8.3/1023 votes#1 - The Unbreakable Chain
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 11/16/2003
A student nurse causes quite a stir when she arrives in the middle of the night, while Ken and Alun contend with a farming family suffering a crisis. Brigid and Jill deliver a Down's syndrome baby whose parents don't want anything to do with it, and Lizzie's crash diet has alarming consequences.
Director: Adrian Bean
Writer: Sarah Bagshaw
- 8.4/1034 votes
#2 - If Not for You
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 11/23/2003
Tragedy strikes at the Royal v Ashfordly General rugby match, as Cheriton dives to score a try, only to be pounced on by opponents. It soon emerges that his injuries are serious, and Ormerod rushes to help his colleague - but his efforts prove futile and Cheriton dies at the scene. Meanwhile, Alun is involved in a road accident caused by a man who recently suffered a stroke, and student nurse Samantha Beaumont fails to impress Matron and Sister Brigid by putting pink sheets on the ward's beds.
Director: Adrian Bean
Writer: Deborah Cook
- 8.8/1025 votes
#3 - Doing the Rounds
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 11/30/2003
New GP and anaesthetist Dr. Jeffrey Goodwin has a tough first day at work when he witnesses a car crash, gets attacked by one of the drivers involved and has his own vehicle and possessions stolen on his way to The Royal. After recovering from his injuries, Goodwin treats local landowner Lord Firminger who's collapsed on his estate, and gets off to a shaky start with Rose by asking him to perform emergency surgery on a cancer victim. Back at the hospital, Cheriton's mother Annette arrives to collect her dead son's things, surprising staff nurse Meryl Taylor by revealing a photo of a fiancee she never knew about.
Director: Tim Dowd
Writer: Mark Holloway
- 8.5/1024 votes
#4 - Consequences
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 12/7/2003
Ormerod faces a difficult dilemma when Caroline's father Henry turns up suggesting they turn off her life-support machine, having done all they can, but the guilt-ridden doctor wonders whether he'd only be letting her die so he can be with Weatherill. Meanwhile, Goodwin puts his career on the line when he allows a member of the public to cure a back injury, student nurse Samantha Beaumont is less than impressed by a date with theatre technician Alun Morris and a patient's pet parrot causes chaos in the hospital.
Director: Tim Dowd
Writer: John Flanagan, Andrew McCulloch
- 8.1/1021 votes
#5 - Poison
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 12/14/2003
Harper accidentally puts insect powder in his tea and Jeff wrongly orders the closure of a cafe after a jazz band is poisoned.
Director: Paul Duane
Writer: Mark Holloway
- 9.0/1023 votes
#6 - Famous for a Day
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 12/21/2003
The staff are excited by the arrival of a TV film crew at the hospital, especially Mr Harper, who is desperate to be caught on camera - and it looks like his dreams of stardom may be about to come true when Mr Middleditch gives him an important job for the broadcast. Elsewhere, the atmosphere is much more tense, as Dr. Ormerod and nurse Meryl Taylor are called out to help a boy who has been trapped below the surface of an icy lake for 20 minutes - and to make matters worse, the ambulance carrying the unconscious lad back to hospital gets caught in a snowdrift. On a lighter note, Ray Piper is brought in with a huge bump on his head - and there's much hilarity when it turns out his wife has hit him with a frozen turkey. But before the day is out, he's not the only member of his family to be admitted.
Director: Tim Dowd
Writer: Jane Hollowood
- 8.4/1021 votes
#7 - Skin Deep
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 12/28/2003
Brigid arrives at a decision and Lucy Klein is disturbed by the unscheduled reappearance of a figure from the past. Mr. Harper rests on his laurels, certain his future is assured, while Ormerod and Weatherill reveal they are about to end their relationship - only to find the news is already common knowledge.
Director: Paul Duane
Writer: Sarah Bagshaw
- 8.4/1022 votes
#8 - Cliffhanger
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 1/4/2004
Goodwin comes to the aid of a man brought in with a leg injury which his friend claims was sustained in an agricultural accident, but it soon emerges that he's actually suffering a gunshot wound - prompting his panic-stricken acquaintance to pull a revolver on the hospital staff. As armed police surround the Royal, the doctors strive to persuade him to hand over the gun, but will they be able to prevent further bloodshed? Meanwhile, Ormerod helps fossil collectors hurt in a landslide, Matron tries to convince Sister Brigid to return to work and student nurse Samantha Beaumont is less than impressed at the offer of a date with Alun Morris.
Director: John Greening
Writer: Mark Holloway
- 8.2/1026 votes
#9 - All the Fun of the Fair
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 1/11/2004
The residents are pleased when a fair comes to Elsinby, but Jeffrey and Samantha have their work cut out when the waltzer operator becomes trapped in the ride's mechanism. He's rushed to the hospital, where Mr. Rose operates, and reveals his father has been suffering dizzy spells recently. A concerned Jeffrey heads back to the fairground, but he's too late to prevent disaster. Meanwhile, Ken hatches a dubious money-making scheme and Jill is forced to confront a patient's wife.
Director: John Greening
Writer: Nick Saltrese
- 8.7/1026 votes
#10 - Holding on Tight
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 1/18/2004
A group of drunken mods arrive at the hospital in a shocking state, and Ken Hopkirk soon makes the grim discovery that they have been drinking industrial alcohol supplied by their friend, theatre technician Alun Morris. Meanwhile, a fourth member of the boozing group is brought in and has his stomach pumped immediately - but it soon emerges that the illicit hooch has blinded him. Elsewhere, Mr Rose and his surgical team treat a widow with a gangrenous toe at her farmhouse, and student nurse Samantha Beaumont receives a telling-off for laying out operating instruments in an incorrect order.
Director: Tim Dowd
Writer: Patrick Melanaphy
- 9.2/1029 votes
#11 - For Those in Peril
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 1/25/2004
The hospital staff have an intriguing case on their hands when local tramp Sebastian Fox is found dead. Ken Hopkirk rummages through his belongings and is surprised to find war medals, leading to the discovery that he was a decorated Navy hero. When a relative is traced but refuses to help with funeral arrangements, the Royal team decide to give him a fitting send-off by scattering his ashes at sea. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Goodwin is shocked to discover a farmer's cattle herd have contracted a disease which has passed into cheese that's available in the area, and Jill Weatherill, Matron and Sister Brigid encounter a runaway girl.
Director: Tim Dowd
Writer: Deborah Cook
8.8/1024 votes#12 - Reckoning
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 2/1/2004
Dr. Ormerod is furious to discover the police have launched an investigation into his wife's death, and reveals in a heated outburst that she was planning to leave him at the time of the accident. Bad news strikes a family when it emerges a couple's son has developed a hereditary heart disorder, a mother-to-be suffers kidney failure during childbirth and hospital porter Ken Hopkirk needs an operation after injuring himself while lifting a piano. Romance blossoms for Dr. Goodwin and student nurse Samantha Beaumont, and Lizzie Kennoway's driving lesson ends in disaster when she slams into the back of Mr. Harper's parked car.
Director: Graeme Harper
Writer: Sarah Bagshaw
- 8.9/1025 votes
#13 - Doing Time
Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 2/8/2004
Ormerod faces a taxing time when a prison van overturns on the moors. The driver is killed, a guard is seriously injured and one of the convicts escapes, while the others are rounded up and taken for treatment at the hospital, where Ken Hopkirk recognises an old friend. Goodwin fails to diagnose a serious case of post-natal depression - an error which almost ends in tragedy when the mother is found standing perilously close to a cliff-edge - and student nurse Samantha Beaumont discovers she has an unexpected love rival.
Director: Graeme Harper
Writer: Nick Saltrese
- 8.6/1022 votes
#14 - Home to Roost
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 2/15/2004
Ormerod faces a testing time when his father-in-law arrives demanding to know whether he was seeing Dr. Weatherill while his late daughter was still alive. Following a heated exchange, it emerges that the disgruntled patriarch has hired a private detective to investigate the couple - but the situation only serves to bring them closer together, culminating in a marriage proposal. At the Royal, a painfully thin girl causes concern for Goodwin - whose green-eyed monster emerges when student nurse Samantha Beaumont agrees to a date with a younger man - and the hospital is evacuated after a suicide victim's corpse is brought in emitting toxic fumes.
Director: Tim Dowd
Writer: John Flanagan, Andrew McCulloch
The Best Episodes of The Royal Season 3
Every episode of The Royal Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The Royal Season 3!
Follows the staff and patients of a Yorkshire cottage hospital in the 60s, embroiled in tangled love lives and bitter power struggles.
Genre:Drama
Network:ITV1
Season 3 Ratings Summary
"The Unbreakable Chain" is the best rated episode of "The Royal" season 3. It scored 8.3/10 based on 23 votes. Directed by Adrian Bean and written by Sarah Bagshaw, it aired on 11/16/2003. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "If Not for You".