It’s another day in the Murray household, the day after Adele’s abortion to be precise. The girl stands before her mirror, having just got out of bed - and (surprise surprise), unlike other Brookside maidens greeting the first light of day, Adele’s hair is ruffled and unkempt. She stares glumly at her image in the mirror, before grasping a packet of sanitary towels and heading for the bathroom.
But she can’t get in. Diane sits in the bathroom, forlornly staring at a recently completed pregnancy test. The look on her face tells us that the test was negative. (Early question here: WHY do Murray mere and pere, who supposedly have an en suite facility in their bedroom - it’s been mentioned several times - persistently use the facility in the hallway?)
Marty wearing a dressing gown, wearily climbs the stairs. But we see his face light up gently as he spies Adele at the top of the stairs. He asks his daughter how she’s feeling and Adele assures him that she’s fine. She’s waiting for the loo. Could her mum be doing the pregnancy test? Marty isn’t sure. At that moment, Diane emerges. She sees Adele and tells her that the loo is all hers. Adele asks hopefully if she’s done the pregnancy test, but Diane says she hasn’t. But doesn’t she want to know, asks the girl. Diane feigns indifference, saying she’s decided to let the hospital administer the test, make them earn their money. She lowers her voice and asks Adele how the girl is feeling, but Adele assures her that she’s fine and enters the loo.
Marty urges Diane to take the test. Doesn’t she want to know if she’s pregnant? A lot it would matter to you, Diane snaps roughly. She goes downstairs.
It’s the beginning of the day for Bev’s Bar too. Leanne stands at the empty bar, staring at an official-looking letter. It’s actually a letter from the Benefits Agency. Someone has reported Leanne for illegally claiming housing benefit and now that’s about to be withdrawn As Lance enters, she swiftly hides the letter under the latest copy of HELLO magazine. Lance remarks that Leanne’s early, and Leanne begins a tirade against the summer months - how it’s so hot that a body can’t sleep at night for sweating buckets and once you do manage to drop off, there’s the sun shining full in your face. (Ever hear of a fan, Leanne? And drawing the curtains might help too.) She continues self-consciously wittering that she had so much to do she needed an early start. Honestly, there aren’t enough hours in the day to run a place like this. Lance admires the way his sister has coped with Bev’s sudden disappearance, but then Leanne always did put herself out for other people.
Glancing past her shoulder, Lance notices the copy of HELLO. Reaching for it, he admits he wants a chance to read the ‘goss’ before the day begins, but Leanne frantically says he can’t because ... She wanted to read her horoscope first.
Shrugging his shoulders and turning to go, Lance suddenly remembers something. Oh yes, he tells Leanne, he got a letter about the flat. (The viewers can almost see Leanne’s heart jump to her throat). But Lance explains that the Council, it seems, are to provide them with wheelie bins. That should sort those mangy cats ... Miaow!
Antichrist Ant sits in the Murray kitchen, meticulously writing a birthday card to Brigid. We briefly see the words ‘To the Best Nin in the world’ scrawled across the top of the card in a childish hand. Marty enters the kitchen and lifts a clean pair of work clothes from the laudry basket on the floor. It seems this morning he’ll get ‘an early dart.’ Diane shrugs indifferently. Marty notices Ant’s activity at the table and commends him on remembering his grandmother’s birthday. He attempts to ruffle the boy’s hair, but Antony ducks, asking sarcastically if Marty were going to hit him again. Marty mutters the word, ‘Lip’, but thinks better of pursuing the course.
Instead, he kneels to Antony’s level and apologises. He was wrong to hit him, it was completely over the top. But, Marty continues, Antony will realise when he’s older that life is ... well, complicated.
Antony ignores Marty and over his shoulder, asks Diane if she’s managed to bake his Nin’s birthday cake yet. (The pious little hypocrite can chastise his older brother for asking his stepmother for seconds at dinner and causing her too much work, yet he expects her to cook and clean at his whim.) Diane reluctantly replies that she doesn’t think having a party for Brigid at this time is a very good idea. Antony whines that he’s already asked everyone to come, and his Nin wasn’t to blame for everything that’s happened.
Diane agrees that Brigid isn’t to blame, and maybe it might do everyone good if they were to celebrate her birthday. Antony reiterates that it isn’t Brigid’s fault that Adele killed her baby. Marty remarks emphatically that it’s NO ONE’s fault and Antony is to stop that religious mumbo-jumbo now, for fear of what it might do to Adele.
Diane intervenes, telling Antony that everyone was upset and sad at the turn of events, but he had to find it in his heart to forgive Adele and not to make her feel so terrible about this thing. Antony says he’ll always hate Adele for doing this to the family, and Marty, passing to the door, tells Antony that God wouldn’t want him to hate his sister. As he reaches the door, the pious, little prick remarks smugly that God wouldn’t want Marty to kill babies.
Marty’s reached the end of his tether with this remark, shouting at Diane that the boy’s head was full of that stuff.
Suddenly Adele appears at the door. Marty abruptly shuts up and asks her for the umpteenth time that day how she is. Again, she assures him she’s fine. Suddenly she notices Antony’s card and realises that it’s Brigid’s birthday. Immediately worried, she says she hasn’t even bought her grandmother a card. That’s understandable, says Marty, who orders Antony to let his sister sign his card, but the sanctimonious little creep smugly seals the envelope.
Witnessing the scene, Diane tells Adele she has a spare card the girl can use. Diane asks Adele if the girl is sure she should be out of bed, but for the thousandth time, Adele assures her that she feels fine. Diane reiterates that she should at least have her breakfast on the sofa - in fact, Diane’s done her a tray - but Adele sits stubbornly at the table. Making his exit, Marty kisses his daughter on the cheek, asking her to save her old man a piece of birthday cake. Antony continues to question Diane about what she proposes to do about the cake. Again, he suggests that she should buy one. As Diane sits at the table, herself, Antony asks his mother to remember that their Nin didn’t like icing. Then Adele has an idea. She could bake the cake herself. Antony replies that his Nin would rather eat a cake from the shop. Shooting him a glare, Diane tells Adele that mixing is strenuous work and that she should be taking things easy for a few days. She tentatively feels Adele’s forehead for evidence of a temperature.
Adele feels bad that she hasn’t got Brigid anything, but Antony is quick to suggest that Adele could always write Nin a poem. Diane sharply rebukes him by asking if he’s going to eat his breakfast or play with it. Turning back to Adele, she reminds her what Brigid is like, saying her Nin wouldn’t expect any sort of present. As far as the cake was concerned, Antony could go to the shops for one. Adele then suggests that she could choose one and begs Diane to let her go to the shops for the cake. After all, it would be good exercise, in preparation for her holiday the next day.
Antony is amazed that Adele is even thinking about going on holiday, and Diane looks at her in wonder. Adele reminds them that she’s due to go on holiday the next day with Michelle and Michelle’s mum ... to a cottage in Shropshire ... It’s been arranged for ages.
Ordering Antony from the room, Diane remarks that things have changed a bit since the holiday was arranged. Quite frankly, Diane doesn’t think Adele is well enough to undertake a holiday, referring to ‘your condition’. Adele agues that she is quite well. In fact, she’s hardly bleeding, which Diane remarks is very good. Well, Adele says, why shouldn’t she go? Diane knew Michelle’s mum and she liked her. What was the problem? Diane is worried Adele would take ill. She should rest at home. Then Adele explains her reasons. The girl says she feels as though she’s being punished. She’s spent the better part of the school year, slogging it out to try to get good exam grades; then ‘this’ had to happen. Diane had no idea what it had been like for Adele to know what she knew and to deal with her exams. Then the aftermath of telling everyone and dealing with the abortion ... her Nin and Antony getting at her all the time, Diane and Marty arguing, Diane trying to get pregnant, herself, in the midst of it all. Adele felt as though everyone was hating her and blaming her for what happened. Now she feels that if she removed herself from the household for awhile, the tensions would relax a bit. The last thing any of them needed at the moment, was Adele hanging about the house, a constant reminder of the tensions of the past few weeks. Besides, she needed to get away from them herself, in order to relax and not worry about anything.
Diane reassures Adele that no one hates her and that this is her home. They would hate her to feel unwanted and unwelcome here. Adele promises that if Diane lets her go to Shropshire, the minute she felt unwell, she’d call home. Diane promises to clear it with Marty, and Adele smiles genuinely for the first time in days.
Lance and Leanne, meanwhile, appear to be suffering from staff shortages (or could it be that the majority of their staff are skiving to look for other jobs). Lance informs Leanne that Quiet Paul has lost his voice, at least that’s what QP’s mother has said in a phone call. Leanne asks sarcastically how QP’s mum was able to tell. Lance remarks that he had thought to ask her that, but thought perhaps that sort of comment wouldn’t go dpwn too well. Anyway, would Leanne want him to do a ring-round to sort out some staff for cover?
Leanne declines the offer, saying that together they would manage; however, she takes the opportunity to ask Lance if he ever felt bothered about living in a flat almost directly over the place where they worked. It doesn’t bother Lance in the slightest. ‘I can get up five minutes before me shift and still have time to get some coffee down me throat.’
Leanne persists. But doesn’t he think it would be interesting to live somewhere different, someplace that wasn’t so caught up with work? Lance doesn’t think so at all; in fact, if they lived anywhere differently, it would mean travelling expenses. No, as far as Lance is concerned, living ‘above the shop’ is ‘the billy bifters’.
William Corkhill runs across the Close and bangs on the door of Number 8. The door is answered by his sister Lindsey, who scoops him up in her arms and gives him a hug. Now that she’s leaving, the writers seem to have made Lindsey likeable. Prior to all this, she barely paid attention to her own child and none to William. She’s lightened her hair and highlightened it too. I suppose the writers had to decide to make Lindsey expendable in order to make her redeemable.
Anyway, Jackie appears close behind, at roughly the same time as a flash red car pulls up and parks outside the Murrays. Greeting her daughter, Jackie remarks that it’s partytime for someone next door. Lindsey shrugs and points out that she hadn’t been invited, and Jackie jokes that Lindsey is becoming as popular as she. She explains to Lindsey that she’s just brought William over for his four-day stay with Jimmy. Lindsey asks if Jackie has a minute to spare, because Linds has just put the kettle on. Jackie looks a bit doubtful, but Lindsey explains that the coast is clear - Jimmy’s gone into town for a couple of hours. Jackie admits that she only had to drop by the garage to check the rotas; she’d love a cup of tea.
Inside the Murray abode, it appears that the ‘everybody’ who was invited to Brigid’s do consists of Anthea and Jessie. The two women stand at the front window until, Antony, his usual bossy self, tells them exactly where to stand in order that Brigid won’t see them. As the guests and family assemble the ‘surprise’ formation, Diane can’t help asking Adele if she wouldn’t feel better sitting down. Anthea and Jessie look at the girl curiously, but Adele hastily explains that she’s suffering from ‘tummy trouble’.
Brigid lets herself in (Why DOESN’T Marty appropriate her key?), her tongue going a mile a minute at the hapless Father Pat, telling him how ‘she’s’ probably a soul in torment now yadda yadda yadda. She’s yacking so hard when she enters the lounge that at first she doesn’t see the assembled multitude of five. SURPRISE!
The assembled few join a choruse of ‘Happy Birthday’, but Adele doesn’t join in the singing, when she sees that her Nin has brought Father Pat (who seems to have aged immensely since his last appearance in January, as well as acquiring a Scouse accent, but I suppose that’s celibacy for you.) Instead, she looks as though she wishes the earth would open and swallow her up, as Brigid fixes the evil eye of judgement upon her.
Victoria is sitting in the bar, engrossed in a magazine. Leanne is eyeing her spitefully and suddenly approaches her. Sitting down uninvited at her table, Leanne rudely demands to know what Vic’s playing at. Calmly looking up at her, Victoria innocently replies that she’s waiting for her lunch to be served - pitta bread and guacamole. Leanne reiterates that Vic knows what she’s talking about. Oh, yes, says Vic, and a glass of white wine too. Lowering her voice and speaking through clenched teeth, Leanne reveals that she’s received a letter. Victoria looks at her in a puzzled way. ‘So?’ she replies. ‘Do you want me to read it to you?’
Leanne hisses that the letter is from the Benefits Agency. Someone has grassed her to them and now her housing benefit is being stopped. The penny drops with Vic now, who laughs shortly and wants to know if Leanne thinks Vic is responsible for grassing on her. Leanne reminds Vic that she signed Vic’s piece of paper, even though Darren had had ‘his filthy mitts’ all over her.
Vic is amused and smiles her quirky one-sided smile of superiority. Sorry, she says, but Leanne is barking up the wrong tree. Someone snitched on her? That wasn’t Vic’s style. Leanne’s behaviour is being observed by Lance from afar. He watches as Leanne hisses to Vic that because of that grassing, she could do time in prison. Vic reiterates that perhaps Leanne should have thought of that when she tried to defraud the Agency. Pointing at Lance, Leanne then says that because of someone grassing, her ‘young brother’ could be homeless. With a twinkle in her eye, Vic remarks that in that case, Lance would have to apply for Housing Benefit. Leanne is about to reply, but Lance intervenes, saying that Leanne’s needed to taste something in the kitchen.
Jackie and Lindsey sit at the Corkhill kitchen table. Jackie is having another cup of tea, Lindsey remarking that she’d forgotten how much tea Jackie could put away. Jackie says that old habits die hard and then asks how her ‘old habit’ is faring. Lindsey replies that Jimmy appears to be doing well. He’s getting on with things, coping. Jackie observes that he’s in a very ‘4,5,6’ state (referring to the numerical stress levels Jimmy’s shrinks have assigned him). She asks Lindsey if Jimmy ever craves for anything or to do anything - but Lindsey jokes that ‘craving’ would be on a level of ‘7,8,9’ and Jimmy couldn’t have that.
Jackie asks what Lindsey and Jimmy talk about when they are together. Does Jimmy ever open up with his daughter about his feelings and his state of mind? Lindsey says they manage to talk about safe subjects - Kylie’s progress in school, Ron Dixon’s shotgun, or whose turn it was to make the tea. But if Jackie wants to know if Jimmy talks to Lindsey about her, then she has to say that he doesn’t.
Jackie nods sadly at this revelation. It’s as if, she remarks, Jimmy’s trying to rub her out of his life. Lindsey scoffs at this idea, saying that it’s only Jimmy’s way of dealing with things.
Over at the swinging birthday party, Father Pat is charming both Anthea and Jessie, who are monopolising him completely, whilst Diane, Adele, Antony and Brigid watch from the sidelines. (Another example of how the Murrays fail to interact with other residents of The Close). Anthea is telling Father Pat how much she enjoyed The Thornbirds. In fact she never missed an episode. Father Pat understands the programme was popular, although he never saw it, himself.
Brigid piously remarks that Father Pat is a very busy man; he has three evening Masses a week. But, says Father Pat, he tries never to miss the footie. Anthea asks if he’s a red or a blue. Oh, a true Blue, replies Father Pat - to which Anthea remarks, ‘Good lad.’ In fact, Fatther Pat jokes, he’s always trying to convert Antony into an Everton supporter. Antony, responds with a sullen ‘As if.’
Jessie asks Father Pat if he thinks converts to the faith make for stronger Catholics. Father Pat says that the Church refuses to refer to converts as just that, but he says that they seem to have a great deal more knowledge about their faith than born Catholics (probably because they’ve learned the tenents as adults). He admits that, in recent years, there have been some pretty high-profile converts. Anthea mentions Anne Widdecombe, and Father Pat mentions the Duchess of Kent. Jessie remarks that John Wayne converted on his deathbed, at which Father Pat jokes that was better late than never. (No mention of Johhny Vaughan? Oh, well, he’s become a persona non grata since joining the Beeb.)
Anthea asks if Jessie were thinking of converting. (Funny, I was always under the impression that Jess Shadwick WAS Catholic). Oh, no, says Jess. But she’s always liked the way Catholics had saints for just about everything. Like Saint Jude for lost causes? asks Adele, or Saint Apollina for teeth and dentistry. Father Pat commends Adele on her knowledge of the Saints. The Antichrist has to put his knowledge on show. Looking pointedly at Adele with his pious po-face (he makes Eastenders’ Stephen Beale look likeable), Antichrist Ant mentions Saint Gerard Magella, the patron saint of babies. Brigid glares at the girl, while Diane sharply asks Antony to help her cut the cake in the kitchen. There, she pulls him aside and threatens to remove him from the room unless he stops treating Adele like a pariah.
Jessie and Anthea, however, have detected an undercurrent of tension; but they decide to ignore it and continue conversing with Father Pat. Jessie remarks that she always thought Spencer Tracey played a good priest. What did Father Pat think?
Anthea then relates the tale about the time she saw the Pope on Ebworth Road. She had just come out of the hairdressers, when she looked up and there was the Pope, going by in his Pope-Mobile. Adele jokes about how odd it might seem, to see the Pope on Ebworth Road, but Brigid sharply rebukes her by reminding her that Ebworth Road was the main road from the airport. Jessie and Anthea exhange uneasy glances at this outburst.
Father Pat compliments Adele on the sandwiches which the girl has made, but Adele says she’s made too many. She was a bit over-eager.
Trying to make conversartion, Jessie asks Adele how she’s enjoying her summer break so far, after her exams. Adele smiles and replies that she’s leaving on holiday tomorrow. Anthea asks where she’s going and Adele tells the women that she’s going to a cottage in Shropshire with a mate from school and the mate’s mother. Brigid remarks waspishly that that was the first SHE’D heard of Adele’s plans. But Diane hastily explains that ‘nothing’s definite’ in an effort to mollify her mother,
Adele objects. Diane as good as said she could go. Diane points out rightly that she told the girl that they would have to clear it with her father. Oh well then, remarks Brigid, even more sarcastically, it it’s got to be approved by Marty, it’s a foregone conclusion. Father Pat speaks to her in warning. Exchanging a wary glance with Jessie, Anthea tries a bit of banter, suggesting that Adele is a bit of a daddy’s girl, but the girl pays her no attention, diverting all her energy into sparring with Brigid.
‘It’s no skin off your nose,’ she remarks sarcastically to her grandmother, with Diane warning her in the background. ‘Why can’t I go on holiday? I deserve a break.’
Brigid replies that she doesn’t, while Father Pat warns her ominously about the road of conversaton that she’s taking. Adele wants to know why she doesn’t, and Brigid blurts out loudly, ‘BECAUSE YOU’VE JUST HAD AN ABORTION, THAT’S WHY!’
And Jessie and Anthea look as though they want the floor to open and swallow them, as Adele dashes from the room.
Jackie and Lindsey are still in the kitchen, Lindsey making recriminations against herself for introducing Shelley into the household and thereby, bringing about the beginning of the end of her parents’ marriage. Jackie tells Lindsey wearily that she musn’t blame herself. Lindsey didn’t know what Shelley was like, and anyway, if Shelley hadn’t initiated the problem, something else would. Lindsey protests that before Shelley came on the scene, Jimmy’s and Jackie’s marriage was rock solid. Jackie shakes her head sadly in disagreement. It was never rock solid, she admits. Actually, she and Jimmy were desperate. That’s why they stayed together, in desperation.
Back at the Bar, Leanne glances briefly at Victoria eating her lunch, before confronting Lance again about their housing status - without telling him the actual truth. Leanne simply informs Lance that they are moving. She’s had a good run of some money on the horses and she thinks they are entitled to something better than that dump upstairs. Lance begins to protest, but Leanne won’t have it. They are moving and that’s that.
In the aftermath of Brigid’s outburst, she, Diane and Antony are left alone with Father Pat, Anthea and Jessie having made their excuses and left. Brigid feels humiliated. She tries to explain that she never meant to reveal the family’s business to anyone. She just arrived today, bringing Father Pat to have a chat with Adele (which was highly presumptuous); but when she entered the house and saw the girl chatting and ready to have a party, she saw red. Diane points out to her mother that the surprise party for Brigid was actually Antony’s idea.
The po-faced Pope in waiting (who will surely set Catholicism back thousands of years), is standing by the kitchen door and sternly remarks that he hates Adele for spoiling his Nin’s party and storms off into the recesses of the kitchen in tears. Now she’s done it, remarks Brigid, managed to reduce two of her grandchildren to tears. She calls after Antony that she had a perfectly good party and announces that she’s going into the kitchen for a talk with him, leaving Diane with Father Pat.
Father Pat seems a pretty reasonable sort of priest. He begins to talk to Diane by asking how she’s feeling. Diane would like to say that she’s coping with the situation, but she can’t. She admits she’s feeling a lot of hate and anger. Oh, not towards Adele. She can forgive the child, but she can’t forgive Marty for his actions in this affair. Marty gave no thought at all to Adele’s baby; instead he was only concerned for Adele and what the pregnancy would do to her.
Father Pat observes that Marty was only trying to be a protective father for his daughter. Then Diane says that it was Marty who drove Adele to have an abortion. Literally DROVE her to the hospital. And yesterday, he should have been driving HER home, with their new baby. Father Pat placidly observes that it’s the cruellest of ironies that Adele should be having a termination the day that Diane’s miscarried baby was due to be born. He reminds the woman that she’s been through a lot - too much for her to cope with. After all, it’s only been seven months since her own miscarriage. Diane points out that it’s been six months and nine days. Still, Father Pat says it’s too soon. He offers to speak to Adele, to try to ascertain her exact feelings about this event. Diane gratefully thanks him, as Brigid and Antony emerge, both a lot calmer now. Brigid says that she and Antony are going out for awhile ‘to blow away some cobwebs.’
Over at the Corkhills’, Jackie is preparing to take her leave. Lindsey is at last acknowledging that her parents’ marriage is over. Jackie gives her daughter credit for not denying it. She says that she hopes that Lindsey realises a few things - all those things of which Jimmy accused Jackie - of trying to hold him back, bringing him down. She never ever tried to do any ot those things. But, she tells Lindsey, one thing Jimmy said WAS true. Jackie needs to be needed.
Lindsey remarks that everyone needs to be needed. Jackie explains that SHE needs to be needed by her family. By Kylie, demanding to know where her PE kit was, by Jimmy demanding his dinner, by Lindsey, herself, demanding that Jackie watch Kylie for a couple of hours. That was all Jackie lived for. Lindsey confesses to Jackie that she will ALWAYS need her mother, and the two women embrace.
Father Pat knocks on the door of Adele’s room, asking if he can come in. Adele asks if he’s come to tell her how bad she is, but Father Pat only says he hasn’t come to judge her. She remarks that Antony thinks she’s bad. But she doesn’t hesitate in telling the priest that it was her right to have an abortion, her right to choose; again, she says that this is her belief.
Father Pat tells her that it might take her some time to come to terms with what’s happened. He just wants her to know that she can talk to him anytime about this or anything. The girl begins to open a bit. She says that she only had sex the one time, although she had known the boy for awhile before. He just used her, didn’t want to know. When she found out she was pregnant, it was all too much for her to take in. She used to sit in school at lessons and think about the thing growing inside her and she hated it. Then she’d come home in the evening and see Diane so desperate for a child - having to take injections and all - and she hated herself for falling pregnant so easily.
But, she continues, she felt that she was too young to have a baby. She’s just a kid herself. She couldn’t have coped. Could he understand that?
Father Pat admits that he believes that Adele’s baby had a right to life.
Adele exclaims, ‘But what about MY life? Don’t I have rights too?’
Father Pat says that Adele’s life is just as precious. He then tells her that he believes her baby is in heaven and that the two of them will be reunited one day. Reaching in his pocket, he pulls out a prayer card, inscribed with ‘All shall be well and all shall be well and all that passes shall be well’. He hands it to Adele, explaining that his mother sent it to him. Adele reads it and is touched. Father Pat tells her to keep it, unaware of the fact that the door behind him has just been opened a tad, and Marty is peeping in.
Father Pat continues talking to Adele, saying that when she’s ready, he’d like to hear her confession. Adele dubiously remarks that Antony says she could be excommunicated. Father Pat assures her he’d never let that happen. In fact, he wouldn’t let the Archdiocese get involved in this matter.
Just at that moment, Marty enters the room. He peremptorily asks what Father Pat is doing here. The priest greets him, but Marty ignores him, asking him if he’s filling Adele with all that religious mumbo-jumbo, making the girl feel ashamed and guilty. Father Pat asks Marty how he is. Marty says he’d be a lot better with Father Pat out of his house. Adele begins to protest, but Marty is already leading Father Pat, by his collar, onto the landing of the stairs. He’s saying that Adele is only a child, but Father Pat’s lot would expect her to have a baby when she was only a kid, herself.
Adele follows them out onto the landing, imploring Marty to stop, telling him that Father Pat wasn’t pressuring her at all. She tells Marty that ‘the baby is in heaven’, sounding incredibly naive and puerile in doing so. This stops Marty for an instant. He turns to his daughter and takes her hand in his, telling her in an imploring tone: ‘There is no heaven, nor hell, nor Purgatory, nor limbo. And it wasn’t a proper baby.’
Then he continues to push Father Pat down the stairs, to the horror of Diane. The priest is trying to speak to him in an understanding way, saying he realises why Marty is acting in this manner, that he’s lost a grandchild and is grieving that loss.
At the bottom of the stairs, Marty makes a stand for his beliefs, over Diane’s audible protests. He wants to know something from Father Pat, something which has always puzzled him. He wants to know why there is gold leaf decor on the ceiling of the Vatican, and pot-bellied babies starving in Africa. The Catholics like to make out so much that they favour life, how could they explain that?
Father Pat has no answer. Indeed, he’s in retreat now, escaping through the front door, just as Brigid and Antony are entering the Close. Seeing Marty in hot pursuit, Brigid hastily tells Antony to go into the back garden, while she remains to watch the proceedings. From the front doorstep, Diane shouts at Brigid not to give Marty the benefit of an audience. Marty is shouting at Father Pat that the previous evening, Antony had called him Herod, blaming him for killing innocent babies. Is that what he wanted to hear coming from this household? Father Pat moves swiftly toward his car, only pausing to press his key fob to de-immobilise the machine and to unlock it.
Marty continues firing his verbal volley. ‘The Catholics believe that only God gives life, eh? Well, here’s £3000 that says He doesn’t, courtesy of the Blessed Brigid, who paid for our IVF. But then, that’s something you Catholics aren’t much on either, eh?’ He physically shoves the priest into his car and turns to walk away, only to be confronted by Brigid, who, in consternation, asks him if he’s satisfied with his public display and if he’s quite finished. Marty bellows, ‘NO!’ And returns to open Father Pat’s car door. The priest shrinks back into his seat, obviously afraid that Marty intends to be violent.
‘My little girl would have had a nervous breakdown if I’d made her have that baby!’ He shouts. ‘Tell me, Father, would that have been right? I did what was best for her, like any father would do. Now what’s so wrong about a father wanting to protect his kids?’ And he slams the door as the priest beats a hasty retreat.
He passes a gob-smacked Brigid and enters the house, only to be verbally pounced upon by Diane. What on EARTH was Marty thinking of? If he HAD to make a spectacle of himself, at least he could have been a bit more original than to use that old chestnut about gold leaf on the Vatican ceiling and starving babies -
Well, it’s true, moans Marty, but Diane continues. Why, he’d been practicing that speech for years and when he gets his big moment to use it, who cops it? A man who’s never been anything other than saintly every day of his life -
Now, Marty interrupts her. He wants to know where Adele is. Diane snorts, upstairs, probably bawling her eyes out now because of the commotion HE’D caused.
Marty looks at her in disbelief. Adele’s upstairs, he repeats. She’s upstairs and you’re down here.
Diane is exasperated with the man. ‘Well, I had a ring-side seat at the circus,’ she exclaims. ‘I wouldn’t have missed this even if I wanted to!’
‘If Adele is upstairs crying her eyes out,’ Marty shouts, ‘why aren’t you up there with her? Polishing your halo, BEING A MUM!’
Diane smacks him across the face.
Summary © 2001 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001