Karen Ball

Karen Ball is a character in the British sitcom Green Wing, played by Lucinda Raikes.

History

Karen works in the human resources department of East Hampton Hospital Trust. Out of all the people in this department, Karen is often the only person seen doing any actual work, as Harriet Schulenburg is often rushing out to look after her children, Naughty Rachel and Kim Alabaster often just spend their time messing around and making Karen miserable, and her boss Joanna Clore is either somewhere else (such as seeing her secret lover Dr. Alan Statham) or worrying too much about her age.

Karen has been described^{[by whom?]} as "the runt" in HR. For starters, Kim and Rachel are always trying to mock her, remarking about her looks or her loneliness. If she is not working, then she is getting coffee for the others, and if she is not getting coffee for the others, then she has probably got herself into a problem, such as getting her hair trapped in the printer.

The only joy in her life is junior doctor Dr. Martin Dear, Joanna's son, whom she admires greatly. However, she is often too shy to do anything. She sometimes asks Kim and Rachel for advice, but this never gets her anywhere (such as when they told her she was more attractive when kneeling, leading to her crawling about the hospital for the day). In later episodes she begins to make a success of their relationship, but becomes angry when she discovers that Martin was sleeping when they were kissing. Martin tells the other members of staff that their relationship is very physical - in fact so physical that Martin thinks he should stop their relationship because it is becoming too much for him. How far Karen wants to go is not known, and whether Joanna would want her as a possible daughter-in-law is also a mystery. However, the relationship truly ends when she hears that Martin has been seeing a prostitute (although they never had sex).

Her only previous relationship was with a man call Tim, whom she left because he said that Karen had a furry face, and also because he thought they were not sexually compatible. Instead they just laid naked together.

She is fluent in Turkish, (without realising), likes rulers and is also scared of the Clangers. In the last episode of the second series, Rachel unwittingly pushes her out of the office window. Nobody notices. She survives, and as a result of the fall, she becomes more confident and develops a better taste in clothes: however, she loses her right hand and her nose whistles whenever she has an orgasm (although she is seen with two functioning hands in the last half of the special: whether this is an in-joke or a continuity error remains unclear.)

When Joanna goes on the run, the HR staff run riot. Karen, Kim and Rachel interview male members of staff by asking them to take off their trousers. Soon, a feral tribe forms. Kaern is last seen with the other office girls, taking a kidnapped Martin into Joanna's office.

Relationships

Martin

The only member of staff who is in any way attracted to Martin is Karen. She even goes as far as to write a poem about him. Why Karen finds him attractive is not really known, but she tries to make herself attractive. Martin is too often busy being attracted to Caroline to pay attention to Karen.

Eventually, Karen and Martin do have a relationship. Martin later tells Boyce that Karen is somewhat oversexed, which leads to Martin making several attempts to dump her. However, most of the attempts fail, or Martin changes his mind at the last minute. Their relationship finally ends when Karen sees him with a prostitute after Martin mistakenly becomes her pimp.

Harriet, Kim and Rachel

Of the staff, Harriet is the most caring and understanding of Karen’s problems and often Karen treats her the same way.

Kim and Rachel on the other hand often spend much of their time making fun of Karen. They often make her fetch the coffee, and give her very poor advice about how to win Martin’s affections.

Joanna

Like most of the staff, Joanna does not get on with Karen. However, as Karen does the most work, Joanna has less to deal with her.

Joanna does use her for small tasks, such as a runner between her and Alan.

These are a few notes Joanna has given Karen, as listed in Green Wing - The Complete First Series Scripts:

• "Karen, no I can NOT remove the words "Depressing wanker" from your annual review. See me."
• "Karen, no, there was nothing missing from my e-mail. "Karen - just a couple of tiny points," was a physical description."

Other relationships

Karen has very little to do with the other members of staff at the hospital.

Outside of the hospital, her only previous relationship was with Tim, but that ended before she met Martin.

External links

• Green Wing microsite biography