User:Frickative/Holby

Maria Kendall is the name of a fictional character on the BBC television series Holby City, portrayed by actress Phoebe Thomas. The character first appeared on-screen on 28 November 2006 in episode It's Been A Long Day - Series 9, Episode 7 of the programme. Her role in the show is that of naive and inexperienced Student Nurse, with a slightly naughty side and a penchant for spreading hospital gossip.

Background
Prior to the introduction of the character Maria, Holby City had lost three regular nursing characters over the course of Series 8 and the beginning of Series 9 - Staff Nurses Jess Griffin, Mickie Hendrie, and Tricia Williams. Despite this outflow of nursing staff, the only recurring nursing character introduced in the show during this period had been Acting Sister Kyla Tyson, in Series 8, Episode 17. The creation of the character Maria - deliberately introduced an episode after the death of Tricia Williams, helped redress this balance to some extent, while also adding to the cast a Student Nurse for the first time since Jess Griffin's career change in Series 4, Episode 50.

Casting
Her credits include The Booze Cruise, Judge John Deed, The Bill, Doctors. She can also be seen re-enacting the role of Lady Godiva riding naked through the streets on horseback in a modern feature film soon to be released. She has also made a previous guest appearance in two episodes of HOLBY CITY in Series 5 as Chloe Palmer. Phoebe said, 'I am absolutely ecstatic to have been given the role of Maria. I have been following the show for years and love the storylines. I made a brief appearance in the show a few years ago so it is great to be back working with such a lovely cast.'

Development
"Phoebe Thomas is to play Maria Kendall, a young attractive student who is a breath of fresh air. There is no side to her, what you see is what you get. She tries her best at everything, including her love life, but her best can be confusing as she tends to engage deed before brain. She wants to please anyone and everyone, which can often have disastrous results."

Storylines
Maria is a relatively inexperienced student nurse. Since her entrance in episode 'It's Been A Long Day', she has been seen to be visibly shaken by the experience of patient's deaths, and also to be somewhat gullible in believing patient's stories. Maria formed a fast friendship with Donna Jackson and the pair were responsible for spreading the news of Connie Beauchamp's pregnancy around the hospital. She shared a brief flirtation with Matt Parker for a bet, however was disappointed to learn he already had a girlfriend.

Reception
The level of dramaticism of the storylines attached to the Holby City nursing characters was recently heavily criticised by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The lead article of the July 2007 issue of the NMC magazine tackled nurses in popular culture, discussing "the ease with which writers can attach terrible storylines to a caring profession", passing the following comment on the Holby City nurses:
 * "Nurses who become prostitutes to pay the bills, nurses who kill their husbands, nurses who abuse the system to get their own way - Holby City has always been a hotbed of slanderous storylines. Good people doing bad things makes excellent entertainment... The bald fact is that real life nurses doing their jobs well just aren't that entertaining."

thumb|Thomas as Maria on Children in Need

In popular culture
The 17 November 2006 Children in Need charity telethon included a segment featuring the Holby City cast performing a version of Hung Up by Madonna. Although the character had not yet made her on-screen debut in the programme, Lewington as Maddy appeared in the sketch - as did fellow newcomers Peter Wingfield (Dan Clifford) and Nadine Lewington (Maddy Young) who also had yet to arrive in the show itself.