Connie Beauchamp

Constance "Connie" Beauchamp (née Chase)  MBBS, FRCS, FETCS,  is a consultant, former surgeon and the current Clinical Lead at Holby City Emergency Department. She arrived at the ED as Deputy Clinical Lead in March 2014 and assumed the role of Clinical Lead after Zoe Hanna stepped down in June 2014. She worked in the Darwin Ward of the hospital for over six years as the Clinical Lead of cardiothoracic surgery before her departure in December 2010. Over three years later in March 2014, she returned to the hospital's Emergency Department, having retrained as a consultant in emergency medicine.

Upon her abrupt arrival in the ED, she was disliked by many of the staff, especially the nurses. This was due to the fact she gave many of the undesirable jobs to the nurses to do, which caused tension to arise between Connie and Rita Freeman. The tension between them grew, with Rita confronting her regarding the way her staff were being treated and how rude Connie had been to her. She has one daughter with Sam Strachan, Grace, who was born in 2007.

Throughout her time in the ED, Connie has, as well as being promoted to Clinical Lead, implemented a number of new policies which in her eyes would lead to a more efficient work environment. Since joining the team, Connie has seen the arrival of several new staff members including Jacob Masters and Alicia Munroe, and the departure of Martin Ashford as well as the death of paramedic Jeff Collier.

Early life
Connie was raised in Peckham, South London where her mother was a nurse and her father a teacher. She later revealed this to Jacob, and he acted surprised that she wasn't from somewhere nicer.

Time at Holby General Hospital (2004-10)
Connie Beauchamp arrived at Holby City General Hospital on 1 June 2004, and remained at the hospital until she left, departing on 28 December 2010. Connie's job at Holby City Hospital was that of consultant cardiothoracic surgeon on Holby City Hospital's Darwin Ward. She later became Clinical Lead in 2006, and held the position until her departure in 2010. During her time in the ED, her husband arrived only for them to split up, she then fell pregnant with another man soon after they divorced.

In December 2010, her father was rushed to Holby in need of an operation, and she learns that he is suffering from Alzheimer's. During the operation her father nearly died, which lead to Connie deciding that she could no longer work there and subsequently handed in her resignation.

Following her departure, she went to Switzerland to carry out research, however it's unknown as to what this entailed. When Zoe asked Guy why she returned prior to starting at the ED, he said that Connie told him that Holby was where her heart belonged. He also told her that Connie had carried out all of the necessary training in emergency medicine and was now a fully qualified consultant.

Time in the Emergency Department (2014-)
In March 2014, Zoe had expressed concern to Guy Self regarding the lack of staff in the ED, so he sad that he would organise for the arrival of another consultant to assist her. Guy had selected Connie for the role following her return to Holby, and she started at the ED on 29 March 2014 as Deputy Clinical Lead. He told Zoe when she asked that Connie was in his office by pure coincidence at the time a consultant was needed. She began her shift immediately, without even consulting the Clinical Lead at the time, Zoe Hanna. On her first day, she also went out to the scene of an accident and put herself in danger by climbing up some unsteady support beams to reach an injured man on the metal supports above the stage. She came across to the other staff as being rude and bossy, which caused them to take a dislike to her.

In May 2014, she raised concerns to Ash after a man who was admitted to the ED died, questioning Zoe's choices. Soon after, Ash and Zoe realised that Connie had been playing them off against one another. The following month, Connie decided to go to the hospital's CEO Guy Self to question Zoe's competence as Clinical Lead. Although he initially dismissed the claims, Zoe later left the ED in order to help at the scene of an accident, which left the department with no leadership. Connie had a favorable relationship with Zoe prior to this in comparison to other staff, partially due to the fact that she was Clinical Lead upon Connie's arrival, not because she thought any higher of her. After Zoe disobeyed her instructions to stay in the ED, she resigned as Clinical Lead as she felt saving lives was more important than the responsibility. After Zoe announced this, Guy asked Connie if she would like to be Clinical Lead, to which she said she did. Guy then suggested that Connie fire Zoe, but Connie strongly objected saying that Zoe is one of the best consultants she has ever worked with.

Connie had a complaint lodged against her by Hailey Blake, the daughter of a patient who died in the ED in October 2014. Despite trying to reason with her, it seemed to only make things worse for Connie. After a lengthy ordeal for both Connie and Hailey, they have a conversation outside the ED in early January and she decided not to take the case any further.

Whilst caught up in the stress of the court case, Connie had few options and decided to bring her daughter, Grace, to work with her. However, in the following months their relationship strained as Connie continued to put patients before her. In January, Rita's estranged husband Mark turned up at the ED having been released from prison. Coincidentally, Grace went missing on the same day when she was at the ED, which led Connie to the conclusion that Mark had taken her. When Grace turned up later, it's apparent that Mark didn't take her, but Connie was still left to question whether she could concentrate on her daughter and her career. Soon after, Grace's grandmother Audrey suggested that Grace would be better off living with her father in New York. Although Connie was distraught at losing her daughter, she saw this as an opportunity to focus on her work more. As a result of the events, she asked Cal Knight for his letter of resignation following a bad inspection, however Charlie managed to persuade her not to.

In March 2015, she started to enforce new rules and regulations that the staff must abide by. Some of these things were unpleasant, especially for the nursing staff and the porters. After she started to demand too much of the doctors by making them work longer shifts, Lily hit someone with her motorcycle while driving as she couldn't concentrate due to a lack of sleep. After this incident, Connie decided to cut the staff some slack after Charlie and Rita both spoke to her separately.

At the end of February 2015, Alfred Maxwell was admitted to the ED, and elderly patient suffering form motor neuron disease. After a while, he frequently asked Connie to help him die. Connie visited Alfred on the night of 17 April and took 2 boxes of benzodiazepines with her. The next day, Alfred died in the ED, and a suspicious Rita requested a toxicology report on his body. Upon seeing that he had received an overdose of benzodiazepines, she checked and saw that two boxes were missing from storage. She jumped to the conclusion that Connie had assisted Alfred's suicide and called the police. After her arrest, they brought her in for questioning. During this, Connie told the police that in her top drawer they would find the two boxes with 2 tablets missing from one box as proof that she didn't give him an overdose. However, when the police arrived at the ED, Rita overheard them telling reception where they want to search, so she went to Connie's office first. To her surprise, there were only 2 tablets missing, therefore proving Connie's innocence. Rita took the boxes but later gave them to Charlie and apologized. Charlie took the evidence to the police, and Connie was set free. Despite this, she was still suspended from work for a couple of weeks, leaving Dylan as acting Clinical Lead.

In May 2015, Connie went with Charlie to Bucharest in search of his son, Louis who they'd been told was in trouble. They met a Romanian doctor named Alex who was caring for Louis in hospital. After finding out he was going for kidney harvesting because he owed money to a drug dealer, Connie and Charlie located the hospital where the operation was due to take place with the help of Sofia, Louis' girlfriend. They arrived just in time before the kidney was going to be removed, to find that Alex was one of the doctors performing the operation. Connie had to attempt to save Louis after one of his internal veins was accidentally cut by Alex when Charlie pushed him out of rage. She then distracted the drug dealer, Christian when he arrived with the help of Sofia and Alex. Connie also learnt from Charlie that it was Rita who set her up the previous month regarding the police. In early June 2015, Connie returned to the ED after her false suspension, replacing Dylan from his role as temporary Clinical Lead.

In August 2015 she took Jacob Masters' new gun violence protocol into account, and viewed it as being a possible benefit to the ED. After Rita declined the need for such a thing, Connie got directly involved, and they both soon realised that he was manipulating them. Later in the month after Zoe and Max's wedding, Charlie experienced a heart attack which brought him to the ED as a patient. Due to his cardiogram showing little signs of life, Rita tried to persuade Connie to stop attempting to resuscitate him, but Connie refused to stop, and she eventually managed to stabilize him again. In September, Jacob was shot by a police after he mistook him for an attacker in the ED after some extremist attacks, and Connie managed to save him. In the following weeks, Connie spoke with the superintendent of Holby Police about the incident, and they made it clear to her that they weren't thinking of punishing the officer responsible. After she told Jacob this, he said he wanted to know who the man was, but she said they would never reveal it, but he told her that there are other ways he could find out. In November, he received an envelope containing the name of the police officer who shot him from an unknown source, but he eventually threw it away without opening it after Connie said it would ruin his career.

In November 2015, an incident involving Alicia outside the department left Connie and Lily angry, despite the fact she was doing the right thing. As a result of this - and Lily's bullying - Alicia decided to hand in her resignation notice.

Personal life
Connie was married to Michael Beauchamp, but they are now divorced. After a brief relationship with Sam Strachan in 2006, she gave birth to their daughter, Grace, in 2007. Connie was apprehensive to let Sam have anything to do with the birth, but later became more accepting. Grace took Connie's married surname of Beauchamp from her previous marriage to Michael Beauchamp.

Her mother died in 1995, and after that she was estranged from her father for a period of 12 years and reunited when Connie revealed that she had given birth to his granddaughter.

In the years she was at Holby General Hospital as a surgeon, her romantic interests included Ric Griffin, Will Curtis, Mubbs Hussein, Sam Strachan, John Grayson, as well as her ex husband, Michael Beauchamp. In May 2015 when she was in Romania in search for Louis Fairhead with his father, she had a fling with a local doctor named Alex. Later in 2015, the arrival of Jacob Masters, a new staff nurse, initiated another potential for a romance in Connie's life.

In December 2015, Connie and Jacob were bought closer together following a shift at the ED, and they ended up sleeping together. She inadvertently revealed this to the rest of the staff during an argument with Jacob the following week when a patient with motor neurone disease was brought in. However, they made up and decided to spend Christmas together.

Trivia

 * During her time at Holby, she gave birth to a daughter, Grace, whose father was Sam Strachan one of her previous partners.
 * Connie used to be the Clinical Lead for Cardiothoracic Surgery at Holby City Hospital.
 * She began working at the ED in March 2014.
 * Connie joined Holby City Hospital as a surgeon on 1 June 2004.
 * Connie left Holby City Hospital on 28 December 2010.
 * Connie volunteers at an MND support group.
 * Connie will rarely be seen in the staff room or the pub.

Behind the scenes
Amanda Mealing has played Connie in Casualty since March 2014 and previously portrayed her in Holby City from 2004 to 2010. She at first returned to a regular role in Casualty but as time passed, she became more prominent. She also portrayed Connie in 3 other episodes of Casualty between 2004 and 2007, but not as a permanent role.

Reception
Connie has been subject to many criticisms, mainly since she arrived in Causalty due to the fact she is unrepresentative of what the NHS is really like. During her time in Holby City, Connie has been described as "ruthless" by The Times' Emma Cook, and an "egomaniac" by The Daily Mirror's Clare Raymond and Jim Shelley respectively, but the BBC describes her as "an outstanding surgeon who wields her power just as comfortably in the boardroom as in the bedroom.

Discussing public reception of her character, Mealing states that: "The response has been amazing - from men, women and children. I'm often stopped out shopping or dining etc. and told 'You're so mean to (whoever).. but we love you!' I think there's a little in all of us that would like to say what we really feel, the way Connie does". Mealing has received several award nominations for the role; ranking seventh 'Best Actress' in the 2004 BBC Drama Awards, being nominated 'Best Actress' in the 2005 TV Quick Awards, and 'Best Newcomer' in the 2005 National TV Awards.

With her return in Casualty, the Daily Mail's Claudia Connell called Connie out for being unrepresentative of the NHS, "wearing more make-up than the entire cast of TOWIE" and "teetering around saving lives in her tight pencil skirts and towering heels".

Appearances

 * See also: Character appearances.

Connie made her first ever appearance in Casualty during the series 19 episode "Casualty@Holby City - Part 1" which aired in 2004. She appeared in two more episodes as a guest character before joining as a series regular in the series 28 episode "Valves to Vagrants" in March 2014.