Daniel Granger (Doctors)

Storylines

Daniel arrived hiding some dangerous secrets, following the theft of a large sum of money from his former practice partner in London. He used the money to clear part of a £200,000 debt he had run up as a result of an ongoing gambling addiction. With no intention of facing up to his problem, his addiction continued to spiral out of control, ultimately resulting in a confrontation with his criminal debtors. The criminals' actions worsened to the point that they made hostages of Melody Bell and Joe Fenton in order to force Daniel to repay them. Following the ordeal, Daniel came to terms with his addiction and turned himself in to the police. He was later faced with a tribunal.

In Series 10, Daniel went through further turmoil as his mentally ill colleague Ruth Pearce held him captive in the medical centre's sick bay. Whilst holding Daniel against his will, Ruth had tried to save a patient from a heart attack, pretending to be nurse Michelle Corrigan. Ultimately the patient was saved - primarily due to Daniel's work - but in the meantime Daniel made an escape attempt and injured his leg, cutting it on the glass from a window. Following this incident, Daniel phoned Melody to warn her that Ruth appeared to be suffering a nervous breakdown. This led to Melody referring Ruth to a mental health facility under the Mental Health Act, to keep her from endangering herself and others.

When a new nurse, Cherry Malone began working at the practice, Daniel found himself growing ever more attracted to her. Much to his chagrin, however, Cherry was not receptive to his advances. It was during this time that Daniel discovered that one of his patients, Cybil Lambert, had died, leaving him a considerable amount of money in her will. Daniel spent this money on a high-end sports car and luxury apartment. Zara Carmichael came over to his flat but she ended the relationship within the same day, stating that they needed to get it out of the way before they could work together. Cybil Lambert's son Malcolm, sold a story to the Letherbridge newspaper, about Daniel conning Cybil. Julia saw it and called a meeting with Lily Hassan and Heston about it. Daniel claimed to Lily that he shouldn't have to apologise because the money was a gift; however, Lily insisted that he should. Daniel went over to The Mill to see Julia. He tried to explain that he kept the money for the benefit of his daughter, but she was having none of it. With his own hard work and the backing of the partners, Daniel opened the "Granger Clinic", a botox clinic which was run within The Mill. The other doctors are quite unwilling to help in his enterprise and since he seems to have little sense of advertising and sales, he resorts to unorthodox techniques to get customers, including plying Simon Bond with cream horns and drinks in an attempt to get him to encourage his homosexual friends to have treatment.

Daniel was enrolled on a team building course with Zara by Julia Parsons, after she is fed up with constantly seeing Daniel and Zara arguing at the surgery, much to their annoyance. At the session, he tried his best to comfort Zara when the whole class was assigned to tell each other about their personal lives. She talked emotionally about her father and his imprisonment and that she was helping him battle to prove his innocence of manslaughter. They got very close and nearly kissed. Beforehand, Daniel talked about his daughter Isobel to the whole class.

Zara had slept with Daniel numerous times and she pretended to be his girlfriend so Daniel could have access to Isobel. On Tuesday 27 July, Daniel took Zara bowling and they officially became a couple. In October 2010, Zara starting having hot flushes and menopausal symptoms when Daniel was present. At first he asked if there was anything wrong and if she was pregnant, but she lied and said it was probably just premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Viewers could see that lying to Daniel was getting to her. Zara finally came clean about the menopause and Daniel couldn't seem to say anything right. Zara thought Daniel wanted to end the relationship a couple of days later. Misreading the situation, she ended it first. Daniel trapped Zara in her office and they got back together. They were seen leaving the Mill holding hands.

Daniel told Zara to pack her sun cream as they were going on holiday. Zara was very excited, however whilst out shopping with Daniel and Isobel, his daughter, Izzy was taken from a carousel ride. After a lot of searching, Zara tracked down the abductors, followed one onto a motorway bridge and talked her into returning Isobel. During this, the audience heard about how much she loved Daniel and that she had had her eggs frozen. After this, Daniel cruelly dumped Zara for Lisa, leaving Zara devastated. Daniel did not appear happy with Lisa and in April 2011, Daniel and Zara got back together. In mid-April Lisa left Letherbridge and this meant that Daniel only saw Izzy every other weekend. On Tuesday 19 April, Zara met up with her father who was desperate to have a grandchild. This meeting left Zara feeling empty and broody. On Wednesday 20 April 2011 Zara was shown pretending to be pregnant by putting a coat up her shirt, but Heston Carter walked in and she broke down in tears.

Over May, June and July 2011, Daniel and Zara tried in vitro fertilisation (IVF). They were left devastated when they discovered it hadn't worked and Zara wasn't pregnant. However, they were planning to try again at some point and they could only hope for success. When Zara arrived for work on Friday 5th August, she was nursing a very bad hangover. During the day Zara seemed to get better until lunchtime when she saw everyone eating and had to run to the toilet to be sick. When she and Daniel arrived home, he made her Marmite on toast to combat the hangover but this only made her feel worse. Knowing what this could mean, Daniel rushed out to a chemist but when he returned, Zara was sitting on the bed with a pregnancy test kit in her hands. After Daniel told her he loved her, she revealed the results of the test and both she and Daniel were overjoyed to discover that she was pregnant.

On 13 February 2012 Zara went into early labour at the Mill. However, Daniel was unaware of this as he had gone to town with friend and colleague Jimmi Clay. The pair, along with Jimmi's friend Franklyn, had gone shopping for trousers for Jimmi's impending wedding. Daniel was driven back to the Mill and held his newborn baby boy for the first time. Daniel, his baby and Zara were taken to hospital. Following a phone call from his maternal uncle Dr Joe Fenton, the couple decided to name their son Joe.

Relationships

In September 2010, Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh who plays Zara Carmichael revealed details of an upcoming storyline involving Zara and Daniel. Speaking at the Inside Soap Awards she said: "There's a fantastic five-part story coming up in the next few weeks involving my character and Daniel. I don't want to give everything away, but something terrible happens to Daniel's baby daughter and Zara steps in to help. It's all very dramatic!" She added: "It's nice to be the good guy for a change. Normally Zara plays the baddie and for once she gets to play the heroine, which makes a nice change for me!"

Reception

Matthew Chambers and Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh who plays Zara Carmichael were nominated for "Best on-screen partnership" but lost out to Jake Wood and Jo Joyner who play Max and Tanya Branning on EastEnders.