Karen starts as The Mill's health care assistant

Karen starts as The Mill's health care assistant
Karen starts as The Mill's health care assistant (Image credit: BBC)

Karen returns from her Health Care Assistant's (HCA) course raring to go. She practises taking Cherry's blood pressure but annoys Julia by abandoning reception. And when Michelle presents her with a mauve uniform, an unimpressed Karen goes shopping for a new one. Despite her initial enthusiasm, Karen confides in Jimmi that she fears she won't be up to the job. Julia wants to talk to staff about their performance but the chats are a disaster. She can't get hold of Simon, Jimmi forgets and Zara cleverly distracts her with a shoe website. But Julia does manage to have a positive chat with Karen, who thanks her for the chance to train as a HCA. Elsewhere, Jimmi is preoccupied by preparations for a big court case he has to give evidence in and Simon is put out that Cherry has made plans for a night out with Michelle without consulting him. And when a female vicar finds herself on the receiving end of a hate campaign, Daniel steps in to unearth the culprit. Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

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Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.