Storylines
Connie arrives at Holby City in episode "In at the Deep End". On her first day, she seduces colleague Ric Griffin, before revealing herself to be his new boss. She clashes with her registrar Will Curtis, and actively belittles and berates him, taking particular offense at the discovery he is a Lord. This soon develops into tormenting him on a more personal level, for instance ordering him to go for a drink with her instead of disciplining him professionally in the episode "Letting Go". The tension between the pair grows, culminating in the episode "Thicker Than Water" when Connie kisses him at Ric's 50th birthday party, before informing him she just needed to know she could have him, and walking away.
Connie makes an enemy of colleague Zubin Khan, who is unimpressed with her leadership skills, and causes unrest by bedding colleague Mubbs Hussein, despite the fact he is at the time attempting to conceive a child with fellow staff member Rosie Sattar. She also finds herself the subject of a lesbian crush, having caught the attention of the midwife she is mentoring, Mickie Hendrie. In episode "A Shock To The Heart", Connie battles to save Will's life after he is impaled on scaffolding. As Will recovers in the intensive-care unit, Connie confesses to Zubin that she has only ever been hard on him in order to encourage him to be the best he can be. Despite Connie's efforts, Will dies, and Connie breaks down in tears as she informs his widow.
Following Will's death, Connie finds her position within the hospital increasingly challenged. An emergency Board meeting is called in episode "It's Kinda Rock and Roll" with the intention of forcing Connie's resignation. However, the meeting ends up being chaired by Connie's own husband, Michael Beauchamp. Between them, Michael and Connie manipulate the situation so that Connie is able to keep her job, and the hospital's Chief Executive who had put forth the motion against her is forced to resign. Connie is upset when Michael begins an affair with Matron Chrissie Williams, and in episode "Doing The Right Thing", uncovers evidence that Michael has committed fraud and unwittingly spread the VRSA virus through the hospital, resulting in the death of a patient. Michael is subsequently arrested and jailed for manslaughter. Although he is released from prison after serving just ten months, Connie declines to move abroad with him, and they later divorce.
During series nine, it emerges that, following a brief relationship with her registrar Sam Strachan, Connie is pregnant with his child. She gives birth to their premature daughter, Grace Beauchamp, in episode "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" – going into premature labour after shocking herself with defibrillator paddles whilst operating on Lola Griffin. Grace is rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Sam is not allowed to attend the birth, and is kept distant from his daughter during her first few weeks of life, with Connie declining to inform him that she intends to turn off their daughter's life support when her ECG results show minimal brain-stem activity. Connie turns off Grace's ventilator. Doctor Ooma Chowdry asks Connie if she wants to hold Grace, but Connie shakes her head. However as Sam holds his daughter he notices Grace is breathing on her own. Grace pulls through, and Connie gradually begins to soften towards Sam and allow him increased access.
In a visit to her home town of Peckham, Connie discovers that her now-deceased mother suffered from depression during Connie's youth, a fact which her father had kept hidden from her. It is revealed that after her mother's death in 1995, Connie became estranged from her father for a period of twelve years. The pair reunite when Connie reveals he has a granddaughter, and encourages him to receive treatment for his pulmonary condition.
In series ten of the show, Connie takes a sabbatical to carry out research in Hamburg. When she returns to Holby, she alienates herself from her staff with her insensitive approach to the aftermath of a crossbow attack which occurred while she was absent, killing a member of the nursing staff. In episode "We Serve All Who Come To Us", Connie ignores several calls from her temporary nanny in favour of performing pioneering surgery. As she leaves the hospital later that evening, she is shocked to be met by the nanny, who informs her Grace has fallen down the stairs and is badly injured Grace is rushed to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Grace requires surgery for a collapsed lung, and as she recovers, Sam, who has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, collapses from septic shock. Both father and daughter go on to make a full recovery.
In episode "Only Believe", Connie applies for the new Director of Surgery position, alongside Ric Griffin and Michael Spence. She agrees with Ric that she will support his application on the understanding he will step down in six months time, and recommend her to assume the role in his place. She also begins a new romance with a man she knows only as "John". Through a series of clandestine meetings, she falls in love with him, and is shocked to discover he is the husband of her colleague Jayne Grayson. When John and Jayne's son Christian is rescued from drowning and Connie is asked to operate on him, she realises she cannot break up the Grayson family, and ends her affair with John.
Throughout the show's eleventh season, Connie battles Ric for the Director of Surgery position when he refuses to step down as agreed. When she discover's Michael's aneatthesist wife Annalese Carson (Anna-Louise Plowman) has attended an operation which resulted in the death of a patient drunk, she reports her to Jayne, leading Annalese to leave Holby General. Jayne reveals to Connie that she suspects John is having an affair. Connie warns John, and discovers he is already seeing someone else. Jayne learns the truth then she observes the two of them rowing, and tells Connie that personal matters ought not affect their working relationship.
Later Connie goes on to apply for Director of Surgery, to replace the resigning Consultant Ric Griffin. After the interview the board are seen deciding who to allocate the vacant job to, and Holby's CEO Jayne Grayson recommends in an unofficial tie breaker General Surgeon Michael Spence over Connie down to the fact she allegedly ruined her marriage with her husband John following their affair. Connie later goes on to resign, but Michael Spence goes on to blackmail Jayne into resigning and she subsequently goes on to quietly leave the building. This offered some much needed persuasion to Connie, who much to the delight of Michael decided to stay at Holby.
Connie soon clashed with Jayne's replacement, Vanessa Lytton, an old friend of Michael's. Vanessa warned Michael that she believed Connie was after his job as Director of Surgery. In the series two-part opener Faye's son Archie died in supicious circumstances leading Joseph to plead with both Connie and Ric to lie to Vanessa, telling her that they had authorised Faye to inject Archie with saline despite the fact that she wasn't officially on duty. When no clear cause of death could be initially determined, Vanessa suspended the pair until the matter was resolved. Following Lauren Minster's confession that she had given Archie an incorrect dose of potassium, the suspension was lifted but it was revealed that Connie had had enough of Holby and taken up a new position at the Trafalgar Hospital in London.
In February 2010, both Michael and Elliot visited Connie and persuaded her to return - but the only way Connie would ever set foot in Holby again is if Vanessa would leave. Connie returned on March 9th 2010 when Elliot begged her help as her replacement Toby Geddes abandoned him during a series of shooting from a recent hostage situation. Connie then decided to stay which resulted with Geddes being fired and Vanessa leaving Holby.
Connie later became joint Director of Surgery with Henrik Hanssen, and was deeply unhappy about making members of staff redundant as part of The Coalition's NHS spending cuts. When Connie discovered that Hanssen was planning to fire Elliot Hope, she did everything in her power to prove to Hanssen that Elliot is a brilliant surgeon and a valuable asset.
In December 2010, Connie's father was rushed into Holby requiring an operation, where she learned that he had Alzheimer's. During the operation, her father nearly died, but he was saved by Elliot and Faye. After the anguish of the redundancies and the situation with her father, Connie decided that she couldn't work at Holby any more, and handed her resignation to Hanssen. Before she left, she told Hanssen that Elliot is a genius, and warned him it would be a big mistake to get rid of him. Connie later met with Jac Naylor, giving her some final tips and fashion advice. She revealed to Jac that she would be working in Brussels two days a week for the European Transplant Board, as well as caring for her father. Upon hearing that Jac had been given the Consultant job, she sent her a bottle of champagne and a pair of her shoes with a card saying "Fill them!".
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