Doctors is a British medical soap opera which began broadcasting on BBC One on 26 March 2000. Set in the fictional West Midlands town of Letherbridge, the soap follows the lives of the staff and patients of the Mill Health Centre, a fictional NHS doctor's surgery, as well as its sister surgery located at a nearby university campus. The following is a list of characters that first appeared in Doctors in 2012, by order of first appearance. All characters are introduced by the programme's executive producer, Will Trotter. (Emmanuel Idowu) made his debut in January, as well as (Jeremy Swift) and (Tracey Childs), the parents of Cherry Clay (Sophie Abelson). (Danielle Henry) is introduced a month later as a love interest for Freya Wilson (Lu Corfield), as well as a friend of Jimmi Clay's (Adrian Lewis Morgan), (Steven Meo). is born in February to parents Daniel (Matthew Chambers) and Zara (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh). (Miles Anderson) debuts in April as a love interest for Julia Parsons (Diane Keen), and Howard Bellamy (Ian Kelsey) debuts in May as the new Practice Manager of The Mill. (Vineeta Rishi) arrives in August as a police surgeon. Emma Reid (Dido Miles), Valerie Pitman (Sarah Moyle) and (Nathan Wright) are all introduced in October, as well as Al Haskey (Ian Midlane} a month later.