Inconsistency, thy name is Brookside, and this was one of the most inconsistent episodes for quite awhile - ranging from the most obvious inconsistency to the most minute. Oh yes, and then there’s the new doc, whose knowledge of health and hygiene makes the departed Dr Dazza look like a flippin’ medical genius! But then, the new doc happens to be Irish - hmmmmmm ... Don’t tell me Brookside is trying to be a bit more subtle than the disastrously stereotypical route Eastenders took into Ireland about four years ago ... An educated Irish doc, with a gift of the blarney, who just also happens to be pig-ignorant about the two most important aspects of his career - i.e., health and hygiene.
We pick up the episode in the middle of the end of the last one - i.e., the funeral of the beloved Saint Clint the Flint, patron saint of ducks, has yet to begin. Outside the church, Gobby is still physically attacking Anthea, for daring to show her Dixon face at the funeral. What a sacrilege - like Iain Paisley showing up at the Pope’s funeral.
Anyway he’s still attempting to shake Anthea by rocking her to and fro whilst holding onto the back of her hair. Ma Moffatt vainly calls out for him to stop; Rachel is shouting daintily. Suddenly poor pitiful Katie, widowed before she was even married and wallowing in a mire of self-pity, calls a halt to the disgraceful proceedings by shouting that Clint wouldn’t have wanted this to happen.
Gobby, ever the gentlemen, stops long enough to tell her to shut up. ‘You didn’t know him ten minutes!’ He barks. ‘He was me broother!’ (Mingeing Anthea and Rachel want to observe the Gobby Moffatt closely, especially when they are whining about their respective husbands showing them no respect. Gobby is a great example of yobbism at its best - although, I must say that Neil Davies - previously in good form prior to this appearance - is back to his usual dire acting now).
Gobby continues physically abusing Anthea, whilst Rachel quickly moves away from the scene for a purpose. It appears that our Rachel has been practicing the magical arts in her spare time, because - hey, presto - quicker than you can say ‘Paul Daniels’, she produces the mobile phone that she supposedly left at home in the Dixon lounge, and proceeds to call the bizzies. (Inconsistency Number 1: the whole object of Ron and Mike following the women to the funeral was due to the fact that Rachel had left her mobile at home). Meanwhile, in the background, Ron and Mike have arrived and hurry from their car - well, Mike hobbles.
In the meantime, Gobby is still giving Anthea a good shaking, when she suddenly asks him why he doesn’t go ahead and hit her. Gobby stops immediately, almost as if he hadn’t heard her correctly.
‘You heard!’ Shouts Anthea. ‘Why don’t you go ahead and hit me, here, in broad daylight, in front of everyone. Let everybody see how brave you really are, instead of lurking around in the darkness and the shadows!’
Gobby scoffs that he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but Anthea reminds him that he knows very well what she means - why doesn’t he come right out and hit her now?
Gobby again reiterates, albeit noticeably uncomfortably now, that he’s unaware of Anthea’s meaning. Anthea accuses him of trying to run her down a short while ago in a car, calling him a coward. This time, not only Gobby scoffs, but Ma Moffatt and poor pitiful Katie protest his innocence as well - and vehemently.
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Ray and Jessie at any length. Ray is on the telephone. He isn’t talking, but he appears to be on interminable hold, waiting to speak with someone. Jessie SHOULD be watching Beth Dixon, but the baby is nowhere to be seen - (Inconsistency Number 2: Anthea and Rachel had left the child with Jess, unless that was another one of their numerous lies).
Ray is wittering to Jessie about Kitty. The doctors have told him that there is little or no hope that Kitty will ever recover from her stroke (which means that the actress has left the show). Apparently the someone for whom Ray has been on interminable hold, is the administrator of a local nursing home. But Ray thinks it’s disgraceful that poor Kitty, at the end of her days, has to pay for care to which she’s entitled. The woman’s saved all her life, and now she has to use those savings to ensure that she’s made comfortable for her last days on earth. It isn’t right. (Sorry, but when Kitty originally appeared on Ray’s doorstep, didn’t she just slope off from a nursing home near Bournemouth? I thought that she was on a day out with her other son, Bernard, because he kept making references about sending her back to Shady Pines or something).
Jessie suggests to Ray that they bring Kitty home. They’ve kept her room for her. She realises that she and Kitty haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye, but at the end of the day, she was Ray’s mother and she should be with her family to care for her. Ray reminds Jessie that Kitty is incontinent. She needs to be fed, changed and washed like an infant. In short, she needs round-the-clock nursing. There was no solution but to put her in a nursing home.
Ron and Mike have, by now, reached the mob scene outside the church. Gobby pushes past Mike, knocking him to the ground to have a go at Ron, demanding to know what Ron was doing here, showing his face with his divvy son. Suddenly Ma Moffatt faces Ron, quietly and with all the immense poor-white dignity befitting a natural Faulknerian heroine. Transplant her to Mississippi of the 1920’s and her surname could be Snopes. She quietly accuses Ron of killing her son. Ron gently begins to speak to her, beginning his discours with, ‘Look, loov,’ before she speaks again, saying that Ron had killed her baby, who wouldn’t have hurt a fly. (Well, not exactly, Ma - but then, Charlie Manson had a mother too.) She starts to cry softly and Gobby puts a protective arm around her and leads her away from Ron. As he turns away, in typically cowardly Gobby fashion, he can’t resist muttering ‘Murderer’ under his breath.
Hearing this, Ron follows the pair. He speaks to Ma Moffatt, again very gently, asserting that he isn’t a murderer. In fact, if he could turn back the clock, he wouldn’t have done what he did at all. He didn’t mean for what happened to happen, and he lives with the guilt for what he’s done from day to day. It will never leave him. Gobbie faces Ron, laughing sarcastically. Ron didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘guilt’. He was a murderer, who never gave Clint the chance to identify himself or leave the premises before he blasted him away.
Back on the Close, Tim sits despondently on Mick Johnson’s front doorstep, when his wife, the pneumatic but starving Mrs O’Leary appears at the door. She asks what he wants for dinner - a tin of beans or a tin of spaghetti. Tim remarks that he thought they were having chops, but Emily reminds him that they don’t have chops money.
Back at the showdown in front of the Church, Mike refutes Gobby’s accusation that Ron never gave Clint a chance. Mike taunts him by asking how Gobby knew Ron never gave Clint a chance. Was Gobby there? Gobby suddenly looks very uncomfortable, because he can’t give a reply to that question without giving away the fact that HE was actually the person committing the break-in. His silence provokes Mike even more. Well, then, as Gobby wasn’t there, he couldn’t know the truth, could he? Ron DID shout a warning to Clint; he DID give him a chance to identify himself. (I KNOW Brookside have conveniently forgotten that Ron Dixon DID shout a warning and ask not once, but TWICE, for Saint Clint to identify himself, but this whole fiasco is being turned into such a tissue of lies by all concerned, that it’s difficult to know what’s true now and what isn’t. BUT THIS IS THE MOST GLARINGLY CONSISTENT INCONSISTENCY!!!).
As if to reinforce himself, Mike seeks public reassurance from Anthea. Anthea was there, he reiterates. He asks her to verify the fact that Ron shouted a warning. Hesitating only a fraction of a second, Anthea confirms that Ron did do just that - he gave Clint a warning. And, continues Mike, did Ron give Clint ample opportunity to identify himself and to leave the house? Again, Anthea hesitates, but she answers in the affirmative. Unable to contain himself, Gobby shouts to Anthea that she’s lying - calling her a ‘lying cow’. Again, Mike taunts him, asking him if HE were there, but Gobby - for obvious reasons - is unable to answer.
Then Ron speaks, angry that his wife was being so publically insulted. He reiterated that he shouted a warning, but maybe he shouldn’t have; because basically Clint was a scumbag, and he, Ron, was acting in self-defence against a low-life burglar who had entered his home illegally and was up to no good. Hearing that, Gobby lunges for Ron, who picks up a pitchfork from the back of a nearby pickup truck and starts wielding it for protection against the Blobby Yobbie’s attack. Immediately the protests go up from all concerned - Ma Moffatt telling Gobby to stop, Anthea shouting at Ron to put it down, pleading with him for them to go home, and finally admitting that they really shouldn’t be there at all. But Gobby knocks the pitchfork from Ron’s hands and grasps the older man about the neck. He begins to choke Ron, telling him that he wishes Ron would die, that he would kill him.
In the background, we see a cop-car pull up and bizzies emerge. Upon seeing the police arrive, Gobby, like the coward he is, releases his hold on Ron, who - red-faced - slumps against the pickup truck, gasping for his breath.
Tim and Emily are still seated despondently on Mick’s front step. There’s nothing more to be said, admits Emily. Tim simply HAS to do more overtime. They need the £20.00 to pay Mick. Tim grunts that if he spends anymore time at Better Burgers, he’ll turn into a burger. Anyway, he knows a way to make more than 20 quid easily. A mate of his was planning a heist at a local video shop and he needed a driver. Emily adamantly refuses to consider this. But Tim persists. He has a scummy job. Everyone says that there are jobs galore all over the place nowadays, but not for an ex-con. Anyway, he’s Emily’s husband; therefore it’s his duty to look after her. Emily persuades him that he wouldn’t be caring for her if he just delved back into the crime scene again - it would only be a matter of time before he was caught and sent down again. Tim reluctantly considers this.
Emily rises. She has to go to the shops. Now did Tim want beans or spaghetti for tea? Smiling sadly, Tim tells Emily to get two tins of beans.
Ray is still on hold with his phone call, listening to Blue Danube muzak. Apparently, he’s been on this call for over an hour. Finally a person on the other end informs him that the person for whom he’s holding has gone out. Perhaps he would like to ring back? Ray, for the first time in ages, loses his temper and shouts down the phone that there’s no need to ring back. He’s been holding for over an hour, he tells Jessie, and has got no result. He thumbs frantically through the Yellow Pages, saying that there was no recourse but to just write down all the nursing homes listed and go to visit each one, himself, to choose one for Kitty.
Jessie is on her way to the shops. She’s going to the chemist as she has a headache and needs to buy some paracetamol. Ray is immediately concerned, advising her that a headache could be serious. It might mean high blood pressure, which might make her a candidate for stroke, like Kitty. Perhaps she should see a doctor, maybe visit the walk-in clinic. Jessie isn’t that concerned, but promises Ray she’ll go.
The police stand talking to Ron at the funeral - police presence! My what an important duck Clint was! They finish talking to Ron and he turns to his family in disgust. They wanted to know what the Dixons were doing at this funeral in the first place, he exclaims. Rachel, more and more ever the natural successor to Diana and Jackie Corkhill and Trona in the no-brains stakes, replies primly that she would have thought it was obvious why they were at the funeral.
Mike tells her it wasn’t ‘obvious’ to the bizzies, it was plain weird. He reminds her that part of the conditions of Ron’s bail was that he and his family refrain from association with the Moffatts in any way (and vice versa: I am VINDICATED!) Anthea tries to justify the presence of her and Rachel, by saying they were merely paying their respects. (Rant: ARE THESE WOMEN STUPID? THEY MUST HAVE BEEN AWARE OF RON’S BAIL CONDITIONS! YET THEY ALLOW MA MOFFATT INTO THEIR HOME AND DECIDE TO IGNORE THESE CONDITIONS IN A FIT OF PITY FOR THE CLOYING, ANNOYING AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY BULLYING KATIE ROGERS!)
Poor pitiful Katie finally speaks up, saying that it was her fault that Rachel and Anthea were there. She asked them to come, to be with her. Perhaps it was best that they just go now.
Emily is returning from the shops. Spying Tim still sitting on the doorstep, she asks if ‘Mick the Minge’ is about. Tim confirms that he is not, and Emily teases him by saying that she’s bought a three-course meal for their tea. As they begin a snog, she tells him the meal consists of beans, bread and low-fat spread.
At that moment, Jessie appears, on her way to the doctor’s. Spying Emily’s shopping, she asks if Em’s got Tim’s tea in. Emily replies in the affirmative and Jessie asks what she’s preparing. Emily lies, saying they are having pork chops, roast potatoes and greens. Jessie is suitably impressed, saying that she and Ray are having a roast dinner, themselves. She’s left Ray to look after it in the oven. Emily and Tim immediately begin to salivate.
She remarks that she’s impressed with Emily’s effort, commenting that it’s very grown-up of her. In fact, she and Tim will have to have her and Ray over for a meal, so they can sample Emily’s culinary expertise. As she walks away, Tim says he’s going out to buy the ECHO, but Emily protests, telling him they can’t afford it. Tim says it’s only 30p and it has a jobs page. Emily relents, but reminds him that 30p is the cost of a tin of beans. (Em, go to Tesco’s! You’d get three tins of beans for 30p and have 3p left over!)
The Dixons are departing the funeral, going through the motions of getting into the family car. Ron is in a mood, especially since the police have blamed him for causing the disturbance at the Moffatt funeral. In fact, they’ve told him he shouldn’t have been anywhere near the Moffat’s. He’s disgusted at that assumption.
Mike is curious as to why the police showed up in the first place. Who called them? Rachel admits that she did, because she thought things were getting out of hand with Gobby attacking Anthea. Mike tells her that was a stupid thing to do, as it got Ron into more than just a spot of bother. Again, he reiterates to her that it was part of Ron’s conditions of bail that the family not go near the Moffatts. By breaking those conditions, it could have resulted in Ron being sent back on remand.
Silly Rachel maintains that she didn’t want to get Ron into trouble. She only came to be with Katie and now Katie was on her own. She had no one, and glancing over her shoulder, she sees poor pitiful Katie preparing to enter the church alone. Rachel makes an effort to bolt from the car, asserting that she should be with Katie, but Mike stops her, saying that Katie might want her there; but Gobby Moffatt doesn’t. Anthea attempts to placate her by saying that someone would look after Katie. Rachel remarks bitterly that everyone concerned with this incident is as bad as each other. As the car pulls away, we see the weeping mourners enter the church, many for the first time in their lives.
(Rant II: WHY ISN’T KATIE BEING LOOKED AFTER BY THE MOFFATTS, ESPECIALLY MA MOFFATT? KATIE MADE A GREAT TO-DO WITH JACQUI ABOUT HOW SHE WAS SPOILED FOR CHOICE BETWEEN THE MOFFATTS AND THE DIXONS, LUNCH AT THE MOFFATTS ET AL - AND AS CLINT’S FIANCÉE, SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A VIABLE PART OF THE FAMILY. WHY, IN THAT CASE, DOES SHE NEED THE SUPPORT OF RACHEL? IN MY OPINION, KATIE DOESN’T WANT TO BE SUPPORTED BY THE MOFFATTS. SHE WANTS TO WALLOW IN HER SELF-PITY AND CAUSE HAVOC WITH THE DIXONS BY TRYING TO DIVIDE LOYALTIES. SHE’S DONE IT BEFORE, REMEMBER).
There’s a new doctor at the surgery. He’s young, he’s attractive, and he’s not a poncey Southerner. He’s Irish. And he sits at his desk in the Walk-in Clinic, sloppily eating some pot noodles. Jessie, his next patient, walks in on his lunch. How unprofessional. Quickly he recovers himself, introducing himself as Neil Kelly. He apologises for having his lunch this late in the day and in the office, but he’s only crashed out on a friend’s sofa until he finds a place and he hasn’t exactly learned to cook. He asks Jessie the nature of her complaint and Jess tells him about her headache.
Tim runs into Jimmy on the Close, Jimmy hailing him first. Jimmy wants to know how things are going between Tim and Mick, as he witnessed the encounter between Mick and the pair earlier (it’s difficult to remember that the last episode and this one takes place on the same day). Jimmy thought Mick came on a bit heavy with the young couple, and Tim admits that, at the present time, Mick’s doing his head in.
Back at the Clinic, the new Doc has just taken Jessie’s blood pressure, which is more than any of us ever saw Dr Darren do with any patient. Jess asks if it’s normal. The doc gives her some blarney about a person’s blood pressure being normal if it were 100 over their age - in her case, about 45. Jess preens at the compliment. He asks her if she’s been under any stress, which she denies. Has she been sleeping well? Patchy, replies Jessie. He asks her what time she awakens in the morning. Jess replies that she wakes up about 5:30 and can’t get back to sleep. He sympathises about being kept awake by the dawn chorus. Then he asks again, demanding a truthful answer, if she’s been under any stress. Jessie admits that she’s having plenty of stress. The Doc tells her that her headaches more than likely are stress-related and suggests that she visit ‘their other place’ (Is there another?) There’s a nurse there, who specialises in alternative medicine, specifically reflexology, which could be of help to her. (Hopefully, that nurse isn’t Nisha - we know what kind of ‘alternative medicine’ that one practices! Besides, Jess would scratch her smug eyes out!)
Tim, meanwhile, has taken up Jimmy’s invitation to partake of a cup of tea chez Corkhill. Apparently, he’s been having a whinge to Jim about Mick. Jimmy admits that Mick Johnno can have a bit of a temper. Tim protests that he and Emily have tried to be nice to Mick, especially now, knowing what he’s going through. But it seems as though Mick’s practically decided to turf them out onto the streets. It isn’t as if Tim even wanted to live there, but it was a place to live. Still, he had to get some money and fast.
He looks at Jimmy hopefully. Jimmy’s been inside; maybe he could put Tim in touch with someone who could provide Tim with some sort of work. Jimmy feigns ignorance at this remark, but Tim persists. ‘You know,’ he says,’dodgy’ work. The kind that pays lots of money and where you don’t get caught.’
Jimmy understands very well. He knows what it’s like to just come out of prison and think the world is against you, especially when it comes to work. He asks Tim if he’s been in any trouble since coming out of nick.
Back at the surgery the blarney doctor is escorting Jessie out. In passing, he asks her if she knows of a good dry cleaners. Jess responds that there’s a good one on the High Street, but she asks what’s stained and what kind of stain is it? The doc produces a duvet, showing her a stain. Jess replies that a washing machine would remedy that - no need for a cleaning bill. The doc sheepishly admits that he’s totally ignorant of looking after himself. If he had a flat, he’d have to find a cook and housekeeper. Jess admits that he needs looking after (just what the show needs - another scrounger - and a professional one, at that).
Back at the Corkhills’, Tim has just finished relating to Jimmy the tale about getting money off Carl for Emily’s pictures. Jimmy is shocked. He asked Tim what became of the money. Tim admits that the pair used the money to finance their wedding. Jimmy informs Tim that he had actually committed a crime called ‘blackmail’, which could buy him about 14 years in prison. Was that all he’d done?
Tim looks shameful and lies, saying that he’d done nothing more. But he’s desperate for money. He needs money now. Couldn’t Jimmy put him in touch with someone? Jimmy surmises that Tim wants an easy enough job that would nab him the dough and where he wouldn’t get caught. Jim shakes his head sadly.
He’s been that route, but he’s been out of that line of business for sometime now. And even if he could recommend Tim to someone, he wouldn’t. He asks Tim if he wants to go straight or continue with a life of crime. Tim replies that he wants to go straight. Then do it, urges Jimmy.
Jess is still gabbing with the blarney doc. She has the perfect solution to his housing problems. It was obvious he couldn’t function alone. She has a spare room. He’s perfectly welcome to rent the room from her and Ray. He’s grateful - but she says it’s only on the condition that he puts the toilet seat down and washes his hands regularly.
Emily, meanwhile, is visiting Ray. As she enters, she catches sight of a beautiful roast chicken in the Hilton oven that Ray’s about to baste. Her mouth watering, Emily offers to do that job for him. Ray explains that he’s been trying all morning unsuccessfully to find a good nursing home for Kitty. Emily is surprised that Ray is ‘putting Kitty away’. Ray’s slightly offended by that remark, telling her stiffly that he isn’t putting his mother away.
Jessie arrives and is surprised to see Emily, who smarms to her Nan that she’s come round to visit her and her lovely hubby. Jessie immediately tells Ray that she met the new doctor, who’s really nice. Ray asks about her headache, and she confirms that the doctor thinks it’s stress-related. Ray scoffs. That’s a new one! Usually they tell you it’s some sort of virus! Anyway, Ray’s sceptical. He’s got no time for doctors at the moment. Jessie informs him that he’d better make time for them, because she’s invited this one to rent the spare room, and he’s coming over shortly to view it. Ray stomps off and Emily jokes that he’s probably jealous, thinking Jessie had ‘pulled.’
Tim is begging Jimmy to help him find a dodgy job. Jimmy refuses point blank. But, Tim persists, he needs the rent money for Mick. He’s desperate. He’s tried going straight and it’s useless. All he can get are crap jobs with crap pay. Anyway, if Jimmy won’t help him get the money, he’ll only get it himself, once he leave’s Jim’s house. Jimmy tells him not to leave.
Tim looks at him quizzically. Jimmy explains: ‘Big house, big heart.’ Why doesn’t Tim move in? Then he won’t have to stay at Mick Johnno’s.
The Dixons are arriving back on the Close. As they get out of the car, Ron tells Anthea that he would like a word in private with her inside. Anthea consents, but only if it’s not about the funeral. Ron replies that unfortunately it has everything to do with the funeral. He and Anthea storm off into the house, leaving Mike and a surly Rachel behind.
Rachel starts muttering nonsense about this whole thing being ‘all about men and violence’. (Is she forgetting how violent Robbie was?). Mike asks her what exactly she expected when she turned up at Clint Moffatt’s funeral? Gobby wasn’t going to welcome her with open arms! Rachel said her reason for going to the funeral was all to do with compassion for Katie.
Compassion for Katie! Snorts Mike dismissively. Maybe Rachel would do well to have a bit of compassion for Ron. She wants to remember that she’s a Dixon and a part of the family. He, Ron and Jacqui depended on her support.
Jimmy is showing Tim the room he’s proposing for him and Emily. Tim can’t quite believe it (especially since nothing’s been mentioned about paying any rent), and asks if Jimmy’s invitation includes Emily as well. Well, says Jimmy, they are a married couple. He’d even sort them out a double bed. Tim then asks if Lindsey would mind.
Jimmy says she wouldn’t mind at all, as long as they didn’t make too much noise and disturb Kylie and Wills.
Tim then begins to rue his woeful job prospects. He must list his time in prison on every job application until his conviction is spent for the next 7 years. He’ll never land a plum job. Jimmy agrees it’s a bum rap. Do crime, do time - then have 10 further years of misery if you get banged up for more than 6 months. The thing is, Jim says, Tim is legally bound to list his conviction on job applications. So for 7 years, he’ll be condemned to low wages.
Mike Dixon is following sulky Rachel as she walks from the Dixon house, passing Ron digging in the garden and a new BMW entering the Close and parking at the Hiltons. Mike, quite rightly, is pointing out (yet again) to Rachel, how unreasonable she’s being in her support for Katie Rogers. She wants to remember how Katie’s treated this family - and recently too. Not just having goes at Ron, but the way she’s physically and verbally attacked Jacqui, blaming her for Clint’s death.
The silly self-rigteous wench wants to hear nothing against her own views, informing Mike coldly that she’s GOING TO PICK UP BETH!!!!! (Further proof of the 2nd glaring inconsistency, since the infant supposedly was left with Jess Shadwick!) Beth should have been left with the Hiltons, but she’s not! She’s not with the Corkhills, so where is she? With Trona? I thought Rachel was skint!
As she swans off, Ron remarks ruefully to Mike that at least he was on speaking terms with his wife. Anthea was blanking him. Mike swiftly turns to Ron, advising him that Anthea’s wavering in her support. Ron refuses to believe it, but Mike asserts that it’s true. At the funeral, she faltered when he queried her about witnessing the killing and Ron shouting a warning. If she falters like that with Gobby Moffatt quizzing her, she’ll falter like that on the witness stand. He’d better get her to start talking to him and get her on his side.
Well, it appears the smart and gleaming BMW belongs to non other than Dr Kelly. Crikey, I hope he keeps his insurance up-to-date, with Tim and Emily lurking around the Close. Anyway, He enters the bungalow, just as Jessie is dishing up the evening tea. Emily helps her put the food on the table, pinching bits of chicken off the carcass and surreptitiously eating it as she does so. Jessie invites the young doc to partake of the meal, as he’s pleased with the bungalow. As she sits herself down at the table, she asks Ray to show the young man the spare room and also the whereabouts of the bathroom. She cheekily reminds him to wash his hands.
Emily, meanwhile, ignoring her manners, has seated herself at the table, with a heaping plateful of chicken, spuds and vegetables and is rudely cramming her gob full of food. (She’s obviously eating in an effort to dispel all these horrible rumours in the tabloids and elsewhere about her having breast implants. She actually expects us to believe that after she gave up ballet lessons, they just ‘grew’.)
Jessie watches her granddaughter in amazement. She wonders if the girl is actually eating properly at Mick’s, especially as before she sat down to that plateful, she devoured two sarnies. With her cheeks popping like hamster cheeks, Emily can only gaze at her grandmother. Jessie remarks that she thought Emily was doing pork chops for her tea. Emily is forced to admit her lie. She and Tim couldn’t afford pork chops - they were even short of the rent money this month; and Mick was getting heavy about it.
Jess asks her how much she owes Mick, and Emily tells her about the 20 quid. Without a word, Jess reaches down beside her dining room chair for her handbag, as you do, since that’s where we all keep our handbags; and with a conspiratorial wink, hands the girl the money, just as Ray and Dr Kelly return to the room. Jessie invites the doctor to have a seat and ‘tuck in’ as Emily gobbles even more.
Jimmy and Tim are still having their talk. Jim is trying to encourage Tim to be optimistic about his prospects. Having to endure a spent sentence isn’t so bad, really. All he has to do is keep his nose clean and maybe prove to his employers that he was reliable; and they would give him a break. But, he emphasises this, Tim has to TRY. He’s actually determined that Tim isn’t going to make the mistakes that he made. Prison and crime, Jimmy explains, were a way of life, a revolving door for him. He’d commit a crime, get caught, get sent down, released, get impatient at having no money and repeat the whole process. It took him too long to realise his mistake. Jimmy tells Tim to regard the fact that he was moving into the Corkhill home as a fresh start.
Ron is still plugging away in the front garden, when Anthea appears, wearing an incredibly sullen face. She carries a cup of tea and grudgingly hands it to Ron, remarking that she thought he might be thirsty. She turns to leave, but before she can, Ron accosts her.
‘Before you blank me,’ he begins, ‘You might at least have the common decency to hear what I have to say.’
Ron tells her bluntly that he feels betrayed by her - going behind his back to attend the Moffatt funeral, offering support and sustenance to Katie after the way she’d treated him and Jacqui, baiting and berating Mike for his opinions.
Anthea turns to face him, reminding him that she lied for him today. She stood in front of Clint’s family and friends and lied for him about what happened the night Clint died. She told all assembled that Ron gave Clint enough of a warning in which he could have departed safely, when both she and Ron knew the facts were entirely different.
Ron tells Anthea that only she, Ron and Clint were witnesses to what occurred on the night of the shooting. ‘And Clint’s hardly likely to testify,’ Anthea remarks sarcastically.
Ron continues. Anthea is forgetting a couple of things. The first is that Clint Moffatt was a burglar. He entered the Dixon house unlawfully that evening, and she is also forgetting that Robbie Moffatt was behind the previous burglaries at the Dixon house, including the first one where everyone was tied up and she was assaulted. No man, he tells her, should have to go through what he went through to protect his family. Ron killed the lad; but he didn’t want to come down those stairs and kill anyone. It wasn’t planned; but he would still have to live with what he did every day of his life. As far as he was concerned, he shouted a warning and gave Clint Moffatt ample time to identify himself and to get out. Anthea is his wife, he says. He needs to know that he can count on her. Just one white lie told by Anthea would mean the difference between his freedom and a life sentence.
Anthea, unable to face Ron, walks away.
Summary © 2001 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001