The best quotes from Holby City’s final episode revealed

Jac Naylor in hospital bed in Holby City finale.
Jac Naylor in the Holby City final. (Image credit: BBC)

*Warning: Emotional and packed with spoilers from the last Holby City episode!*

The last ever Holby City episode opened with characteristic gallows humour from Jac Naylor and ended with her narrating the closing scenes. As the credits rolled a poignant rendition of the well-known theme tune was played, while photographs of the cast throughout the show’s twenty-three-year history were displayed.

Jam-packed with emotion, hope, loss, fondness and, as ever, sharp, funny and punchy dialogue, What to Watch has gathered the best quotes from Jac Naylor’s opening quips to her emotional end narration…

Holby City favourites Jac Naylor and Reverend Lexy, side-by-side in hospital beds

Reverend Lexy: “Life’s full of little surprises.” 

Jac Naylor: “Thank you, Forrest Gump!”

Jenny Howe as Lexy in Holby City.

Jenny Howe as Lexy in Holby City. (Image credit: BBC)

Nicky McKendrick asks Jac for advice before performing her first surgery on a beating heart

Nicky McKendrick: “I’ve never done one of these before…”

Jac Naylor: “Just get your ass in there and do the job. Screw it up and you’ll have me to answer to.”

Nicky McKendrick: “Don’t I always.”

Words to live by...

Belinda Owusu as Nicky McKendrick in Holby City.

Belinda Owusu as Nicky McKendrick in Holby City. (Image credit: BBC)

Fletch and Jac, when asks him to get her a pen and paper

Fletch: “I’ve got to warn you, I was the king of noughts and crosses at my school.”

We don't doubt it!

Alex Walkinshaw as Fletch in Holby City.

Alex Walkinshaw as Fletch in Holby City. (Image credit: BBC)

Jac then asks him to write her an advance directive refusing any more treatment

Fletch: “Why now?”

Jac Naylor: “Because it’s time. Because I'm tired, Fletch... Write the letter.”

Fletch: “I just hate the thought of you giving up.”

Jac Naylor: “Giving up… Let me tell you about giving up. Letting this thing take control, wipe out my mind, leaving me delirious and doubly incontinent. That is giving up… I have never been clearer about anything in my life. Please Fletch, do this one thing for me.”

We've got something in our eye...

Paul Bradley as Elliot Hope.

Paul Bradley as Elliot Hope.  (Image credit: BBC)

Jac to Elliot Hope when he wants to try another treatment…

Jac Naylor: “You're already done everything you could.”

Elliot Hope: “I just want to give you another chance.”

Jac Naylor: “It’s impossible.”

Elliot Hope: “I thought you didn’t believe in impossible.”

Jac Naylor: “I don’t want you taking me back into theatre and then blaming yourself when things don’t work out again… What I need is some peace and quiet.”

Something it both eyes, actually...

Sacha Levy is the last person to speak to Jac Naylor.

Sacha Levy is the last person to speak to Jac Naylor.  (Image credit: BBC)

Jac Naylor’s last words…

Sacha Levy: “Elliot has booked you in for a scan. I've drawn the short straw and I’m riding shotgun.”

Jac Naylor: “You two really are a pair of old women.”

Sacha Levy: “Well, humour a sad, old woman… You love me really.”

Jac Naylor: “You know I do.”

At this point, Jac suffers a stroke and falls unconscious. Fletch is forced to tell her friends that she’s got an ADRT (Advanced decision to refuse treatment) as they prepare to save her... Let's be honest, we're crying.

Guy Henry as Henrik Hanssen.

Henrik Hanssen is with Jac until the very end. (Image credit: BBC)

Tributes to Jac after news spread about her death

Hospital CEO Henrik Hanssen: “Her absence will be felt for years to come."

Transplant surgeon Mo Effanga (Chizzy Akudolu) on learning of Jac’s death: “Calling the shots till the last.. I thought she’d find a way to beat it.” 

And later: “She’s making a difference to a lot of lives.”

Chizzy Akudolu returns for the finale to play Mo Effanga.

Chizzy Akudolu returns for the finale to play Mo Effanga. (Image credit: BBC)

Holby City friends fondly remembering Jac at her bedside

Nicky McKendrick: “I remember the first time she called me foetus. No one had ever spoken to me like that.”

Sacha Levy: “She once said I looked like a bin bag full of yoghurt.” 

Elliot Hope: “Paddington Bear with a stethoscope.”

Fletch: “Poundshop Pearly King.” 

Nicky McKendrick: “And then one day, she called me Nicky.”

A younger Nicky look up at Jac as she sits on a desk in Holby City.

Nicky has always looked up at Jac. (Image credit: BBC)

During the transplant surgery

Elliot Hope: “She’ll be with us all the way.”

Elliot hope looks out of a hospital window, deep in thought.

Okay, we admit it, we're crying. Rivers. (Image credit: BBC)

After Jac’s transplant

Fletch: “Gotta go. Love you Jac.”

Fletch looking stressed and worried.

Jac and Fletch loved each other until the very end. (Image credit: BBC)

Jac Naylor narrating over the final scenes

Jac Naylor: “It took me a long time to find a place I belonged. Somewhere to call home. 

“It wasn’t with my mother or the carers she dumped me on when she walked out of my life. It certainly wasn’t with any man. 

“It was when I first walked into a theatre, and breathed in that rarified air, realising my hands could save lives. I knew then, on day one, I'd found my place in the world. Somewhere I belonged. 

“This is what the NHS means to us. Not a badge on a cabinet minister’s lapel. Not a number down the side of a bus.

“It’s a nurse missing her break to sit with a lonely patient. A surgeon grinding out a 15-hour op. The sound of sirens coming to the rescue. Thursday night applause floating across the rooftops. 

“It’s all of us doing the best we can in impossible circumstances. It’s something to believe in. It’s home.”

Something tells us, this is going to be a re-watch episode...

Rosie Marcel as Jac Naylor.

RIP Jac Naylor. We will miss you. (Image credit: BBC)

Jac Naylor - Rosie Marcel

Henrik Hanssen - Guy Henry

Lexy Dunblane - Jenny Howe

Fletch - Alex Walkinshaw

Nicky McKendrick - Belinda Owusu

Sacha Levy - Bob Barrett

Elliot Hope - Paul Bradley

Mo Effanga - Chizzy Akudolu

Elaine Reilly
Writer for TV Times, What’s On TV, TV & Satellite Week and What To Watch

With twenty years of experience as an entertainment journalist, Elaine writes for What’s on TV, TV Times, TV & Satellite Week and www.whattowatch.com covering a variety of programs from gardening and wildlife to documentaries and drama.

 

As well as active involvement in the WTW family’s social media accounts, she has been known to get chatty on the red carpet and wander into the odd podcast. 

After a day of previewing TV, writing about TV and interviewing TV stars, Elaine likes nothing than to relax… by watching TV.