Holby City star Guy Henry has teased what fans can expect from the show's final ever episode.
After 23 years, BBC1 medical drama Holby City will be closing its doors for good as the show comes to an end.
And Guy - best known to millions as the hospital’s mysterious CEO Henrik Hanssen - has described the final episode as ‘spectacular’.
“I think it's spectacular in human terms, as opposed to special effects and murders and things blowing up," says Guy."I think Holby has always excelled at trying to portray the lives of hardworking people… when it reflects the real world as much as we can. And I think the spectacular ending, comes from all those human relationships and what happens to these real people.
“There are no bombs. It's all to do with the characters that people have got to know over the years and feel all the better for it. How, though, do you finish 23 years of a weekly story focused on these people? I think it will be moving and shocking."
While the goings-on of the fictional hospital might be coming to an end, Guy revealed that the last ever Holby will, once again, be paying homage to our real-life doctors and nurses…
“What it is primarily is a return to some of the core values of the show and to pay tribute to the NHS and the proper people who work in that environment,’ he says. ‘It’s a celebration of the NHS and its staff.”
It’s hard to imagine a Holby without the brooding, enigmatic Mr Hanssen, who's been looming around its corridors since 2010.
A trusty CEO and brilliant surgeon, Hanssen's always embraced new talent, taking namely Sahira Shah (Laila Rouass), Tara Lo (Jing Lusi) and Oliver Valentine (James Anderson) under his wing. But he's always kept his private life private.
That all changed when, in 2012, it was revealed Hanssen actually has a son with a woman, Maja, who he had abandoned while pregnant 25 years prior. Hanssen finally meet his son, Frederik (Billy Postlethwaite), who in 2017 joined Holby as a registrar.
After weeks of clashing with his father, Fredrik leaves but later returns with a gun killing Raf di Lucca (Joe McFadden) and severely wounding Oliver Valentine (James Anderson) and Jac Naylor (Rosie Marcel). In a stand-off with police, Fredrik is shot and killed.
But it turns out this wasn't the only turmoil Hanssen had suffered in his life. Last year, when Sahira Shah's father Reyhan (Raad Rawi) was admitted to the hospital, Hanssen wanted as little as possible to do with his treatment.
His reasons soon became clear when a traumatised Hanssen was forced to admit Reyhan had sexually abused him as a child. Feeling disgusted with himself, Hanssen begun self-harming.
Hanssen has certainly been through a lot of trauma during his time at Holby - so can we expect a happy ending for him?
"Mr Hanssen goes in a direction that I think is interesting; he might even have a twinkle of happiness in the end, old Henrik," says Guy. "I adore Henrik, he’s a great, strange, man and I will miss playing him."
Watch the last ever episode of Holby City on Tuesday March 19 at 7.50pm on BBC1.
