When Major Bernie Wolfe hit Holby City’s wards, a certain group of viewers snapped to attention. The maverick trauma surgeon had been airlifted out of Afghanistan and was mumbling about a colleague called Alex. Gender neutral name? Conspicuous lack of pronouns? Sudden reluctance to be in the same room as the handsome doctor husband she hasn’t seen in months? It could only mean one thing. When Alex showed up – played by Heather Peace, no less – Bernie and her backstory came tumbling out of the closet, but the relationship that really caught viewers’ attention was with Serena Campbell, the Shiraz-swilling, seemingly-hetero consultant, fond of telling Bernie how terrific she is.
While most shows can’t put two ambitious women in the same room without turning them into rivals, Bernie and Serena bonded from the start, and actress Jemma Redgrave was happy to step out of her scrubs (probably not literally – we didn’t ask) and talk about why #Berena is still so groundbreaking.
“What’s really been lovely is to build a friendship, and a friendship between two women of a certain age who are both professional women, who have a shared language. That was really easy for Catherine and I, because we had that shared language anyway. They really like each other and support each other and everything comes from that. Anything that happens beyond that is luck, but I think the chemistry is very good.”