| Joanna Helm | |||||||||||
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| Doctors character | |||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Sarah Manners | ||||||||||
| Duration | 2000–2001 | ||||||||||
| First appearance | "A Good Mother" 26 March 2000 | ||||||||||
| Last appearance | "Truth and Consequences" 30 May 2001 | ||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||
| Introduced by | Mal Young | ||||||||||
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Joanna Helm is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera Doctors, portrayed by Sarah Manners. Joanna was introduced by series creator Mal Young as one of the original nine regular characters on the soap. She works as a receptionist at the fictional Riverside Medical Centre and is shown to be a bubbly, flirtatious and ditzy character. Joanna appears from the first episode until the end of the second series after deciding to leave the series. Her exit storyline sees her leave Riverside after helping her grandmother, Jessie Helm (Marcia Ashton), die in a euthanasia pact.
Manners opined that her character had the best storylines on Doctors during her tenure. Throughout her time on Doctors, Joanna discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her, reads her grandmother's medical records to discover she is dying, helps her to die, develops a drug addiction from drugs stolen from Riverside, attempting suicide and being asked to resign from her job. She was well-received by viewers and "won herself an army of male fans" due to her flirty characterisation.