Valerie Pitman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera Doctors, portrayed by Sarah Moyle. Valerie is introduced as a temporary receptionist at the Mill, and made her first appearance on 15 October 2012. It was first announced that Moyle was to play a new recurring character on her official credits in 2012. She departed on 3 December 2012 but made brief returns in 2013 and 2014. Moyle was promoted to the regular cast in 2016. Valerie's storylines in the programme have included a life-threatening battle against Hodgkin's lymphoma, fighting against Mrs. Tembe's new ideas for The Mill, attempting to sue Al Haskey for malpractice and being falsely accused of murder.
Storylines
Valerie first appears when Howard Bellamy phones her, needing her to be a temporary receptionist at The Mill, whilst Mrs Tembe and Karen Hollins are on holiday. She agrees to this, and starts work four days later, offending both Mrs Tembe and Karen before they leave. Valerie finds her distant relatives by Mill medical records; Trudy and Ellie Benedict. Valerie meets them, wanting them to be part of her life. However, after meeting them, she realises that they do not want to have a relationship with her. Valerie returns in October 2015 and gets interested in Cooks Heaven and holds a party at Karen's house, inviting Mrs Tembe, Ruhma Carter, Emma Reid, Niamh Donoghue and Ayesha Lee but it is a disaster, as Karen burns herself and she accidentally cuts Mrs Tembe. A few episodes later, she announces her and Ashley's relationship is over, and he later storms into the surgery and starts shouting at Valerie. Valerie asks Al to give her a checkup, as she has swollen throat glands. He insists there is nothing wrong, but she later sees a doctor, who refers her to someone else. Valerie has a biopsy done at the hospital and gets her results back, revealing that she has Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Valerie is left devastated but keeps her diagnosis a secret, with Mrs Tembe and Karen being suspicious. At a photoshoot, Valerie dresses as Marilyn Monroe but after Mrs Tembe informs her of the fact that she won't be working at The Mill for longer, she later breaks down telling everyone she has cancer. Daniel Granger becomes angry at Al for not noticing what was wrong with Valerie. Mrs Tembe, Karen and the rest of the surgery support Valerie through her battle. Valerie later decides to sue Al Haskey for malpractice, but the new practice manager Anthony Harker persuades her not to. During her cancer battle, she grows close to Ayesha and security guardBarry Biglow. She agrees to marry him, thinking that she has not got much time to live, but on their wedding day, she learns that she is in remission, and she jilts Barry at the altar. When Mrs Tembe fires Valerie due to financial costs, she starts working for a recruitment agency; however, she is left unemployed after exposing their dodgy work ethics, leading to the company's downfall. Valerie is later rehired by The Mill. In March 2019, Grant Hill is murdered, and Valerie is believed to have murdered him, being questioned by the police. Later in the year, Valerie begins to sell paintings created by her cat, Geoffery. When Geoffery dies, Valerie takes time from work, and later holds a funeral for him. After her colleagues poke fun at her, Jimmi suggests giving her therapy. She agrees, and recovers from the grief. Valerie takes a DNA test to find out about her heritage and details about her health, where discovers that she is part Jewish. She later discovers that she carries the gene for pyruvate kinase deficiency, but Sid Vere assures her that she is not at risk. In a bid to find out more about Judaism, she visits the local synagogue, where she meets David Klarfeld. Despite Valerie not being interested in the religion, she talks to David, who later invites her on a date at The Icon.
Reception
The character of Valerie has been well received by both critics and fans, and is one of the popular characters in the series. In 2016, Moyle was nominated for Best Female Dramatic Performance and Best Comedy Performance at the British Soap Awards, but lost out to Lacey Turner and Patti Clare who play Stacey Fowler and Mary Taylor respectively. In 2019, Moyle won Best Comedy Performance at the British Soap Awards. Due to the positive response of Valerie's cancer storyline and popularity amongst fans, the character became a regular from spring 2016.
