.