List of Doctors characters (2019)

Ali Bastian portrays Becky Clarke.

Becky Clarke, portrayed by Ali Bastian, first appeared on 5 February 2019, and made her last appearance on 6 November 2019. Mrs Tembe (Lorna Laidlaw) meets Becky at a Women in Business meeting, and scouts her to be the new Practice Manager at The Mill.[2] When Mrs Tembe leaves The Mill, Becky begins working at The Mill.[3] Becky gets off to a rough start when Karen Hollins (Jan Pearson) disagrees with her ways of running the practice. After a few weeks, the two begin to work well with each other. She is happy when boyfriend Tam Campbell (Sean Ward) arrives in Letherbridge from Scotland, but is shocked to hear he has lost his job.[4] Becky helps Tam to find a job and instructs him on tasks to do around the house while she is at work, which causes an argument between the two. The pair make up, and Becky introduces him to her colleagues. Tam later tells Becky that he has been offered a job in London, and asks her if she wants to join him there. She explains that she wants to explore her life in Letherbridge, and the two break up. Becky has a short-lived relationship with cleaner Enzo D'Agostino (Jack Derges), and the pair are nearly caught when they have sex in Becky's office.[5] A few months later, Becky enters a relationship with colleague Daniel Granger, and falls pregnant.[6] However, she miscarries the baby. Daniel uses the opportunity to tell her that he does not want more children, and that he slept with Zara Carmichael (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh). Disgusted with the way Daniel treated her, Becky finds a new job and leaves The Mill with immediate effect on 6 November 2019.[7]

Estelle Vere, portrayed by Suzette Llewellyn, first appeared on 12 April 2019, and made her last appearance on 29 May 2019. Estelle is introduced as the mother of established character Sid Vere (Ashley Rice), and is married to husband Tye Vere (Daniel Hill).[8] Estelle feels ill, so Sid breaks procedures and checks her medical files. He finds that Estelle and Tye had a son, but he was born with Down's syndrome, so they left the newborn baby at the hospital.[9] Sid tracks his brother down through an adoption agency, and discovers that he is called Laurence Richards (Rishard Beckett).

Tye Vere, portrayed by Daniel Hill, first appeared on 12 April 2019 and made his final appearance on 29 May 2019. Tye is introduced as the father of established character Sid Vere (Ashley Rice), and is married to wife Estelle Vere (Suzette Llewellyn). Estelle feels ill, so Sid breaks procedures and checks her medical files. He finds that Tye and Estelle have another son, but he was born with Down's syndrome, so they left the newborn baby at the hospital.[9] When Sid finds where Laurence is staying, Tye and Sid decide to track him down by posing as gardeners at Laurence's residential home.[10]

Enzo D'Agostino, portrayed by Jack Derges, first appeared on 16 April 2019, and made his last appearance on 8 May 2019. Enzo is hired as a cleaner from an agency. When he does a poor job of the cleaning, Practice Manager Becky Clarke (Ali Bastian) calls him and asks him to do a better job. When he arrives, Becky calls him into her office, and the pair flirt, leading to them having sex in her office.[5] Becky ends the relationship with Enzo when she finds out that he still lives with his mother.[5]

Laurence Richards, portrayed by Rishard Beckett, first appeared on 24 May 2019. Laurence's backstory states that when he was born to parents Estelle and Tye Vere (Suzette Llewellyn and Daniel Hill), they did not expect him to have Down's syndrome. Unsure of what to do, they left a newborn Laurence at the hospital. When Laurence's brother, Sid Vere (Ashley Rice), learns of this years later, he contacts an adoption agency to aid them in tracking Laurence down.[10] They eventually find him living in a residential care home, where he explains that he is happy with his life now, despite enduring a tough upbringing. Sid continues to visit Laurence, who is unaware that he is related to Sid. Laurence's adoptive mother, Eileen Richards (Rachel Atkins), takes a photo of Sid and Laurence together, and notices the resemblance between the pair. She confronts Sid about it, who confesses to Rachel about his identity. She responds by telling Sid to continue posing as his friend, worried about disrupting Laurence's life.[11]

George Kenway, portrayed by Lewis MacKinnon, appeared on 9 October 2019 and 18 March 2020. George arrives at The Mill as a patient seeing Jimmi Clay (Adrian Lewis Morgan) for counselling.[12] George initially tells Karen Hollins (Jan Pearson) that he is late due to traffic, but then explains that his car is broken.[13] In his counselling session, he tells Jimmi that he is struggling at work due to having hallucinations of himself being violent. He explains to Jimmi that in his visions, he sees himself falling in love with a male prostitute, getting jealous over his career, and killing him. Jimmi leaves George in his office while he tells Emma Reid (Dido Miles) about George, and later calls Rob Hollins (Chris Walker). The police find a body in George's car, and he is subsequently arrested. While being put into the police car, he brands Jimmi a liar.

In March 2020, it is revealed that George has committed suicide in Letherbank Prison.[14] He is shown in the flashbacks of his boyfriend, Mark Casey (Dean John-Wilson), who discovered his dead body hanging from the ceiling of their cell.[14] After his death, George's father John Butler (Richard Huw) avenged him by framing Jimmi Clay (Adrian Lewis Morgan) for the possession of drugs.

Adam Regan, portrayed by Edward MacLiam, first appeared on 22 October 2019, and made his final appearance on 17 December 2019. He is introduced as a surgeon that is treating a patient of Zara Carmichael's (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh).[15] The pair bond over being in the medical profession, and begin to date each other. Adam introduces his identical twin brother, Gareth Regan, who takes a job at the Icon restaurant.[16] Adam has dinner with Zara's former partner, Daniel Granger (Matthew Chambers), where the pair talk honestly about Adam and Zara's relationship, and about Adam being involved with Daniel and Zara's son, Joe Carmichael (Oliver Falconer). When Gareth pretends to be Adam and tries to rape Zara, she ends the relationship with him, due to seeing Gareth when she looks at Adam; they end on amicable terms.

Gareth Regan, portrayed by Edward MacLiam, first appeared on 13 November 2019, and made his last appearance on 17 December 2019. He is introduced as the identical twin brother of surgeon Adam Regan.[16] He begins a relationship with Emma Reid (Dido Miles), and takes a job at the Icon restaurant so he can stay in Letherbridge.[17] When Emma overhears him on the phone, it is revealed that Gareth has an ex-wife, Colette, and a teenage daughter, Alice. It is also revealed that Gareth was formerly a surgeon, but his medical licence was revoked for malpractice. Emma uncovers his secret drug addiction, and when Adam receives a medical award, Gareth gets jealous. He goes to the house of Adam's girlfriend Zara Carmichael (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh), pretends to be his brother and tries to rape Zara. She attacks him by spraying hairspray in his eyes and stabbing him in the leg with the heel of her shoes. He escapes, and when Adam finds him using a GPS tracker, the pair fight and are found by the police, where Gareth is then arrested. When Adam talks to Zara about the situation, he explains that in their childhood, Gareth always tried to steal his things, and wanted to share everything, including girlfriends. It is later explained that Gareth was sent to prison.

Bear Sylvester, portrayed by Dex Lee, first appeared on 18 November 2019.[19] He attends an interview for the role of Practice Manager after the departure of Becky Clarke (Ali Bastian), and despite his lack of experience in a management role, he gets the job.[20] His first initiative is to be addressed as a Business Manager, which Zara Carmichael (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh) disapproves of.[21] When Karen Hollins (Jan Pearson) finds out Bear is working heavy overtime, she informs Daniel Granger (Matthew Chambers), who tells Bear to work his set hours. However, Bear continues to secretly work through the night. Bear helps Daniel achieve his goal of getting an electric car for the doctors at The Mill.[22] When Al Haskey (Ian Midlane) notices that Bear struggles with spelling names of the employees, he suggests that Bear may have a learning disability. He goes for a test, where he discovers that he has dyslexia. He tells Zara and Daniel, who support him by giving him dyslexia-friendly tools to aid his work, which means he can stop working through the night.

When Jimmi Clay (Adrian Lewis Morgan) is arrested, everybody at The Mill show support for him, with the exception of Bear. The staff notice, and begin to turn against him, and Daniel asks Bear if he has an issue with Jimmi. Bear reveals that when he was 15, he and his pregnant girlfriend, Sharmaine Conway (India Semper-Hughes), were treated by Jimmi. Jimmi told Sharmaine about abortion, and despite Bear wanting her to keep the baby, she terminated the pregnancy. Despite this, Bear insists that he would never attempt to imprison Jimmi. When Bear visits a coffee shop, he accidentally takes the phone of Sasha Leeson (Lucy Polgar), and she takes his. He asks Valerie Pitman (Sarah Moyle) for help when Zara demands the expenditure accounts, which are on his phone. Sasha's boyfriend Hayden Cracknell (Jack Hartley) blackmails Bear, asking for £2000, otherwise confidential information about The Mill will be posted online. Bear later discovers Hayden is abusing Sasha, and reports him to the police.

For Valentine's Day, Bear gifts Ayesha Lee (Laura Rollins) an expensive bracelet, and confused by the gesture, she follows him. Ayesha finds him transporting boxes to a lockup at night, and informs Daniel and Zara about what she saw. They look into the accounts and when they find £34,000 extra profit in the accounts, they question Bear on the newfound money. He reveals that he has been ordering lubricant through The Mill, selling it onto sex shops for a profit, and transferring the money into The Mill's account to help with the low NHS funding. Valerie discovers that Bear has taken dancing classes, and in need of a dance partner for a charity ball, she recruits him. Ayesha learns the routine too, and when she fills in for Valerie, Bear and Ayesha almost kiss, but are interrupted. When Bear is babysitting niece Joy for his cousin, Doro Kitson (Kellie Shirley) and Charlie Knight (Alexander Cobb) enter the house, startling Bear. He makes his way downstairs, but assuming the house is Doro's, Charlie calls the police. Bear confronts them, and Charlie hits Bear over the head with a vase, knocking him unconscious. The police arrive, and it transpires that the house used to belong to Doro, and that she mistakenly went there, drunk. PC Jac Heyward (Samantha Hopkins) asks Bear if he wants to press charges, but he declines. Bear assists Ayesha with starting a campaign to persuade members of the BAME community not to opt-out of organ donation, titled #DontOptOut. They enlist Sid, Jimmi and Shak Hanif (Sunjay Midda) to help, and the group film an advertisement for social media. After the #DontOptOut campaign is featured in a newspaper, the group celebrate its success with a drink at The Icon, and when Jimmi and Shak leave, Ayesha and Bear are left alone, where they discuss starting another campaign in the future. Ayesha returns home with Bear, where the pair have sex. Due to the success of the campaign, Ayesha is offered another job. Bear is hurt that Ayesha kept it a secret from him, despite them beginning a new relationship. She tells Bear that the job comes with a one-year contract, and that he could hire a temporary nurse in case she wants to return, to which Bear feels that she is using him. Valerie invites him to Ayesha's leaving party, but he does not attend.

Lee began filming for Doctors on 26 June 2019, in an on-location scene shared with Matthew Chambers.[23] In an interview with Allison Jones of Inside Soap, actor Dex Lee said: "[Bear] started off blagging it quite a lot, as he wasn’t the first choice for the job – not at all! And when everyone suspected Bear of being involved in Jimmi’s arrest, his confidence was shot. But now he’s finding ways to make his business mindset work – so hopefully he’s only going to get better!"[24] Lee added that Bear is "bubbly on the surface" due to "the issues he's faced throughout his life due to his dyslexia".[24] When asked if Bear and Ayesha will eventually get together, Lee said: "They bring out sides of each other that they didn’t know they had, and deep down, Bear would be really chuffed and happy to be with Ayesha".[24] He added: "Ayesha makes him laugh and sets off the butterflies in him, so Bear really should follow his heart!"[24] For his portrayal of Bear, Lee was nominated for Best Daytime Star at the 2020 Inside Soap Awards.[25]

John Butler, portrayed by Richard Huw, first appeared on 19 December 2019. John is Jimmi Clay's (Adrian Lewis Morgan) solicitor. After Jimmi is arrested for the possession of Class A drugs, John begins working with him, trying to prove his innocence. While Daniel Granger (Matthew Chambers) is looking at the files of George Kenway (Lewis MacKinnon), it is revealed that John is George's father. Al Haskey (Ian Midlane) discovers that John blames Jimmi for the death of his son, and helped to frame him, alongside Harvey Marshall (Louis Dempsey). When brought in for questioning by Chloe Margrave (Tanya Loretta-Dee), John confesses to framing Jimmi, and is subsequently arrested.[27] John forces inmate Leon Sharma (Jonas Khan) to kill Jimmi, and unable to do it, Leon stabs Jimmi in the shoulder. Months later, Leon requests to see Jimmi, where he reveals that John was blackmailing Leon the whole time. John forced Leon to keep an eye on Jimmi, so that he could kill him later on.