Synopsis
Green Wing's plot revolves around the lives of the staff of the East Hampton Hospital Trust, an NHS hospital with staff ranging from the slightly unusual to the completely bizarre.
The series begins with a new arrival, surgical registrar Caroline Todd (Tamsin Greig). Caroline suffers from constant embarrassment and misfortune, stumbling from one crisis to the next due to a mixture of her own indecisiveness, clumsiness, and general bad luck. Caroline works alongside two other doctors: Guy Secretan (Stephen Mangan), a half-Swiss, womanizing anesthetist, and "Mac" Macartney (Julian Rhind-Tutt), a charming, effortlessly cool surgeon. It is not long before Caroline begins to develop feelings for both of them, though she is unsure as to which of the two she truly loves. Throughout the series, it becomes clear that Mac is her true love, but a range of disasters prevent their relationship from flourishing. Other people Caroline meets include Martin Dear (Karl Theobald), a well-meaning house officer who is constantly failing his exams. He is unloved by his mother and is often bullied by Guy. Martin soon develops feelings for Caroline, and begins to fall in love with her. There is also Angela Hunter (Sarah Alexander), a seemingly-perfect, but irritating, senior registrar in pediatrics. Whilst Angela appears to mean well, Caroline cannot stand her and despite her best efforts to avoid Angela, she ends up as Caroline's lodger.
Caroline's main rival for Mac's affections is Sue White (Michelle Gomez), the Scottish staff liaison officer employed to listen and respond to the problems of East Hampton's staff. However, Sue is perhaps the least suited person for the job. She is the most eccentric member of staff in the hospital; abrasive, cruel, foul-mouthed, obsessive and completely self-absorbed. Her office is a place where the impossible tends to happen, and anyone who enters is normally treated with a mixture of verbal abuse and psychological torture. The only person she treats with any affection is Mac, whom she loves to the point of madness, but Mac, like everyone else in the hospital, sees her as beyond the edge of insanity. Anyone else who attempts to get involved with Mac is treated with contempt and hatred by Sue, in particular Caroline, whom Sue attempts several times to murder.
Another doctor with relationship problems and bordering insanity is Alan Statham (Mark Heap), a pompous, stuttering, kinky and extremely odd consultant radiologist. He is desperately and hopelessly in love with Joanna Clore (Pippa Haywood), the 48-year-old head of human resources with an increasingly bitter attitude. Their relationship is an open secret, with student doctor Boyce (Oliver Chris), often using it as a weapon against them, bullying Alan constantly. Joanna's human resources staff also use it against her, in particular Kim Alabaster (Sally Bretton), who has a bad attitude towards most of the people she meets, and Naughty Rachel (Katie Lyons), who earned her nickname due to her love of sex. The other HR staff include Harriet Schulenburg (Olivia Colman), an overworked mother of four trapped in an unhappy marriage, and Karen Ball (Lucinda Raikes), who divides her time between doing much of the office's work, trying to attract Martin's affections, and being bullied by Kim and Rachel.
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