Thus spake Mary, Queen of Scots, when she stepped upon the scaffold to lose her head. Brookside hit the jackpot this week, losing two major characters - Lindsey and Anthea ... Not to mention the fact that neither of the two will be sorely missed.
This episode sees the return of Sammy Rogers, in the continuing of the Ron saga that threatens to turn itself into a spectacle of abuse. I’m reserving my opinion about the new ‘senior producer’ (I’m not even going to accord him the status of proper nouns and adjectives - he has to earn that accolade) until I see how far he means to run the ‘let’s see how we can physically and verbally abuse Jacqui Dixon’ line. It doesn’t look good.
Tick ... Tick ... Tick.
The day after Ron’s collapse, Mike Dixon arrives home from his night shift, looking suitably knackered, considering the fact that he had no sleep the previous day. He enters the darkened Dixon abode and proceeds to draw the curtains on the front window.
As he does so, the camera pans to a muffled figure on the couch, and as daylight enters the room, Anthea stirs. Mike is startled to find her there. He apologises for waking her and asks if Ron has returned from hospital.
Anthea sits up on the couch, where she’s spent the night. She replies that Ron got back from hospital about 10:00PM the night before. The doctors confirmed, thank God, that he hadn’t suffered a heart attack.
Speak of the devil, and Ron descends the stairs at that moment, dressed in his shirt and trousers. He scurries into the kitchen, ignoring both his wife and son. Mike calls after him, asking how he is, if he’s OK, if he’s slept OK. Anthea immediately springs from the sofa and follows Mike in Ron’s wake, offering to make him a cup of tea.
In the midst of all this clamour, Rachel arrives, the devoted mother obviously having deposited her baby at the daily creche as early as possible.
As Ron, moves swiftly about the house, he gives his trailing family short shrift, answering their badgering questions with the staccato precision of a machine gun. Yes, he’s OK ... Yes, he slept fine ... No, he’ll get his own tea, thank you very much.
Then Mike drops a clanger of a question and not a very intelligent one at that, considering what’s been happening in Ron’s life the past few months. Did the doctors have any idea what triggered Ron’s angina attack?
Ron turns around, suddenly exasperated with the attention he’s receiving, to face his absurdly ignorant eldest child.
‘Well,’ he begins, sarcastically, ‘they didn’t really say. Boot it might o’had something to do with me bein’ on trial for merr-der, me marriage fallin’ apart - oh, and some debt collectors turnin’ oop on me doorstep.’
Over at Naughty Nurse Towers, Nisha is dressed and ready for a day’s work. Poor, pitiful, ugly Katie, still wearing a sweaty, grimy nightshirt, trudges unsteadily from her bedroom and makes a beeline for the medicine counter, where she helps herself to an Alka Selzer, muttering how bladdered she was the night before. (Does Katie still have a job at the Medical Centre? If so, how long, please, before she’s sacked? No employer is THAT benevolent in allowing so much compassionate leave!)
Nisha watches in disgusted silence as Katie continues the mindless mutterings of a hung-over alcoholic. She’d spent all night, she says cockily, praying for Ron Dixon to die. She wanted justice. And if he wasn’t dead, she prayed he got life for what he’d done to the sainted Clint.
Nisha shakes her head, obviously wondering how she managed to get entangled with such a self-pitying and cloyingly annoying individual. The buzzer rings, alerting Nisha to the fact that there’s a visitor downstairs. She moves to answer the intercom phone, telling the caller to come right up. (Gee whiz, I wonder who it could be?)
As Nisha puts the intercom phone down, she admits to Katie that, frankly, she’s very concerned about Katie now. Katie is banging on about this Clint business ad nauseam now, when she should be trying to move on. She’s also drinking to excess and she isn’t eating, none of which is good for her. So, Nisha confesses, she’s asked Sammy to come deal with Katie.
Poor, pitiful, ugly Katie turns scathingly on Nisha, demanding to know why she bothered to involve Sammy.
Because, Nisha replies shortly, her patience with the miserably wretch who enjoys her own self-pity at last at an end, Nisha can no longer deal with Katie on her own. Katie needs someone other than Nisha with whom to interact. (Nicely put, Katie, Nisha’s bored to tears with your behaviour and is fed up to the tits with you).
Sammy enters at that moment, but it isn’t the fresh-faced girl we all remember. She’s obviously been to the Dire Murray School of Make-up, because her foundation is so thick, it probably has to be chiselled off. Sammy swans in dramatically and dives on poor, pitiful, ugly Katie, hugging her close and promising to stay as long as Katie needs her.
(Cue threatening music ...)
Mike Dixon is polishing his shoes, whilst listening to his dimwitted wife witter about M-eye-ke not getting enoof rest. He hurries to get dressed, reminding Rachel that he has an appointment with the Citizens’ Advice Bureau this morning about their debts. Did Rachel remember to write out that list of monthly outgoings for him to take to the advisors? (What a joke! Monthly rent £100; loan repayment £200 ... Nothing else - free food, free childcare, free houskeeping etc). By the way, Mike says, because of this meeting, he might be late for court, but he would be there. Rachel is to make sure she looks after Ron.
While poor, pitiful, ugly Katie makes herself ready, Nisha and Sammy, who are old friends from days of yore, have a chat. Nisha gets right to the point. Sammy certainly took her time getting here. But at least she was here. Sammy wants to know what the problem was with Katie, which shows that Sammy is either amazingly self-centred or this is abjectly bad writing on the part of the writers, probably a combination of both.
Nisha admits that she’s at her wits’ end with Katie. Between her and Sammy, they have GOT to stop Katie’s obsession about getting revenge on the Dixons. Besides, Katie is drinking to extreme as well.
Sammy promises to try to help work things out. Oh, by the way, would Nisha mind awfully, if Sammy stayed at the flat.
Nisha is taken aback and clearly reluctant to have Sammy Rogers feeding off her hospitality. Couldn’t Sammy stay at a hotel.
Well, Sammy excuses herself, suspiciously, she could have booked a hotel, but she feels she needs to be close by for Katie.
As she leaves for work and against her better judgement, Nisha agrees to Sammy staying at the flat.
(Cue threatening music ...)
As Ron is preparing to go to court, a distraught Anthea confronts him again about the state of their marriage. Ron can’t be serious, she says. He can’t just end their marriage there and then.
She knows she’s hurt him by her testimony, she says, tearfully, but she knows now what he wants.
Ron is serious and immensely kind in his dealing with this awful woman. Does she? He asks rhetorically. In her heart of hearts, could she honestly say she would be able to cope with Ron getting a long jail sentence? Anthea would do better without Ron, he says sadly. He’s in poor health and facing a jail sentence, he reminds her.
Anthea shows what a real hypocrite she is, by voicing her primary concern. If she goes now, she protests, she will surely look like the most callous woman in the world!
But, Ron tells her, he’ll know she’s not.
Anthea asserts that she loves Ron.
And Ron, he says, is only thinking of her well-being. She should walk away now ... Today.
But where would she go? Anthea asks helplessly. This is Ron’s house; she has no place.
Ron offers her the use of his house. She can stay here. Ron will surely be going to prison. She can stay in the house as long as she wants, as long as it takes for her to sort out someplace to live. He assures her that he wants a better life for her.
There’s a knock at the door and Rachel lets Jacqui and Max enter, as Anthea pleads with Ron to give her another chance to make the marriage work.
Ron asks a curious Jacqui, Max and Rachel to wait in the car. He turns to Anthea, after they have left, saying that he’s said all he has to say on the subject.
Anthea objects, insisting that Ron needs her.
Ron looks at her kindly, but tells her that he needs people who are 100% behind him. Anthea can’t deny, he says, that she hated what he had done.
Anthea admits that she feels like she’s deserting Ron. She sincerely wishes that she could have stood by him the way he wanted her to do.
Ron slowly shakes his head and shuffles, slump-shouldered to the front door, telling Anthea good-bye. As he reaches the door, he turns to look at her once more. He’s sorry the marriage ended this way, he says, and wishes her good luck.
As he leaves the house, Anthea collapses in hysterical wailing and sobbing, realising her failure and her fault.
Poor, pitiful, ugly Katie tells Sammy that there really isn’t any need for her to be there at all. Nisha had no right, Katie maintains, to interfere and call Sammy.
Nisha did right, Sammy insists. Sammy had no idea Katie was in such a dire state. Anyway, Nisha had told Sammy it was all right to stay, and stay she will.
Interlude: Anthea Dixon sits on the Dixon sofa, staring at the familiar surroundings of the house she’s about to leave. She suddenly rises and moves away to the left of the camera.
The courtroom is assembled, waiting for the proceedings to begin. Jacqui and Max are sitting in the gallery, when poor, pitiful Katie arrives, followed by Sammy.
Jacqui nudges Max, with surprise. ‘Uh-oh,’ she motions, indicating the Rogers’ sisters, ‘look what the cat’s just dragged in.’
As poor, pitiful, ugly Katie and Sammy take their seats, Sammy looks around and notices Max sitting with Jacqui and Rachel. What’s Max Farnham doing here? She asks her ugly sister. And with the Dixons as well! Max Farnham hates Ron Dixon.
Poor, pitiful, ugly Katie informs her formerly beautiful sister that Max and Jacqui are now married.
Sammy is astounded. Max Farnham married to Jacqui Dixon! When did this happen? Katie tells her the wedding took place last summer.
(Aside: SURELY Sammy must have known about Max and Jacqui’s wedding? Surely Katie would have told her as much when she crawled off to visit Sammy after sleeping with Robbie in the wake of the wedding? I cannot believe that Sammy Rogers would have NOT known about this)!
The Crown’s barrister is ready to continue from the interruption of the day before. Now that Mr Dixon seems to have dramatically recovered from his angina attack, he begins, snidely implying that Ron had faked the whole ordeal, he would remind the jury of Anthea Dixon’s testimony. Mrs Dixon, he reminded them, had testified that it SEEMED like five seconds between the time Ron shouted the warning at Clint Moffatt and the time he fired the gun. Was this a true testimony? He asks.
(As he talks, in voiceover, we see Anthea moving about the house, rooting through drawers in search of papers etc).
Now, he continues, either Mrs Dixon didn’t KNOW the time lapse between the warning and the shot or she conspired to concoct the five-second interval story, which would support the defence’s claims of self-defence and diminished responsibility.
Now the defence makes its closing statements. The barrister addresses the jury, asking them to try to imagine what drove a normal, middle-aged, family man like Ron Dixon to buy a gun. Try to imagine the state of Ron’s mind at the moment the killing took place. He and his family had been subjected to repeated attacks, master-minded by at least on, if not both, of the Moffatt brothers. He had been tied up and humiliated.
He was depressed and irritable after dealing with repeated burglaries. It had reached the point where even a slammed door would make him over-react with fright. And add to that, the night of the killing, when the mayhem of a party occurred a few doors away. And remember the chilling last words spoken to Ron Dixon by Gobby Moffat: ‘You’re dead.’
Max and Jacqui listen intently, shaking their heads in agreement. Sammy continues to stare fixedly at Max. She whispers again to poor, pitiful, ugly Katie that she just can’t believe Max Farnham would have married Jacqui Dixon.
Then, the barrister continues, after going to bed that night, Ron Dixon is awakened by sudden noises. He goes downstairs to investigate and sees an intruder in the house. His baby granddaughter is asleep upstairs and there’s an intruder in the house. And so Ron Dixon is driven to the terrible action which occurred that evening.
Again, Max and Jacqui exchange looks and nod.
The barrister reminds the jury that they have heard the testimony of the forensic psychiatrist (which we did not). He had said that Ron Dixon was no callous killer. Ron had shown genuine remorse for the killing of Clint Moffatt. And he hadn’t hesitated in calling the police to report his crime. This was not the action of a cold-blooded killer, he says.
Another voice-over shows Anthea seated at a table sorting through papers and envelopes and labelling them ‘Great Grannies’ etc.
Now the judge gives instructions to the jury. Their duty, she says, is to weigh the testimony of Anthea Dixon, and to decide whether she was mistken or misguided in her statements. They should also weigh the testimony of Gobby Moffatt too. Moffatt risked prosecution to disclose that he was in the house on the night of the shooting. But they must also bear in mind that Moffatt was driven to this by revenge on the death of his brother. There was no corroborative evidence that placed Gobby Moffatt at the scene of the killing that evening, she reminds them, before adjourning the jury; and Ron is brought from the dock.
Outside in the foyer, Ron meets up with Jacqui and Max. Ron remarks that he wants to go for a walk to get a breath of fresh air, and Max volunteers him and Jacqui to accompany Ron. Ron assures them that he won’t go walkabout anymore and will return, as he wanders off down the corridor.
As Jacqui and Max stand looking after him, Sammy Rogers approaches Max and offers a cheeky congratulations. Funny how these things turn out, isn’t it? She remarks, glancing pointedly and sharply at Jacqui.
Rachel and Mike seat themselves on a bench out of the way of the hubbub in order that Mike can tell Rachel about his visti to CAB. According to CAB, he tells the silly wench, the best thing the pair of them can do is to let Northwest Securities take them to court for non-payment of the loan. Then the judge will order them to pay off the loan at a lower rate than the repayments or one that they could afford.
They could offer a payment they could afford and the judge would accept it, he says.
Silly Rachel is frightened by the word ‘court’ after what they’ve just been through, but Mike assures her that this is the COUNTY Court, not the Crown Court. It’s just as Jimmy had explained to him. In fact, the CAB had rung Northwest Securities and made an offer of repayment that morning, but they had refused, which was normal, Mike finishes.
But, questions Rachel, doesn’t doing it that way mean they become a bad credit risk? (This whole thing, you’ll recall, is Rachel’s fault, to begin with).
Well, Mike admits, that IS the downside of things. They wouldn’t be able to have any credit until the debt was paid off.
Rachel is despondent. Ooooh, that could take years.
Anyway, Mike continues, there are still loads of benefits they weren’t receiving. Did Rachel know about family tax credits? He asks. That would net them another £50.00 per week!
Rachel the Brainless Beauty is amazed, but frightened. What if Ron and Anthea split up? She asks Mike. What if Ron goes to prison? Oooh, there’s no way they could maintain that house, themselves! (No, having to keep up council tax payments, gas, electricity, buy your own food and pay for child care. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!)
Just then, Ron is escorted back by the bailiff. Ron is protesting loudly at not being allowed to leave the building; but suddenly, he is told that the jury is back. Everyone is speechless at the speed of the verdict. Max remarks that he thought Ron’s barrister did a good job, speaking to the jury on their level. They return to the courtroom.
Anthea phones and orders a taxi to take her to Lime Street Station.
The jury is brought in and the foreman rises. The judge asks if the jury has reached a verdict on the two counts with which Ron was charged. The foreman answers that they have. The judge asks if the verdicts reached were unanimous. The foreman replies that both verdicts were unanimous.
The judge asks about the charge of murder - guilty or not guilty?
The foreman replies that they find Ron not guilty of murder.
Poor, pitiful, ugly Katie screams ‘NO!’
The judge then asks about the charge of manslaughter - guilty or not guilty?
The foreman replies that they find Ron not guilty of manslaughter.
Mike Dixon shouts ‘YES!’ and punches the air, whilst poor, pitiful, ugly Katie screams ‘NO!’
The judge then asks that Ron remain standing, whilst Sammy Rogers is more concerned with Max Farnham than with her sister’s reaction to events.
The judge reminds Ron that he DID plead guilty to possession of a shotgun without permit and to possession of a sawn-off shotgun which is an illegal weapon at best of times.
The taxi arrives for Anthea and she leaves by the front door, dropping her keys through the letterbox. Before she leaves, she plucks a small flower from the hanging basket by the doorway as a sad memento, and the dippiest of all Brookside wives leaves forever.
The judge is speaking to Ron. She realises that Ron Dixon is a responsible husband, father and grandfather, but she had to admit that the number and type of people being brought before her on charges of possessing firearms illegally was rising. She assures Ron that she understands his reasons for acquiring a gun, but she also understands the tragic consequences of that purchase.
In short, Ron had committed a serious offence, and she has no choice but to recommend a custodial sentence. He will serve 9 months for possession of a firearm without a licence and 9 months for possession of an illegal weapon, both to run concurrently.
She tells the bailiff to take Ron down.
As the people surge from the courtroom, reaction is varied. Jacqui is distraught at the thought of Ron having to serve time and in his condition! She needs to see her dad. Max suggests that she find Ron’s solicitor and see if he can wangle her a few minutes with Ron before he’s taken away.
Katie is equally distraught, but for another reason. Nine months! That’s all Ron Dixon got! Was the sainted Clint’s life only worth a measly nine months?
Mike Dixon, on the other hand is blatantly affronted by the gall of the sentence. Nine months! Why, they would appeal, he declares, as he and Rachel approach Max. They would simply get a solicitor and appeal the sentence, he tells Max (obviously hoping that Max and Jacqui would front the bill).
Max calms him down. But didn’t Max think an appeal would be the next logical step? Rants Mike.
No, admits Max. No, he didn’t. And they wouldn’t appeal.
Mike is appalled at this, and again Max quells him. Nine months, he begins, in reality is four months, as this was Ron’s first offence. Four months, he reminds Mike, is sixteen weeks. What they do, he tells the lame-brain, is try AS A FAMILY to muster Ron through sixteen weeks of prison as best they could. An appeal would go nowhere for such a light sentence. But they would get through the ordeal, importantly, AS A FAMILY. It was important that Mike stay calm and collected throughout this.
Ron sits despondently, but defiantly in his waiting cell, as the door opens. When he sees Jacqui enter, he surreptitiously wipes away a tear and faces her with a brave smile. Jacqui collapses in her father’s arms, weeping, as Ron tries to comfort her. He shushes her by telling her that soon he has to go away.
Jacqui responds by saying that he must put all this trial behind him now, and they whole family would get him through the next few months.
Putting his arms around Jacqui, he asks her to look after his business and Jacqui promises to do so. Ron apologise for lumbering her with it, but also asks her to look after Mike, Rachel and the kids. And to make sure Max looks after her. He then tells Jacqui that he and Anthea are finished and he let his wife go. All he ever wants now, Ron swears, is his children. They were the most important things to him in the world.
Meanwhile, in the foyer, Max is still trying to calm an agitated Mike down about Ron’s sentencing. Mike still wants to appeal, but is silenced by Rachel taking Max’s part and admitting that Max was right. It was up to the lot of them as a family to get Ron through this trauma. Max begins by volunteering to help Jacqui run Great Grannies, but again, Mike starts to protest. He could do that very well, thank you; Max points out that Mike is working twelve-hour shifts at night and Rachel has two jobs, as Jacqui emerges from having visited Ron.
Max puts a comforting arm about her shoulder, but all hell is about to break loose. All hell is in the shape of poor, pitiful, ugly and even uglier Katie, who storms up to Jacqui from behind to verbally attack her.
‘You bitch!’ She screams at the top of her voice, to a startled Jacqui. ‘I’ll bet you’re really happy now. Clint died fer nutt’n!’
Jacqui, who was turning to leave with Max, looks back over her shoulder, and gives Katie an exhausted smile of mingled disgust, despair, frustration, pity and exasperation.
‘It’s not like that at all,’ she says wearily.
But Katie, stupid, self-delusional cow that she is, totally misinterprets Jacqui’s gesture and thinks she’s laughing at her. ‘Laugh at me, will yer, yer bitch!’ She snarls.
And suddenly she lunges forward and grabs the top of Jacqui’s scalp viciously with both hands, yanking her almost off her feet.
Immediately Sammy intervenes trying to prise Katie off Jacqui as Max supports his shaken wife. Katie, however, continues to screech. ‘Yez should all be locked oop!’ She’s going to find a solicitor and demand a retrial. Jacqui and Max are shouting at Katie, whilst Sammy decides to put her tuppence in, reminding Jacqui that Ron was responsible for Clint’s death.
Suddenly Jacqui regains her strength and shouts that this is nothing to
do with Sammy. As she leans heavily against Max, she shouts at Katie that it’s
time she let Clint go and get on with her life, as sad, silly, ugly Katie is
led away from the family group.
Summary © 2001 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001