Small Boy (Episode 925)

Following the hospitalisation of most of the Street’s residents in October 1969 following a coach crash while visiting the Lake District, Ena Sharples was summoned by the Doctor to the Casualty department to discuss Minnie Caldwell's condition. Ena found the Doctor treating a Small Boy by bandaging his right hand. As he finished the bandage, the Doctor told the boy that he looked like Captain Hook with his dressings on and then sent him away with a nurse. The Doctor then assured a dubious Ena that her nurses had been telling her the truth - that Minnie would be all right. Heinsisted that, despite Minnie suffering severe shock and loss of blood, and needing to stay in hospital for some time, they had no real worries about her. Relieved, Ena thanked the doctor. As the Small Boy was led out of the department by a nurse, Ena stopped him to ask what he'd been doing to injure his hand. The Doctor interrupted that he had been "trying to use a firework as a tommy gun". Ena told the Boy he wanted putting in a bag and shaking up. The Doctor explained that the Boy wasn't the first child to have started Bonfire Night celebrations early and he'd already treated a seven-year-old girl with a burnt face that morning. The Doctor told the Boy, "You were lucky, Action Man". Ena was shocked when the Doctor told her that there had been 2500 similar cases throughout the country the previous year. The Doctor told Ena that if she was planning to let off any fireworks tonight to celebrate Minnie's recovery, she mustn't hold them in her hand. The Small Boy dutifully agreed.