Arthur wants to prove he's Holby City's top doc, which won't be easy with Dominic standing in his way, as Davis Ames reveals...
Your character, Dominic, recently returned to Holby after leaving the hospital under a cloud last year when he did the dirty on popular surgeon Antoine Malick. How's he found settling back in?
"Dominic wants to regain some respect, which is obviously a struggle given the preconceptions people have about him. He doesn't want to be labelled by this one event and wants to progress on his own merits, but he was always going to have to try and rebuild some of the bridges that had been burned."
Namely, Arthur Digby?
"Yes. Arthur was very close to Malick, so that was one bridge that had been completely incinerated and one that Dom's going to have to rebuild from scratch. But he hasn't tried to do it immediately - he knows working with Arthur was always going to prove difficult, so he decided he would have some fun…"
How does that manifest itself in Tuesday's episode, where Dom and Arthur have to work together to treat a young man, Danny, who's been involved in an explosion at a plastics factory?
"Dominic is a very ambitious doctor, who's focused on moving his career forward in any way he can, but he's also quite mischievous. There’s clearly a lot of friction between them and Dom likes to push Arthur's buttons, not least just to entertain himself."
Meanwhile, boss Sacha thinks they’re getting along just fine…
"Absolutely! Dom’s very good at making certain situations work for him and at being able to turn his emotions and personalities on and off as and when it suits him. So he’ll put across this persona of 'butter wouldn't melt' when really he’s up to no good."
Arthur's put in charge of the ward but, when Danny takes a turn for the worse, Dominic smugly informs Arthur that he’s told Sacha he rejected his suggestion to call him. Will these warring docs ever learn to work as a team?
"Not likely! Dominic will put his own job above anyone else's job. He'll say whatever needs to be said in order to better himself and his career - whether it's true or not is neither here nor there."
Upon returning to Holby, did you feel there was unfinished business – for both you as an actor and Dom as a character?
"Both, absolutely! It's been a real pleasure for me to come back and play Dominic and it’s going to be really interesting to see what happens with him. He's definitely going to spice things up!"
Holby City continues Tuesdays at 8pm on BBC1.
