It's NOT over yet!

As medical drama Holby City is axed after 23 years, star Alex Walkinshaw tells us about the drama to come…

- VICTORIA WILSON

Holby City has been a mainstay of Tuesday nights for 23 years, but fans were recently shocked to hear that the BBC has decided to bring the show to an end next March. The BBC1 medical drama has been a reliable source of topical stories and memorable characters throughout its tenure. None more so than director of nursing Adrian ‘Fletch’ Fletcher (Alex Walkinshaw), who is currently at the centre of a major storyline after his daughter Evie (Phoebe French) was a victim of a knife attack.

Here, Alex, 46 – who has been a Holby regular since 2014 when Fletch moved from sister show Casualty – tells us more about what’s to come for the drama, which bosses have promised will go out ‘on a high’…

Many fans were upset by the news that Holby City is to end next year – what do you think has been the key to its long life and continuing popularity?

A lot of the stories covered in Holby are personal stories about things that are really happening to people. These stories show that life isn’t always sweetness and light. Sometimes it’s just rubbish and people just have a bad time and go through one catastrophic event after another.

I think it’s nice that Holby has been a bit darker recently because it gives us actors different things to play in terms of the emotion and the journey, but Holby has always been great at providing those lighter moments, too. It’s nice to have a bit of a mix of light and shade.

The show’s return after the first lockdown last year meant a lot to many people, didn’t it?