As the action is fast and furious on Brookside for this episode, let’s get straight to grips with it ...
Harry is caught, hanging head-first out a window on the top-floor of a derelict high-rise block. In the car-park below, Lindsey, Jimmy and Tim stand watching the child in fixed horror, as a beaten Gobby lies at their feet. Harry is repeatedly screaming for his Mummy (whether he’s got round to calling Jacqui ‘Mummy’ or not is anyone’s guess).
The avenging trio are, at first, at a loss as to what to do. Jimmy kicks the prone Gobby roughly and demands to know the flat number where Harry is being held, Even when he’s physically defeated, Gobby refuses to give such information, still maintaining that he has nothing to do with taking Harry. Thinking swiftly, Lindsey suggests that someone ring the fire brigade. Jimmy calls up to Harry, telling the child not to move, as Tim pulls out his mobile to ring the firemen.
Looking up at the child, Jimmy assesses his whereabouts and tells Lindsey that it looks as though he’s on the top floor, in the flat on the left. He instructs her to get up there as quickly as possible. Lindsey runs off, followed by Tim, who hands his mobile to Jimmy.
Back at the Close, Max is still comforting Jacqui, trying to reassure her that Harry will be found.
Left alone with Gobby, Jimmy hauls the Blobby Yob to his feet, holding him by the jacket. Jimmy warns Gobby of the consequences befalling him, should anything happen to young Harry. Then, without another word, Jimmy nuts the yob again and Gobby falls to the ground, whilst Jimmy stands rubbing his forehead. Gazing up at the dangling child, Jimmy takes of and runs around the building to position himself under the window of the flat where Harry is. Once he leaves, Blobby Gobby heaves himself heavily to his feet and slopes off guiltily.
Ron and Anthea are maintaining a tense vigil in the Dixon house, Ron threatening that if anything should happen to Harry, he’d wish the kidnapping scum dead.
There follows brief scenes of Lindsey, followed by Tim, entering the building and dashing frantically up the many flights of stairs.
Ron and Anthea stand rigidly by their front window, Anthea murmuring ‘Come on, come on, come on’ like some sort of mantra.
Another brief scene shows Gobby tearing off frantically in his car from the scene.
Another brief scene shows Lindsey stopping to catch her breath on what appears to be the sixth floor landing of the building. She and Tim scurry on up more stairs, until they reach the top floor and are confronted by the door on the left. Lindsey calls through the letter box to Harry, telling him not to move, that they were coming in to get him. She then pushes against the door, but, of course, it’s locked.
Tim steps forward and voluteers to try. After three or four attempts, the door gives and he and Lindsey run into the flat. They see Harry hanging over the window ledge. Approaching the child slowly, Lindsey tells him not to move, then she swiftly grabs him and spirits him away from the window ledge, glimpsing Jimmy standing in the car park below the window, with his arms outstretched.
Lindsey is shaking from head to toe, as she soothes Harry, who oddly seems to be smiling and gazing at someone or something off camera, telling him that he’ll soon be home with his mummy and daddy.
The phone rings at the Farnhams’, and Max answers it. It’s the police, informing him that Harry has been found. He tells a jubilant Jacqui as much, saying that Harry’s safe and well. Jacqui asks his whereabouts and Max tells her that he’s been taken to hospital. He’s not hurt; they simply wanted to check him over. He grabs Emma, telling her the good news and the three dash from the house to go to the hospital.
Before getting into the car, however, Jacqui runs next door and bangs on the Dixons’ front window. Through the glass, she mouths to Ron that Harry’s been found. Ron and Anthea open the front door, and as Max hurries Jacqui into the car, she tells Ron and Anthea to phone Mike and tell everyone who’s been looking for the child that Harry’s been found.
Tim, Jimmy and Lindsey sit on a green not far from the flats, catching their breath after their ordeal. Lindsey and Tim are amazed that Gobby was still maintaining that he knew nothing about Harry. Tim is indignant that the yob just up and ‘got off’. Never mind, comforts Jimmy, in the end they had rescued the kiddie. Lindsey admits that when she grabbed Harry, for a second she had a nightmare of dropping him.
Tim is still fuming over Gobby, saying he hoped the bizzies caught him and that ‘the lying beaut’ went down. As he and Lindsey chat, no one notices at first that Jimmy is having a crisis attack. He’s breathing rapidly and wittering about not having had that much excitement in months, his eyes bulging maniacally, he begins to chant the numerical stress scale given him by his doctors. Tim stares at him, whilst Lindsey is concerned that Jimmy might be going into another manic phase; but Jimmy eventually calms down and tells them he’s all right.
Max and Jacqui are reunited with Harry at Accident and Emergency. They hold and cuddle the little boy, cooing that they can’t believe he’s back safe and sound.
Outside, in ‘Chairs’ (to use an ER term), Mike sits with poor pitiful Katie. He’s ordered her a taxi and he tells her it should arrive soon. He’s also telling her that Harry’s been found, safe and sound. He was saying that Ron was ballistic on the phone with the news. Now he was waiting here for Jacqui and Max to finish with Harry, before cadging a lift back with them. Hearing this, Katie volunteers to wait outside for the taxi. As she rises to leave, Jacqui comes into the ‘Chairs’ area, carrying Harry. She spots Katie and has a brief moment of awkward hesitation.
Mike rushes toward his sister. She’s surprised to see him there, and more surprised that he should be with Katie. Mike explains that Ron told him that she and Max would be there, and he also explains that Katie had an accident and he had to accompany her to Casualty. As Katie slopes sadly and self-pityingly away, Mike hugs Jacqui and Harry.
Emily and Rachel, with Beth in the pushchair, walk back through the footpath to the Close. Emily has finished work for the day. Rachel, skint as ever, has somehow found enough money to be shopping all day.Emily is telling Rachel about Tim, Mike, Lindsey and Jimmy rescuing Harry, whose kidnapping is news to the usually dim Rachel.
Emily admits she knew nothing about it either, as she was stuck at work all day. She only heard of the proceeding via phone calls from Tim. She felt so helpless. Rachel feels guilty having been out shopping all day. If she’d been at home, maybe she could have helped too (by depressing everyone, telling them not to get their hopes up etc). Anyway, as Em takes her leave, she tells Rachel that she’s made up that Tim was responsible for such an heroic deed.
Robbie is seen, panting heavily and bruised and bloodied, putting his getaway car in a lock-up garage somewhere. As he shuts the up-and-over garage door, he leans heavily (well, he’s hardly slight) against the structure, panting at the exertion.
Back at Hotel Corkhill, Tim, Jim and Lindsey stand around the Corkhill kitchen, regaling Emily with first-hand accounts of the day’s proceedings. Lindsey makes a snide remark about barely expecting a thanks from that ‘snooty Jacqui Dixon’, when Jimmy proposes that they all have a take-away meal for the evening. Lindsey agrees, saying that after all that, she didn’t feel like cooking.
Jim hands a note to Emily, asking her to go around to the local Chinese and get something for them, pointing out the takeaway card by the phone. Emily suggests that she phone ahead and order a Chinese Banquet, and Jimmy concurs, telling the girl to get whatever she wants. (These are people, who are seriously skint, mind you). Em makes the phone call, whilst Tim asks Jimmy how it feels to have a real-live hero for a daughter.
Lindsey is embarrassed at this praise and brushes his comment aside, saying she only did what any mother would have done. Or father, reminds Jimmy. Lindsey says that she kept thinking how she would react if anyone had ever tried to kidnap Kylie. (I should think she would be grateful - it would give her a lot more freedom and a lot less responsibility). Jimmy says that if anyone had tried that stunt with Wills, he’d be in bits.
Tim suddenly reminds the two others that Harry wasn’t the only thing they’d come away with, and he shows them Gobby’s wallet. Jimmy and Lindsey are astonished. Tim confesses that he lifted it off fat Gobby, whilst they were tussling. In fact, he’d had it on him the whole time he was giving his particulars to the police. He opens the wallet and pulls out a wad of notes, suggesting that they split the takings three ways.
Jimmy and Lindsey exchange a look, but Lindsey assures Tim that he should keep the whole of the money. Jimmy agrees, saying that Tim deserves a bit of luck. Tim offers to pay for the Chinese, but Jimmy encourages him to spend the money on himself and Emily.
The Farnhams (because Jacqui is virtually a Farnham) and Mike return from the hospital with Harry. Ron, Anthea and Rachel run to meet them. However, not everyone is appreciative of Harry’s return. As Anthea takes Harry from Mike’s arms and smothers the child in hugs and kisses, an extremely THICK and UNGRATEFUL Rachel takes umbrage with Mike for even going on the mission. Just WHAT was he thinking of, going off on car chases like that? Mike replies shortly that he was going to rescue his nephew, but she grumbles on.
(I ask you, is this woman thick or is she just a miserable bitch? She can’t even praise her husband for doing something as worthy as this. It’s as if she WANTS Mike to sit around and vegetate so she’ll have a good opportunity to present herself as the disgruntled, struggling little wifey. She needs someone to verbally put this thick brainless bitch in her place and soon.
Ron, meanwhile, has some crow to eat. He hugs Jacqui and then grabs Max and gives him a hug too. He has something to say to Max, however. And he begins his humility speech. Max knows, he says, that there’s never been any love lost between Max and Ron. And Ron never thought he’d ever be able to give his blessing to a union of Jacqui and Max. But he’s seen today, how much the pair love each other, and how tender and supporting Max was for Jacqui, how he took responsibility for her and cared for her. He knows now that Max is the man for Jacqui, and he hopes that the couple have a long and happy life together.
Max is choked up, promising Ron that he’ll take care of Jacqui. Jacqui is overcome too and hugs Ron, who envelopes both her and Max in a communal hug. (Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!)
There’s a knock on the door of the flat shared by poor pitiful Katie and the Naughty Nurse. Katie opens the door to find a battered and bruised Gobby. He immediately begins by asking Katie how she is, after having been knocked unconscious by him. Poor pitiful Katie replies that she’s OK, no thanks to Gobby.
Poor misunderstood Gobby makes a smarmy apology for hurting her, but he had to get away from that bunch fast, he says. Did Katie know that they had caught up with Gobby? Beat him, robbed him and left him for dead, they did.
Katie asks if Gobby knew that the bizzies had been around her flat, asking her about her part in Harry’s abduction? They evey asked if she thought HE’D taken Harry. Gobby blatantly lies, telling her he had nothing to do with Harry’s kidnapping. But he has a favour to ask poor pitiful Katie. Could he come in and clean himself up a bit? He couldn’t let poor, delicate Ma Moffatt see him in this state. Katie agrees reluctantly, telling him he could come in and sort himself out.
Jimmy, meanwhile, tells Mike about Gobby’s fate. Mike only wishes he’d been with the lot - he’d have loved the chance to have kicked Gobby’s head in, but Jimmy warns him again that it would have given ammunition to the prosecution in the case against Ron.
Gobby is still filling Katie’s thick, self-pitying head with lies. Did Katie realise that that bunch of scallies had come round his house and actually HIT his poor, defenceless Ma? The woman was beside herself. Katie looks at Gobby distrustfully for once and remarks wryly and pointedly that of course it’s WRONG to go around hitting women.
Gobby immediately gets her drift and jumps to his own defence. Everyone won’t let him forget that he hit Jacqui. Well, he’d have Katie know that he only hit her once. (That’s once too often, you arsehole, and your hygenically-challenged mate sitting beside you was only recently all too eager for Jacqui to be on the receiving end of a ‘good going-over’).
No one ever talks about what Jacqui did to him, Gobby continues. She lied continuously to him about her involvement with Max Farnham, two-timing him like that. Incredibly, Katie is stupid enough to believe this claim, after having shared a flat with Jacqui at the time and having seen how involved Jacqui was with Gobby. She knew Jacqui was afraid of Gobby’s violent reaction to the fact that Jacqui continued visiting her son, which was why she lied about seeing the child. Max was only on the periphery and was subject to Gobby’s delusions, being male and being in close proximity to Jacqui.
Silly Katie remarks callously that Jacqui never told her about her involvement with Max. She agrees that Jacqui only USED Gobby, saying that Jacqui uses people all the time. (Brookside, if you ALLOW Jacqui Dixon to resume her friendship with this worthless piece of greasy, mustachioed flesh, you deserve to be cancelled. AXE KATIE NOW!!!)
At Hotel Corkhill, the discussion about the day’s traumatic events continues. Jimmy remarks that he supposes Jacqui and Max Farnham are just thrilled to bits at the thought of young Harry being safe and well. Tim’s mind, however, is on other things - specifically, how easy it was to turn Gobby over and the buzz he got being back on the opposite side of the law again. He holds out the wad of Gobby’s money as living proof of the profits of a life of crime. How easy was that? He asks, rhetorically. Knowing that Jimmy and Lindsey have been tempted down that route previously, he invites them to join him in a triumvirate crime spree.
Why should Linds have to slog day in, day out in a thankless job she hated for peanuts when she could have it all so easily? And Jimmy ... Jimmy was a dog’s body, a pop man in the local pub. Why should he have to put up with that sort of grind?
Once again, Jimmy regales Tim with the story of the hapless and unloveable Little Jimmy. Dear Little Jimmy was dead because he was tempted by the easy money route. Did Tim want to end up like that? Lindsey chimes in too, saying that crime cost her her business and all of her friends. No, thanks, they’d been there, done that, read the book, seen the movie and bought the tee-shirt.
The doorbell rings at that moment. Jimmy answers it, to find Jacqui and Max on the doorstep, being followed by Emily, with the Chinese Banquet. Max announces that he and Jacqui wanted to stop by in order to thank Jimmy and Co for the part they played in saving Harry’s life. Jimmy invites the pair inside.
Mike and Ron sit on the sofa in the Dixon front room, Mike relating to Ron how Jimmy and the others had found and rescued Harry, and how they’d dealt with Gobby. Ron is amazed, a Corkhill coming to the aid of a Dixon, and meting out street justice in the bargain. He is even less amazed, knowing that the culprit who took Harry had been Gobby all along. The police had told Ron, he tells Mike, that they reckoned that Gobby had a good enough motive.
Max and Jacqui stand in the Corkhill kitchen, thanking Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim, profusely. Jacqui admits that this has been the worst experience of her life, with her son missing, and that her heart was in her mouth most of the time, in anxiety. As for hearts, she was well within a heartbeat of losing Harry. Jim asks how the boy is, and Jacqui says that he’s with Ron and Anthea, playing in the paddling pool with Beth and Emma. He seems fine.
Jimmy and Lindsey invite Jacqui and Max to stay and share the Chinese with them, reckoning that all that worry must have made them hungry. Max agrees, thankfully. Tim proposes a toast to Harry’s safe return, but Jacqui and Max suggest that the Corkhills and Tim should be toasted Jacqui faces Lindsey and wonders at the unlikelyhood of the Dixons and the Corkhills being allied through this event. They’ve faced some tough times, usually in opposition of each other in the past - none moreso than she and Lindsey. The two women agree to put all the past behind them now.
Misery loves company, and miserable, vindictive Gobby is filling poor pitiful Katie’s head with falsehoods and slander about Jacqui. Jacqui, announces Gobby, was nothing less than a two-faced bitch. Clint did right in choosing Katie. (Clint MUST have been a masochist, I say. Imagine waking up to Katie’s po-faced gob daily). A fella would know who and what Katie is, he says. Straight. Honest. (HAHAHAHAHAHA). Genuine. Everything Jacqui’s not.
Poor Saint Clint. He never even had the chance to appreciate Katie’s qualities. Gobby and Katie sadly agree that they both miss Clint. Gobby is so angry, that he wants to kill Ron Dixon for Clint’s sake. But he realises, he says nobly, that that isn’t what RCLint would have wanted. He would have wanted the case to proceed through the courts, and for Ron to receive due justice. He continues to prey on the sympathies of the vulnerable miseryguts, feeding her self-pitying ego, by assuring her that he meant what he said - she was the best.
Rising painfully, he informs Katie that he has to go back to see about poor Ma Moffatt. Katie is concerned that the posse may have returned to her house. Gobby says that he hopes not; if they’re anywhere near the place, he’ll kill them. Katie stops that talk, advising Gobby that he should go to the police and tell them what Tim and the Corkhill’s did to him. He shouldn’t try to sort this stuff out himself. That would be patently stupid, she says.
Meanwhile, Rachel is proving to be an singularly ungrateful cow. She’s having the mother of all goes at Mike about his part in the rescue. Poor Mike can’t win. He would have been taken to task for not lifting a finger to save his nephew, if he’d chosen not to go; now he’s copping it for helping in the effort to find Harry. Rachel is a bitch, and a boring, whingeing, whining bitch at that. Note to the new producer: Another mad cow to be culled.
What if Mike hadn’t come back? She argues. What would have become of her and baby Beth? (You would have scarpered to Bristol, you silly bitch, if Mandy could have stood to have you). Suddenly changing tack, Rachel tries to explain her reaction to Mike, saying that she wouldn’t want Beth to have lost her dad, as she knows what it’s like to lose a dad. (Not very convincing, Rache). She and Mike exchange a hug.
Max and Jacqui have returned home. Max remarks how nice it was of the Corkhills to have invited them to share their tea. Jacqui agrees that it had turned out to be a nice evening, even if it did mean licking Lindsey Corkhill’s boots. Jacqui tells Max how much she loves him and the children. She thanks Max for being rock solid for her, at this time when she was so scared.
Taking her in his arms, Max confesses that he hasn’t even started being supportive of her yet. Suddenly, a brick comes hurling through the Farnham kitchen window. Gobby’s ugly, twisted angry gob appears. Jacqui and Max cling to one another in horror.
Gobby viciously asks if they’re scared. Scared? Why, he hadn’t even started on the real stuff yet. He wants the couple to know that his brother’s dead and his Ma’s battered because of them. Glaring at the pair, he informs them that he’s ‘had Harry once, and he’ll get him again’ (tantamount to admitting kidnapping). As for Jacqui, she’d better be careful, because he would be there at every corner she turned ... He was out for her and Ron.
He disappears as quickly as he appeared, whilst Max hurriedly calls the police, informing them that he and Jacqui were being attacked. Jacqui is a bundle of nerves again. She doesn’t know how much more of this she can take. She’s certain that all this horror is raining down on her because of her past act of selling Harry to Susannah.
At Hotel Corkhill, Jimmy’s having a well-earned nap. Emily, meanwhile, sits at the kitchen table. It appears that, in Tim’s absence, she’s been having nag lessons from Rachel, for she’s doing a singularly good impression of the ungrateful bitch - she even has a lack of brain to match. Whatever was Tim thinking of, doing what he did? Did he want to go back to prison?
The phone rings and Lindsey takes the call, her conversation droning in the background to Timily’s arguing. Tim goes on about having the wallet in his possession the whole time he was giving his name and address to the police. Lindsey finishes the phone call, and Jimmy has been awakened by all the argy-bargy.
Speaking of police, says Lindsey, that was the police on the phone. Jimmy jokingly asks if they want to give Lindsey a medal for rescuing Harry. No, answers Lindsey, looking worried. They want her and Tim to come down to the station for questioning. It seems they want to know exactly how they knew where Harry could be found. Tim looks worried, whilst Jimmy asks the rhetorical question about Gobby’s involvement.
At the same time this is occurring, we see a belligerant Gobby Moffatt being arrested and handcuffed by the police, and put in the back of a squad car.
Max is finishing a phone call. He informs Jacqui that the Family Liaison Officer from the police is arranging for a glazier to come repair the window. They also wanted him and Jacqui to know that Gobby’s been taken in for questioning.
Jacqui is astounded that she was ever involved with Gobby Moffatt. How could she ever have been so wrong about someone? She muses in wonder: Why, it was as if Gobby had two faces - the acceptable public one and the ugly private one. Just look at what he’d done - terrorising her dad and Anthea and Mike. He even bullied his brother and beat him up. It was just violence upon violence with Gobby.
At least, she sighs with relief, she found out what he was like before she married him. She was so lucky with Max. The last thing she needed was another violent man in her life.
Max is looking increasingly uncomfortable. Suddenly he blurts out that he’s not so very different from Gobby. In fact, they were the same - especially having an acceptable public face and an ugly, violent private one. Max starts to gabble incoherently. After what he’d done in the past, Jacqui would be better off without him. In fact, he isn’t the sort of man Jacqui should be marrying. And he announces, with finality, that he wants to call the wedding off, for Jacqui’s own good.
Summary © 2001 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001