Here’s a thought. How about a new category at next year’s soap awards, one that Brookside will be absolutely CERTAIN of winning. Let’s call it Soap Prick (or Prig if the winner is a woman) of the Year. Brookside would be absolutely certain to win, because most of the nominees would come from either the Close or The Parade. Of course, there’d have to be a couple of token nominees from ‘Enders or Corrie (Little Mo, Ian, Anthony or maybe Ken Barlow), but as Brookside seems to have cornered the market in this category, they’d be certain of a gong. All the viable nominees were on display in this episode ... Ant Murray, Di Murray, Anthea, Katie. The qualifications are that the character must be po-faced, humourless and exhibit a high degree of self-righteousness coupled with an innate hypocrisy. So who do you think would win?
It’s the day after Anthea’s confessional to Jimmy, from which she’s garnered nothing. The first scene in this episode makes obvious the fact that Anthea no longer loves Ron in the least. In fact, she actively dislikes him. So why not put the man out of his misery and tell him she can’t support him, that she’d like him to have life in prison, just as long as she could keep the house and the bank account and all the Great Grannies’ profits, in order to enable her to achieve her life’s ambition of having a roof over her head, food in the fridge, money for bills and some left over. She could then evict Mike and take poor, pitiful Katie in for comfort.
Oh yes, and think about witness-tampering in this episode summary. It’s against the law, isn’t it? I mean, isn’t that why one of the little scumbags accused of killing Stephen Lawrence had a previous case thrown out of court? I’ll be asking you some questions in the weekly ‘Observations’ section.
Anthea, the first Nominee for Soap PRIG of the Year, is pursuing one of her more harmless domestic hobbies, that of phaffing in the kitchen, only this time it’s in the afternoon. Ron, as usual, stands nearby. He tentatively tries to begin a conversation with her, by asking her if she’s thought anymore about what they discussed the day before - i.e., whether she was going to stick to her promise of lying for him, the sole reason she left the house for a day-long walk the previous day.
Anthea snaps at him to stop pressuring her on this subject. Ron, cowed, tells Anthea that she should do whatever she thinks best when on the stand. Anthea, who never believes anything good about her husband, interprets this as a subtle means of exerting pressure and warns Ron to stop playing mind games. Ron begins to retreat, but pauses briefly to tell his wife that he loves her. Anthea loses all patience now and tells Ron that the more he pressures her, the less she’ll think about it and to go into the lounge and keep Jacqui company. (Is she paranoid or suffering from the same self-obsession that dominates the characters of Vonnie, Di Murray and Katie Rogers? The man could have mentioned the weather and she would have thought he had an ulterior motive. Anthea, do yourself and us a favour, hon. Go down the cop-shop, tell the bizzies you want to change your statement and testify for the prosecution. You’ll sleep better at night for it, if you hate Ron so much).
Jacqui Dixon stands, gazing out of the bay window at the front of the Dixon lounge. Ron approaches her, remarking that she’s been staring out the window for ages. Jacqui explains that Harry’s due back from his hols today, and she’s watching for his return (and for Max’s).
Ron remarks that, whatever his personal opinions of Max Farnham were, he was glad that Max and Jacqui, as Harry’s parents, are getting along so well together. Not that he’d like to see them romantically involved, mind you, he hastens to add.
Upon hearing this, Jacqui laughs nervously.
Anthea appears again, in an even fouler humour, announcing to Ron that she’s going out. Just so he wouldn’t worry about her whereabouts, she sarcastically notes the time of her departure as 3:45PM and informs him that she would be returning at approximately 4:45PM. She totally ignores Jacqui, possibly because Jacqui is still on reasonably civil terms with Ron.
As she leaves, a late-model maroon car approaches the Close. Ron notes it and suggests that it might be the Farnhams returning, but Adele Murray emerges, also back from her hols.
Chez Murray, Marty is having a telephone conversation with the buyer of his car. He concludes the deal and announces as much to Diane, the second Nominee for Soap PRIG of the Year, who - like Anthea - is phaffing about the house, looking busy but doing nothing. The fella from Kirkby has agreed to buy the Murraymobile. She’s concerned that the buyer lives as far away as Kirkby, but Marty tells her he was the only punter who was willing to pay the asking price of £500. Expressing her usual dissatisfaction with anything Marty tries to do for her, Di snaps that £500 wasn’t nearly enough. It’s all very well he’s sold the car, but they still needed another £500 - and there was nothing left of any value to sell.
At that moment, Adele opens the front door and enters. The girl looks rested and happy and greets her father with a hug, telling him she feels fantastic. She’s had a good holiday, after all her trauma. At that moment, the third Nominee for Soap Prick of the Year, Antichrist Ant enters the room, with the seldom-seen Ruby Murray, on her lead. The dog greets Adele enthusiastically and Adele returns the greeting. Antony, the insufferable little hypocrite, stands on the sidelines, mutely condemning his sister. Diane finally announces that it’s good to see Adele and begins fussing over the girl as if she were a living manifestation of ‘The Prodigal Daughter’, telling her how much she missed her etc. Amidst all this homecoming confusion, the school contacts Marty to tell him that the alarm has gone off and he has to report in order to investigate. He decides to couple this occurrence with a good excuse to walk the dog and tells Adele that he’ll catch up with her later. As he leaves with Ruby, Antony decides he can’t bear being in the same room with his sister and dashes upstairs (another avid student in the course Flouncing 101)!
At Bev’s Bar, Jimmy is washing glasses, as he spies ‘Timily’, who are supposed to be skint, sitting there, doing a reasonable impersonation of Mr and Mrs Glum. Tim thanks Jimmy for being so obliging and letting them rent a room at Hotel Corkhill and Jimmy says he hopes that they are settling in all right.
When he leaves, Emily, with her hair scooped back tightly and resembling a pornographic version of ET, still wears a worried look on her brow. Tim asks her the reason for her worry. Emily reveals, indirectly, that she, too, is suffering from the same disease that is eating away at the likes of Vonnie, Diane, Anthea, and Katie - i.e., terminal self-absorption. But because Tim is a mere male and, therefore, incapable of understanding how this malaise affects tormented female minds, she contents herself with telling him that she is worried because she thinks Lindsey Corkhill fancies her.
Lindsey, says the mentally-challenged Emily, is a lezza, and Emily is uncomfortable with that. Why, last night at the dinner table, she was certain Lindsey was eyeing her up. (Perhaps she was just looking at you with loathing, Em). Then, further proof of Lindsey’s obsession became obvious, when Lindsey walked in on Emily when Emily was in the shower.
Tim laughs indulgently and asks why Em should be worried if Lindsey fancied her. Emily retorts that Tim would certainly be worried if a bloke fancied him. Remember that Brian, when he came onto him in Blackpool? Yes, says Tim, but two women together are different from two fellas. Emily wants to know why. Tim says that two girls together are, well ... Sexy.
(Is this the character TIM speaking, or did someone thoughtfully decide to put the views of the esteemed Mr Marquess into the storyline in a vain effort to portray his reasoning behind one of the most unpopular storylines in Brookside’s history from the previous year?) Whereas two hairy blokes getting it on was gross. Anyway, he reckons, Lindsey wouldn’t fancy Em. Lindsey only went for posh birds, like that ‘What’s-Her-Name’ who was a friend of Bev’s. (How quickly one forgets Shelley, but she WAS forgettable, n’est-ce pas?)
Anyway, finishes Tim, the couple have bigger problems. They still have no money.
The new doc, Neil Kelly, who looks like he’s long on talk and short on knowledge (henceforth being christened ‘Dr Do-A-Little’ as in ‘Do a little dance, Make a little love, Get down tonight, Get down tonight’), is moving his personal effects into Ray and Jessie’s. Mick rounds the corner and asks the obvious - if he’s Ray and Jessie’s new boarder. The two introduce themselves. Mick surmises the fact that ‘Dr Do-A-Little’ is about to become a resident of the Close AND that he’s about to move in with Jessie and Ray. Mick jokes that the doc wants to keep an eye on those two.
Why? Do-A-Little wants to know. Are they serial killers or something? No, Mick assures him, they just might draft the doc in as a fully-paid-up member of the cardy army. At that moment, Jacqui Dixon emerges from the Dixon house to greet Mick and the new doc. Do-A-Little recognises her from The Parade, and Jacqui tells him she owns the Health Club. He explains that he does a few days a week at the Walk-In Clinic, before continuing the process of moving in.
As the doc goes, Mick asks how Ron’s coping. Jacqui replies that it’s difficult, but Ron was doing his best to bear up. She remarks that she’s heard about Vonnie leaving and apologises to Mick. Mick observes that only a few months ago, Jacqui and Gobby were a couple and so were he and Yvonne. Now they were like a couple of left-over bookends. He jokes that, as two dumped parts of two former couples, perhaps he and Jacqui should get together, eh? (Now who’s a dirty old man?)
Jacqui demurs gracefully, just as Mick catches sight of a taxi approaching, bearing Max and the kids.
‘Now there’s a man who could use all the love he can get,’ observes Mick, saying that Max still isn’t over the death of Susannah yet.
Max, Harry and Emma pour out of the taxi to be greeted by Jacqui. Jacqui makes a fuss of the kids and asks Max how the holiday went. Max begins a good-natured moan. The weather was awful, there was no hot water and Lisa’s friends were all so boring - basically disaffected, middle-class Labour supporters. (I didn’t know Phil Redmond holidayed in the South of France). Laden with luggage, Max, Jacqui and the kids adjourn to the Farnham house to unpack.
TIMILY are still hogging the bar, voicing concerns over their lack of funds. (What DO they do with the money they earn?) Emily reminds Tim that they still have her job at the salon, but Tim reiterates that she makes next to nothing there; and they need to have money NOW. Tim suggests that he could break into a few posh cars (like Do-A-Little’s BMW?). He could nick a few CD players and radios from them that would fetch them a few hundred quid. That should be enough to tide them over for awhile.
And what happens if he gets caught? Emily wants to know. Tim remind her chauvinistically that they are man and wife and that she’s ‘only young’ and needs looking after. Well, says Emily in reply, he’d be doing a pretty good job looking after her if he were to end up in nick ... Because he would. She reminds him that he promised her there would be no more robbery, and Tim reluctantly agrees.
She rises to go, saying that she has to get back to the salon and then hurry home to change. She wanted to get home before Lindsey got there as she didn’t like the idea of changing when there was a lezza about.
Jacqui and Max are in the Farnham kitchen while Harry and Emma are heard playing in the back garden. Jacqui makes Max tell her again how bad the holiday was, repeating the awful weather, the lack of hot water and the boring company. Max tells Jacqui how much he missed her and presents her with a necklace he bought whilst there. (Actually, it looks as though he bought it at Woolworth’s, but hey, it’s a gift). Jacqui asks him to help her put it on.
As he’s fastening the clasp, Jacqui asks him if Lisa’s ‘evil plan’ worked - the one about pairing him off with her friend? Max admits that the woman was nice, indeed, she was attractive ... But she was SO boring. Jacqui asks him if he snogged her, and Max jokes that he’s been waiting all that time in hopes of catching a snog off Jacqui; and the pair embrace.
Jacqui confesses to Max that she really needed him the past few days, with everything that had happened to Ron and the fiasco at Clint’s funeral. Max raises the subject about going public with their relationship, but Jacqui isn’t too sure at the moment, citing Ron’s reaction. It wouldn’t be a good time, she says, especially as Ron really needed her attention at the moment. Max suddenly has an idea. He suggests that he get Di Murray to look after the kids for the rest of the afternoon, whilst he and Jacqui partake of a bit of what we in Virginia call ‘Afternoon Delight’.
Adele Murray is slinking out of the Murray house, when she’s confronted by Mick Johnson, who calls out to her. Glancing at him apprehensively and trying to edge away, Adele tells him she’s on her way to the shops. Mick wants to know how she’s doing. Lamely, she tells him she’s fine, great.
Mick informs her that he’s spoken to Leo recently on the phone, and Leo’s still mighty ‘cut up’ about what happened. He’s sorry about everything and he feels bad. Adele asks rhetorically if Leo felt as bad as she felt after her abortion. Did either he or Mick realise how much she bled? And proving she’s the ace pupil in the Brookside Academy of Flouncing, she flounces off in the direction of the shops.
Tim, minus Em, is still seated in the Bar, where Jimmy is still on shift. He’s badgering Jimmy again about going on the rob. The truth is, he needs money, and fast. Jimmy should certainly realise that most crimes these days go unsolved. All he needs is a few tips from Jimmy re how to ‘do’ a few houses and such.
Jimmy leans close to him menacingly and asks if he learned nothing from his stint in prison? If not, why not think about Clint Moffatt? Why not enter a house and get caught? After all, if Ron Dikko can get hold of a gun, anyone cany.
Looking uncomfortable at that observation, Tim remarks cryptically, ‘Don’t I know it!’ As he hears that, Jimmy asks what he can possibly mean.
Max is seen leaving Harry and Emma at the Murrays’, to be watched by a willing Marty and Adele. He leaves and Marty sits down again with his daughter. He’s obviously been apprising her of all the goings-on in the family whilst she’s been away.
Adele is surprised to hear about Katrina and the Plank breaking up. She was certain that Trona had her claws into the Plank big time. Was the Plank playing away, she wants to know.
Marty says it had more to do with Geoff the Meff trying it on with Diane. Adele remarks that Geoff was a slimeball, and the thought of him trying it on with anyone would give the stoutest heart a fright. Marty confirms that Trona and the Plank called it a day, when Trona believed Geoff’s version of the story, and the Plank didn’t.
Adele them remarks on the sale of the Murraymobile. Marty tells her it was to fund another attempt at IVF. Adele says she hopes that this attempt works. Marty reminds Adele that sooner or later she would have to talk about her abortion. Unbeknownst to the pair of them, Prick Nominee Antichrist Ant stands around the corner, eavesdropping.
Marty is giving the standard ‘good father’ talk to Adele, saying that everyone is going to have to try very hard to be friends with each other for the next few months here - and that includes a special effort being made by Adele to be friends with Di. Adele looks at her father, asking him to ensure that, on Diane’s part, there’s no kicking off against Adele again, because, the girl emphasises, she’s sorry about her abortion and she genuinely wants their IVF to work.
Disgusted at the turn of the conversation he’s hearing but in which he has no part, Antony walks away from his post.
Anthea, meanwhile, is strolling across The Parade, when she’s accosted by the FOURTH nominee in Soap Prig of the Year, poor, pitiful Katie. Anthea stops and greets the miseryguts, who thanks her for coming to Saint Clint the Flint’s funeral. Anthea asks if Katie’s all right and - bang on cue! - Katie pretends to wipe an invisible tear away from her cheek. (This is psychological bullying at its best!) Anthea remarks that Katie is crying and insists that she go into the bar with her for a drink.
Back at the Murrays’, Adele approaches the sullen, little bigot that happens to be her brother. She asks him if he’s still not speaking to her. Ant replies that she wouldn’t like what he had to say, so he’s keeping quiet. She asks what he’s doing with himself for the holidays - if he’s got a summer project to work on or anything. Antony reminds her that he’s just left junior school. Between schools, there’s no summer project on which to work. Attempting to force him to communicate with her, she asks if he’s bought any new CD’s to which she can listen.
Ant spitefully remarks that CD’s are now out of the question. They can’t afford CD’s anymore. They’re trying to have a baby!
Anthea and poor pitiful Katie sit in the Bar, nursing their respective drinks. Anthea wants to explain to poor pitiful Katie, awash in her own self-pity and loving every minute of it, the real reason why she and Rachel the Dimwit came to Clint’s funeral. It was more than just a token gesture of support for her. It wasn’t even for Ron’s sake. She and Rachel had genuinely liked Saint Clint the Flint, and she felt that he didn’t deserve to die.
(Now listen carefully, viewers, because Anthea is about to be pressured again.)
Katie remarks spitefully that even though Anthea thought that, Ron thought Clint deserved to die.
(Rant: STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT HERE AND NOW! WILL SOMEONE TELL THIS THICK-AS-PIG-SHIT, INCREDIBLY JEALOUS, AND DEFINITELY STUPID WOMAN THAT RON DID NOT NOT NOT KNOW THAT THE PERSON WHOM HE SHOT WAS CLINT MOFFATT!!!!! THAT RON DID NOT INTEND TO SHOOT ANYONE AT ALL, THAT THE GUN WENT OFF AND IT WAS ALL A HORRIBLE ACCIDENT!!!!! AND WHAT IS KATIE ROGERS, CLINT’S FIANCEE, DOING APPROACHING THE DIXONS AND THE MAIN WITNESS TO THE EVENT, WHEN SHE SHOULD BE UNDER A COURT ORDER, ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHER MOFFATT FAMILY AND COHORTS NOT TO APPROACH THE DIXONS!!!!!)
Anthea asserts, rightly, that what Katie is suggesting just isn’t true. Ron thought nothing of the sort. (Nice to know you recognise that, Anth). Anyway, she hastily adds, it’s best that they not talk about Ron, but Katie is having nothing of it. (What you should do, Anthea, is get up and leave her to it. This is pressure too.)
Poor pitiful Katie is whingeing about not having anyone to talk to, when Anthea asks if she’s missing Jacqui, by any chance. Katie hates to admit it, but she literally thinks about Jacqui all the time. She hears a comment or a joke and wonders how Jacqui would respond. She asks Anthea if Jacqui’s missing her. (Er, not really, Katie. You see, she’s got herself another fella, but you’ll soon see Maxie off, won’t you, you jealous, vindictive little bitch?) Anthea admits that, of course, Jacqui misses Katie.
Again, Katie won’t be swayed and starts to put pressure on Anthea about why she’s stays with Ron - something that is TOTALLY out of order and shows what a manipulative and bullying little bint Katie is. How could Anthea support Ron after what he’s done? (FOR CHRIST’S SAKE, WOMAN, GET UP OFF YOUR ARSE AND WALK OUT! NOW! YOU WON’T BROOK BEING PRESSURED BY RON, SO WALK IT! THIS IS TAMPERING WITH A WITNESS. KATIE DOESN’T REALISE, BUT SHE COULD JUST GET RON DIKKO’S CASE THROWN OUT OF COURT).
Anthea, a bit firmer now, reiterates that she doesn’t want to talk about Ron. In fact, it’s time she were getting home; she’d been gone much too long now. Katie rises, insisting on having another drink, and goes to order a round.
As she departs, Jimmy hails Anthea. Anthea apologises for burdening him with her worries the previous day, but Jimmy brushes that aside. If she ever needs to talk again, he’s her man. (Somehow, I’d be a bit loathe to pour my feelings out to someone who had divided his house in half and virtually driven his innocent wife to distraction after slagging her off to the entire neighbourhood. So Jimmy’s gone from mental to mentor now, has he? Good one, Brookie! Still, I guess that beats transvestism or a gender crisis!)
Anthea, however, reiterates that she’d appreciate Jimmy not letting on to Ron that she’d talked to him. (Another secret, Anth? And you so worried about lying to the Court. Lying is an everyday part of your life, isn’t it?)
Marty Murray encounters Ron Dixon on the Close. Ron asks Marty if he’s seen Anthea, by any chance? Marty jokes about Ron losing Anthea again, but Ron says Anthea had told him she’d be back by a certain time, and she still hadn’t come home. Marty takes the opportunity to ask Ron if he’d be interested in buying a Liverpool Season Ticket. (Er, doesn’t he realise that Ron might not have the opportunity to use this!)
Ron replies that he supports ‘the other team’. He’s surprised, however, that a Red would be selling a season ticket. ‘It’s never her idea to make you!’ He jokes. Marty should stand up to his wife.
At that moment, Dr Do-A-Little makes an appearance. Ron suggests that Marty pitch his ticket to him, perhaps he was a Red. Well, he is and he’s interested. Marty points out that the season tickets are for the Centenary Stand (obviously a good seat - er, I thought Marty was skint at the best of times - so how come he can afford EXPENSIVE Liverpool season tickets?) He offers them to the doc at £300, but Do-A-Little scoffs, asking if the tickets are for ALL the home games. They eventually settle on £350, and the Doc pulls out his chequebook.
As he departs, Ron jokes to Marty that women will never regret burning their bras. With that remark, Ron departs.
Mick appears and remarks to Marty that he’d seen Adele and tried to apologise for what had happened with Leo. Marty tells him shortly that it’s best that he just stay away from their situation.
Meanwhile, Max and Jacqui are enjoying their afterglow of Afternoon Delight, lying in the Farnham bed. Jacqui, like any other Brookside ingenue, has nary a hair out of place and her make-up isn’t at all smudged. They lie silently for awhile, until Max asks what she’s thinking. (Er, does Jacqui think?)
True to form, Jacqui replies that she’s thinking of absolutely nothing at all. However, she is overwhelmed by what’s been happening with her family during the past few weeks. Max tells her that she has to make an effort to stay sane and well, throughout the whole ordeal.
Max suddenly asks Jacqui if she believes in life after death. He wonders if Susannah can see them. Jacqui says that, even though they fell out, Susannah was a good mate of hers and she missed her. Maybe she is looking down on them right now. Max is certain that Susannah would approve of their relationship. Max, again, tells Jacqui how much he missed her. He still can’t believe he let himself be whisked miles away to stay with those boring, disaffected, Labour twits when he could have been right there with and for Jacqui. He tells Jacqui that he loves her.
Jimmy and Tim return home to be told by Emily that tea would be ready in 10 minutes. The gloss of living in Hotel Corkhill must have worn off, or Emily now feels so comfortable that she doesn’t have to smarm around Jimmy anymore, because she tells the pair of them not to think that her fixing tea would be a regular thing. She asks uneasily where Lindsey is, and Jimmy tells her Lindsey is doing an extra shift at the garage.
Tim jokes that Emily would be disappointed, as she was pining for some female company. As Emily disappears in a huff, Tim calls out for her to save some dinner for Lindsey.
Jimmy senses that Tim was deliberately baiting Emily, because Tim still wanted to have a word with Jimmy in hopes that Jimmy would help him with his crime plan; but Jimmy has a thought that’s been on his mind for awhile. ‘Tell me it wasn’t you who got that gun for Ron Dikko,’ he urges Tim.
Tim can’t look at him, which tells Jimmy that Tim DID get the gun for Ron. Jimmy asks Tim who knows about this? Tim admits that Emily knows and Ron, of course, and Mike. But Mike and Ron have promised to keep quiet to the bizzies. They’re thankful to Tim because he saved Anthea a few weeks back, when the Moffatts tried to have her knocked down by a car. He’s kept the Moffatts away from the Dixons and they’re grateful.
Jimmy shakes his head seriously. ‘Then you ARE in need of a tipsheet,’ he surmises. ‘Because you’ve learned nothing from your stay at Her Majesty’s.’
Jimmy reiterates. Buying a gun, he says, is like buying a house. There’s a chain involved. Now where did Tim get the gun? Tim confesses he got the gun from Sotto, whom he’d met inside. Jimmy’d met him - the curly top who was there the night of the party.
Jimmy says he sincerely hopes that Ron doesn’t say anything about the gun to anyone. Because Ron is Tim’s weak spot. He may genuinely try not to say anything that would incriminate Tim; but once his brief got going at him - ‘This information might help your case, Mr Dixon - shorten your sentence, Mr Dixon - It could be worse if you refuse to tell us the name of the man who sold you the gun, Mr Dixon’. Ron could be forced to identify Tim as the man who sold him the gun, and then Tim would go back to prison again.
Anthea and Katie are still seated in the Bar. Anthea is making an effort to try to defend Ron to Katie’s accusations. She remarks that Ron didn’t bear Katie any animosity. Katie interrupts in that cloying, annoying, bullying way of hers, saying that Ron had a choice: He didn’t have to pull the trigger. But Anthea is so sensible and so caring. How could she stand by Ron like that? She had a choice too; she didn’t have to stand by him. Anthea is trying to stop her, when Ron appears.
Anthea protests to Ron, asking him not to react, when poor pitiful Bullybrains rises, saying she’s going because the atmosphere’s suddenly become bad in the bar. And she pushes roughly past Ron.
Ron feels even more betrayed. Anthea looks shame-faced as Ron asks rhetorically, ‘How could you? Well, now I know where you stand for supporting me. You just spat in my face!’ And he turns and leaves, amid Anthea’s faint protests. (Quite right. She wouldn’t sanction being pressured by Ron. Why didn’t she call a halt to these proceedings with that mincing, little bully and leave?)
Back at the Murrays’, the talk is all of what’s for tea. Everyone is acting falsely cheerful, especially Diane towards Adele, joking about Antony having chickenburgers for his tea. Marty appears, brandishing the cheque for £350. Diane is speechless, wanting to know where he got that money, from whom and for what. Marty tells her he sold the new doc his season ticket for £350. For once, Diane’s gob is firmly shut. She can’t believe Marty would sell something as dear as his season ticket for her. Marty is sad, but acknowledges that it was for a good cause, as his selfish wife hugs him, having again got what she wanted.
Adele pipes up, ‘Well done.’ But Antony callously puts a damper on the situation by asking her why she said that. Did she think that their parents’ new baby would replace the one she got rid of? Didn’t she realise that everyone here was just pretending for her benefit? Well, he wasn’t pretending ...
Immediately Diane and Marty shush him, with Marty ordering him peremptorily up to his room and follows him upstairs to mete verbal punishment.
Left alone with Adele, Diane tries to apologise brightly, but Adele isn’t to be cosseted. She remarks to Diane that she’s only been home a couple of hours and she realises Diane’s been trying to come onto her like the perfect mother, which she isn’t. Diane looks puzzled. Adele continues. She hasn’t forgotten how Diane treated her in the days after finding out she was pregnant and leading up to the abortion. And there was, of course, the time that Diane hit her. Just for that one moment, Adele says, and for the only time since Diane had married Marty, it felt as though Diane were Adele’s stepmother and NOT her real mother. Adele tells her that she won’t forget that, and Diane is stunned. (Good! She should be made to remember that at every opportunity).
Max and Jacqui are saying their farewells in the foyer of the Farnham home. Max has to put the dinner on for the kids. He remarks to Jacqui about going public with ther relationship, but Jacqui isn’t ready for the world to know, telling Max that she fancies keeping him to herself for a bit longer. They share a kiss, and then as Max opens the door for her and she makes to depart, they share an even bigger snog on the Farnham doorstep. (So much for no one on the Close twigging, the way Jessie Shadwick pulls back nets to have a gander, not to mention Di Murray). At that moment, Mick Johnson comes around the corner of his house and spies the couple in a passionate snog.
Now: Who’s your choice for Soap Prick (Prig) of the Year? The nominees are:
Anthea Dixon
Rachel Dixon
Antony Murray
Diane Murray
Katie Rogers
Mo Morgan
Dr Anthony Trueman
Ian Beale
Ken Barlow
(P.S. The last four don’t count, really).
Summary © 2001 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001