Elle Gardner

Elle Gardner
Familial information
Children	3
Professional information
Occupation	Consultant in emergency medicine (2016-)
Appearance information
Portrayed by	Jaye Griffiths

Elle Gardner is a consultant in emergency medicine who currently works in the Emergency Department of Holby General Hospital. She joined the department in May 2016 as a replacement for Zoe Hanna. In her first few weeks of working in the ED, she clashed with Clinical Lead Connie Beauchamp.

Time in the Emergency Department (2016-)

Elle had her first shift at the ED on 7 May 2016. Already running late, she decided to take a shortcut through the park on her way to work. However, she ended up hitting Vince Callaghan with her car as he ran out into the road. She waited until the paramedics arrived and accompanied him back to the ED. However, when they arrived Vince went running off to see Shelle who was waiting on the other side of the car park for him. Zoe and Elle went to help, and Shelle stabbed Vince and they all ended up in a side room of The Hope & Anchor. They were forced to try to save his life in there, as Shelle wasn't letting them escape. Eventually Max located them and Shelle ended up stabbing Zoe in the hand which resulted in Elle restraining Shelle against a wall. Once in the ED, Connie understood why she was late, and Hanssen later told Elle to report back to him if she had any concerns about the department.

The following week, Elle and Jacob recognised each other as old friends, much to Connie's surprise. Soon after, Elle caught up with Hanssen to update him on how she was finding work in the ED. Robyn and Louise saw them talking to each other as friends, but decided that they shouldn't mention it to anyone. After catching up with Jacob, she left the ED with him without permission from Connie to attend the scene of an accident at a chemical plant. When they arrived back in the ED, Connie called Elle into her office and disciplined her. Although Elle tried to reason with her, Connie simply told her that her way of running the department was what worked best, and convinced Elle that she had the full support of Hanssen, unaware that he was in fact good friends with Elle.

Trivia

• Elle's car is her sanctuary - her only place of peace and quiet.
• She has a close friendship with Hanssen.
• Elle has three teenage boys, who can be quite a handful.

Behind the scenes

Jaye Griffiths' first episode as Elle Gardner aired on 7 May 2016.

Griffiths said: "I was filming in Cardiff for Doctor Who last year, so it's great to be back in Wales starting a new role with the Casualty team. Everyone's been extremely welcoming and the storylines are really powerful."

The first appearance of Elle in video footage was released in a trailer posted by the BBC in March 2016. It featured several snippets of scenes with her in, showing her conflict with Connie and friendship with Jacob.

On 21 March 2016, Jeff Povey posted a photo on Twitter partially revealing a diagram showing the doctors of series 31. It revealed that Elle will at some point replace Connie as Clinical Lead.