When Brookside isn’t boring me, it’s making me angry. I’m glad I’m not the only one either - me and aroung 500,000-odd people who have just stopped watching the show. A poster on Alan’s soapbox site, someone who used to watch the show and turned it on by chance on Friday night, had to comment about what a boring load of shit the show had become.
I’m inclined to agree, and that’s sad. On it’s day, Brookside was infinitely better than anything Eastenders could ever hope to offer. Now we have to suffer the soap pundits extolling the authenticity of Eastenders’s research, acting and general issue storylines. Why? What’s happened? Two words ... Mal Young.
Brookside tries, but it fails. The Ron storyline is now a sick continuation of thinking up silly and sad ways in which to abuse Jacqui Dixon. Maybe the new producer wants to force Stephen Pinder and Alex Fletcher into slinging their hooks. Were I he, I’d take a pin to the balloons that have become Emily and turf her beefcake boyfriend out with her.
Brookside is now the domain of tweenies, teenies, pervs and the Ra-Ra Brigade of Men Behaving like Old Women who inhabit the Newsgroup, apart from the ludicrous and insipid Becci Ask-No-Questions, who wants to start a flame war. If Brookside continues in this fashion, it deserves the sort of braindead viewers it attracts.
The show opens at NNT, with Nisha the Naughty Nurse and Lady Muck Sammy Rogers having a discussion on Katie’s behaviour from the previous day. For those of you who are the same level of intelligence as Becci Ask-No-Questions from the Newsgroup, Katie dashed a bucket of red paint across the bodywork of Jacqui’s new car, a great deal of which fell on Jacqui too. The reason for the attack was just sheer, unadulterated jealousy. In case you aren’t aware, it was also a very serious criminal offence - serious damage to private property. God only knows why the police weren’t called. I would have taken great pleasure watching Katie Rogers shit herself as she was being loaded into a police car.
Sammy doesn’t seem to grasp the scope of what Katie has done the day before. In fact, she doesn’t think it’s too serious a thing. Nisha reacts with consernation. Katie’s behaviour has now become cause for very serious concern. This wasn’t a childish prank that she did yesterday, she reminds Sammy. She did very serious damage to an expensive piece of personal property. It was Max Farnham’s car, for goodness sake, continues Nisha. This could have very serious repercussions. What if Max decides to go to the police?
This is what Nisha has been trying to explain to Sammy all along, this obsession Katie had with hating the Dixons and getting revenge on the lot of them because of Clint’s death. But sooner or later, possibly sooner, this obsession is going to go too far.
Sammy shrugs all this off, patently unconcerned. Nisha, who’s fast losing patience with both her flatmate and her uninvited houseguest, assumes correctly that because Sammy’s done all right for herself, Katie can be put out to pasture.
Not like that at all, asserts Sammy, smugly affecting a hurt tone. She was married to an older man, who was rather boring, but caring in a poignant way, she begins.
Nisha interrupts her rudely. When does Sammy plan on going back?
Sammy smiles sweetly. She’s here for as long as Katie needs her, she purrs reassuringly.
At Chateau Farnham, Jacqui is on the telephone to the insurance company as the children play in the foreground. Sat at the Farnham table, we see Bossy the Cow, AKA Rachel the Fat and Dim. Jacqui finishes with the phone call. She turns to Rachel, informing her that it’s going to cost around £900 to fix the car, after Katie’s tirade, and that it will take the better part of a couple of days.
Rachel blinks her eyes twice and asks, oooh w-eye’s it go’n ter te-ehk so long?
Jacqui replies patiently (as you do, with Rachel) that part of the car will have to be resprayed.
Ooooh, says Rachel, obviously impressed by the word ‘re-spray’, wh-eyen’t Jac-keh joost claim on’t inshoo-runts?
Because, Jacqui explains, trying to use words of one syllable or less for her mentally-challenged sister-in-law, if she claimed on her insurance, she’d lose her no-claims bonus; and she didn’t see any sense in losing that when Katie was to blame. Besides, it’s more than her car that was damaged. Her clothes were irreparable and her trainers, sorry, trainees. She’d only worn those shoes twice at most.
Them treh-nees? Asks Rachel. Were’t expensive?
Jacqui looks put out. Well, yes, they were. She splashed out and bought them when she was on honeymoon. They cost a bomb, being designer originals. Oh, whatever possessed Katie to pull a trick like that?
Rachel agrees that Kay-teh’s behaviour was stoo-pid.
It was more that stupid, says Jacqui, it was downright scarey. This revenge thing was getting way out of hand. Who knows how far she could go?
Oooh, remarks Rachel, it were joost b’cuz Kay-teh thinks Ron got away with killin’ Clint. Then Rachel’s tortoise-driven brain emits a thought and she remembers to ask after Ron.
Ron looks awful, Jacqui discloses.
Rachel blinks twice again and looks guilty. Oooh, bet them debt collectors showin’ oop on doorstep didn’t help.
Probably not, agrees Jacqui, as she takes a seat opposite her simpleton sister-in-law.
Rachel blinks twice and admits that she and M-eye-ke joost seem to get deeper and deeper in debt.
Jacqui can’t understand this either. Just how, exactly, did she and Mike end up in this predicament, she asks Rachel.
Oooh, begins the dimwit. First, it were dodgy ca-ah, then moo-neh fer video equipment. Then dodgy loan when M-eye-ke were in’ospital.
Jacqui shakes her head, decidedly. It’s all Mike’s fault, she pronounces. He never was any good with money.
Oooh, protests Rachel, it were both their fault. Then she explains to Jacqui about the County Court hearing scheduled for the next week, when Rachel and Mike would put in a proposal to repay the loan company. Jacqui asks how much they were proposing to pay. Rachel blinks again, then assumes the shy cow position, of blinking and casting her head downward, whilst looking up in shame. Rachel admits that they propose to pay £25 per week towards the loan.
That’s quite a lot out of their budget, remarks Jacqui, seriously. (Sure is, now that they have to pay gas, electric, Council tax, food etc).
Rachel blinks and nods again, saying sadly that the repayments would take ages, whilst Jacqui asks how they thought to manage that extra expense.
Oooh, Rachel replies, it were gonna be difficoolt, boot she reckons to work few extra hours t’bar. Which leads her to the REAL reason she’s come to visit Jacqui (and Mike and Rachel NEVER visit Jacqui without a reason). As she was going to be working a few extra hours a week - just a few, mind you - Jacqui couldn’t manage to look after Beth during those few hours, could she? And Rachel blinks again and tries to look sadly pathetic and helpless.
(Well, no, Rachel, actually, I couldn’t. You see, I’ve got two small kids of my own, and - althought it APPEARS to no-marks like you and Mike that all I do is swan around all day, it’s taking up all my time raising two toddlers. You’d know that, yourself, if you hadn’t been so dependent on Ron and Anthea. Oh, yes, and by the way, I have to check in with Sol from time to time to go over the profits etc of the health club, and any spare time I have after that is taken up by trying to straighten out Great Grannies, and, sorry, my evenings are for Max).
But, no, sadly, Jacqui doesn’t say that. She tries to demur, by pointing out her commitments, but Rachel begs again that ‘it’s only for a few hours a couple of times a week’. Jacqui promises reluctantly to think about it, but she asserts that Mike won’t be happy with the arrangement, especially as he and Jacqui have had a falling out.
Across the Close, at Hotel Corkhill, Tim’s re-decorating the lounge. Funny, he has neither moved nor covered any of Jimmy’s furniture, which solidifies my opinion that neither Tim nor Emily are particularly over-endowed with brains. Emily looks disparagingly at the tin of paint. It’s institution green, for want of a better word (should make Tim and Jimmy feel right at home). He got his various tins of paint from Ray, being left over from previous paint jobs, thus fulfilling Jimmy’s stipulation of costing him nothing.
Emily is doubtful about how this colour is going to look on the walls, but Tim assures her that Ray told him to mix it with a lighter colour and it would be all right. Emily announces that she’s having a longer lunch and Dire is off from the salon - surprise, surprise. She tells Tim that she’s succeeded in buying back her beauty course vouchers from Becky Big-Tits (hooray! That means we won’t see that slut for dust). Now that she had these vouchers for the course, it was her first step to owning her own business. (Please, not that storyline.)
Tim asks Emily how much she managed to pay Big-Tits for the course, and Emily admits that she had to fork over an extra fifty quid in addition to the ‘oondred Tim got off Christy for her. Tim gets cocky and starts bragging about how it won’t be long before they’re loaded and then Emily will want to remember who got her the ‘oondred quid to buy the vouchers. Oh, and they’ll be due a big house before long too, one of their own.
(Excuse me, while I yawn!)
Lady Muck is swanning around the kitchen at NNT, idly stirring a china cupful of tea, whilst dreamily gazing off into the horizon. Nisha, lips pursed sceptically, leans against the wall and watches as Sammy regales the nurse with tales of her rich and famous lifestyle.
Drinking this tea, she reminisces, reminds her of the home she has with her husband Richard in the Seychelles. She often drinks her tea in the afternoon on the verandah. In fact, she’s so accustomed now to her jetset lifestyle, that it just didn’t seem right being back in Liverpool. She really wasn’t suited to being back here, she brags, lazily. That’s why seeing Max Farnham really surprised her. She would have thought he, of all people, would have been one to move on. After all, he was never really happy here. And that house! He may have two flash cars parked outside, but it still didn’t alter the fact that all those houses on the Close were so boxy!
Nisha is not impressed at all. A bored look lies on her face, but she loses patience with Sammy. She suddenly realises and voices the opinion that Sammy isn’t really bothered about what Katie did to Jacqui’s car or why she did it.
Sammy shrugged. Katie and Jacqui just had a falling out, that’s all. It will pass. (Er, what planet had Sammy been on whilst Katie has been away visiting her?)
Nisha puffs an exasperated sigh. ‘Sammy,’ she begins, ‘we aren’t talking about falling out over a broken Barbie doll, Katie’s done serious damage to private property. She’s obsessed with hating the Dixons. It’s gone beyond Clint’s death now. She won’t rest until Ron Dixon and ALL of his family pay for what’s happened. That’s why she’s talking about this ridiculous civil action.’
Sammy poo-poohs that idea. Katie will never go ahead with that.
Oh, but she will, assures Nisha. She’ll call in solicitors and the like and waste a lot of money and time proving nothing. She’s obsessed with hating the Dixons. That’s why she’s convinced ot the reason Anthea left Ron. (Actually, Nisha, I think you’ll find that Katie was indirectly involved in fucking Anthea up mentally with regard to Ron).
But, Nisha finishes cruelly, Sammy was too wrapped up in herself to see the harm Katie was doing to herself and to others.
Sammy protests that she was here for her sister’s sake.
‘Well, prove it then,’ challenges Nisha, ‘or else you can just go back to your husband and your large houses around the world.’
As Tim is painting a wall in the Corkhill lounge, Christy Murray strides into the house, carrying an object. He takes a gander at the swash of paint on the wall and describes the colour as ‘mouldy green’. Emily begins to wail as someone else has echoed her opinion about the colour of the free paint Tim had got from Ray.
Anyway, Christy’s called round to help Tim repay the ‘oondred quid’ he owes Christy from his wage advance. He plops a bottle of cheap fizzy plonk on the Corkhill counter, and then produces a swank label, listing the name of a proper champagne. Christy has a scam for New Year’s Eve. A mate of his had off-loaded all these cheapo drinks on Christy, but Christy’s come across some posh labels. All Tim will have to do is replace the original labels on the bottles, with these phoney ones and - hey presto- everyone at the bar on New Year’s Eve gets this plonk.
Emily asks suspiciously if people won’t be able to taste the difference, but Christy assures her that they’ll be too far gone in booze by that time to notice any taste at all. Tim seems eager to start, and Christy orders Emily to put a pot of tea on to boil and fix him a butty.
Dire and Marty are at Brookie Comp again, waiting in the vestibule leading to the Head’s office. The secretary apologises for the Head’s delay and asks them to wait. Marty, wearing his coveralls, admits to Dire that he wishes he had time to go home and change. Sitting there in his work togs makes him feel like the school caretaker. If he’d worn his proper clothes, he’d feel more like Ant’s dad, and maybe he’d get a tad more respect.
Rachel is still paying Jacqui a visit. One wonders why she isn’t at work or spending time with Beth. Jacqui checks in the lounge on Harry and Emma, who are seated in front of the television, engrossed in a children’s DVD. Jacqui remarks to Rachel that the kids could sit in front of the televison all day, if she’d let them. But they would have to go out soon, as Jacqui had to do the weekly shop.
She starts to tell Rachel about how she always spends more than she intends to at the supermarket. Didn’t Rachel find she did the same? (Well, no, Jacqui, because Rachel’s never had to cope with the weekly shop before this time). Jacqui continues saying as how she always comes across some item that the kids like and she buys it for them, as a treat.
But Rachel isn’t interested in this. She’s still more concerned with Jacqui agreeing to babysit Beth and so she begins to pester Jacqui again, with her whining. Couldn’t Jacqui joost tr-eye to mind Beth a bit? Joost so’s she could do a few extra hours t’bar?
Jacqui sighs at last and comes clean. She’d love to be able to help, she says, but she’s certain Mike wouldn’t be happy about it at all -
Never m-eye-nd M-eye-ke, blinks Rachel. Wh-eye, he’d soon caaam down boot it.
It’s not just that, Jacqui confesses. It’s just that she’s finding it extra hard to handle two toddlers full-time. She doesn’t know how she’d cope with three. She just about manages Harry and Emma, but spending all day with the kids leaves her knackered and ratty. She hasn’t said anything, because she wanted to appear strong and make everyone think it’s OK with her, but it isn’t. Honestly, there are some times when she just wishes she could just palm the pair off at nursery to gain some peace.
Well, asks Rachel, why dooesn’t sheh? She’s got moo-neh.
(Jacqui shouldn’t feel guilty about that. It’s hard coping with two toddlers. And Patricia and Susannah had nannies and cleaners to help whilst they got on with their careers).
Jacqui shakes her head. She’s never been one to give up on something because it’s hard. She wants to bring these children up herself, and she doesn’t want Max to know she’s having difficulty. But she promises Rachel that she’ll think about babysitting Beth.
Lady Muck has allowed herself a think and now seeks Nisha with a piece of information. Sammy wants Nisha to know that Nisha was right that Sammy has to do something about Katie. As far as Sammy could see, there was only one way this situation could be sorted out - get Katie and Jacqui together. Get Jacqui Dixon to heal the rift.
Nisha shakes her head dubiously. Not a good idea, she says. In fact, it will be a waste of time.
Sammy doesn’t think so; as a matter of fact, she’s on her way over to Jacqui’s right now for a chat about it.
Nisha looks dubious again. Is Sammy sure she’s not going around there just to have a nose around Max Farnham’s house? She asks, suspiciously.
Sammy promises Nisha that she’s doing this for Katie, and Nisha wishes her good luck.
Dire and Marty now sit in the Head’s office, as Mrs Plummer storms in like a whirlwind. As she stridently takes her seat in front of them, she apologises for being late, but makes the abject point of telling them that she’s spent most of the morning dealing with parents who were angry after last night’s Christmas panto fiasco, implying that the whole ordeal of the previous evening was squarely Ant’s fault.
In fact, she remarks pointedly and ominously that ANTONY has a lot for which to answer.
Dire and Marty are immediately made to assume the defensive by the woman’s prejudicial attitude. Dire remarks, equally acerbically, that she certainly hopes that Mrs Plummer isn’t insinuating that Antony is to blame for everything that transpired the night before?
Mrs Plummer admits that Paige and Imelda are denying that they had anything to do at all with Ant’s behaviour. As a matter of fact, she points out, the two girls actually volunteered to help with the production, which says a lot in their favour.
Dire and Marty exchange a dubious look.
The silly Head continues. She actually wonders if Antony isn’t getting this whole thing out of proportion, maybe using the girls as scapegoats. She reiterates that the two girls are certainly not the best behaved pupils in the school, but the fact remains that they DID volunteer their time last night.
Dire is finding this increasingly hard to swallow. These are two girls that were expelled from a previous school, she says, for doing precisely what they are doing to Antony now! And there the head sits, assuming that these two weren’t at all guilty of what had happened.
Mrs Plummer hastens to explain that she has to keep an open mind about the situation, but she does question Antony’s version of events.
As Tim continues to paint, Emily sits thumbing through a house magazine, whilst Christy has his tea. She’s drooling over the exquisite displays of bathroome and kitchen suites the magazine is showing. Christy admonishes her to stop looking at big, fancy homes, but Emily says that one doesn’t have to live in a big house to have nice things.
Tim glances at her over his shoulder. Those things cost money, he remarks, in a masculine tone. Right now they have other priorities.
The Murrays are still sparring with this dippiest of Heads. They have been trying to tell the woman what was going on backstage last night that caused Antony to panic the way he had done. She, however, is having none of it as truth. Even if the two girls DID sabotage the production, she reasons, they only have Antony’s word for it.
And, of course, they’d deny doing anything, remarks Dire, sarcastically. Did Mrs Plummer realise that these two had actually forced Antony to steal from shops?
Mrs Plummer sighs and tries to take a social worker’s approach to the problem. Maybe, she begins, delicately, Antony is just reacting to the difficulties he’s encountered at home ...
Such as? Marty wants to know.
Well, she begins, slightly cattily, it can’t have been easy dealing with Adele’s problems ... (Er, sorry, but I was led to believe that the school knew nothing about Adele’s abortion. They wouldn’t have to know at any rate, as the whole thing took place AFTER she had finished GCSE’s and her school term was effectively over. All they needed to be told was that she was off sick. This is out of order).
This is too much for Dire, who loses it entirely. She brands Paige and Imelda as nothing more than bare-faced liars, and the school has a lot to learn, itself, if it believes them!
The Head steadfastly maintains that they have no evidence that Paige and Imelda have been bullying Antony. But, she promises, she’ll have a talk with the two girls, right now, in order to see what she could get out of them. Unless they confess, she warns, there would be nothing the school could do. In fact, the only link the school had to the bullying is the fact that Marty had admittwd assaulting Imelda.
Jacqui’s giving Harry and Emma their lunch of tinned spaghetti and having a laugh about the kids getting spaghetti all over her, when the doorbell rings. She answers it, to find Sammy Rogers standing there.
‘Come to cast another tin of paint on me car?’ Asks Jacqui.
Sammy says she’s only come to talk about Katie.
Well, Jacqui announces, Katie’s completely off her cake.
Sammy wants to know if there isn’t something Jacqui can do to help Katie, but Jacqui says there’s nothing she can do. She’s already tried. The truth is, she says, as Sammy enters the house, Katie’s spent so much time with the Moffatts that she’s turned into a Moffatt, herself. In truth, says Jacqui, she’d like nothing better than to have the old Katie back, but she thinks it’s too late for that.
Back at Hotel Corkhill, Tim continues to splatter paint a shade of goose-turd green onto Jimmy’s walls. Emily is fed up and decides to return to work, for lack of anything better to do. When she leaves, Tim morosely tells Christy that he’s forced to redecorate Jim’s house for Emily, with left-over paint cadged off Ray. Emily hates living here at Jimmy’s, he confides.
Like every woman, says Christy, she wants her dream home.
Tim snorts that that sort of home would take ages to come by. He needs decent money to be able to afford to give the little slut what she wants (and if he doesn’t, she latch onto the first thing with a penis who can do just that).
Well, Christy hints, he might be able to help Tim out there. He’s got a big job lined up.
Tim’s ears prick up like the little prick he is. He begs Christy to give him more info on this so-called ‘big job’, but Christy tantalisingly demurs. Too early to say yet, he says. It’s just in the preparatory stages. But in the meantime, Christy does have an idea. Emily’s got a hankering for a new kitchen and bathroom. Well, Christy knows how Tim can get her these items - and for free!
Jacqui and Sammy stand in the Farnham kitchen, as Sammy watches Emma and Harry playing in the lounge. She’s bragging ad nauseam about her own daughter, Louise. Louise, it seems, is in boarding school. Sammy says she sent her there because she wanted to get the best education for her (forgetting to mention the fact that a boarding school would also mean that Louise would be out of her hair).
Jacqui remarks that Brookie Comp wasn’t that bad. (Singing a different song to that which she warbled at the dinner party). But then she makes amends and apologises, forgetting that it was at Brookie Comp where all of Sammy’s drink problems began. Well, she says again, in their time at Brookie Comp, the place almost qualified to have a maternity ward, what with the number of girls who fell pregnant.
Sammy reminisces on how yukky the boys were, but she admits that some of the teachers were fanciable. Jacqui reminisces about Tracey Corkhill and the PE teacher.
Sammy sighs and declares that she would take an older man over one her own age any day. And, looking at Jacqui, it seems that Sammy wasn’t the only one to prefer older men. Were many people surprised when Jacqui and Max got together? She asks.
Jacqui declares that if they were, then people could just mind their own business.
Sammy says that when she married her husband, Richard, who’s also about twenty years older, a lot of people thought that she only wanted him for his money, intimating that this is the reason Jacqui married Max.
Jacqui protests. She has her own money, thank you very much. She owns the Health Club, which is a veritable gold mine. She loves Max. In fact, in her opinion, she has it all - Max, the kids and her business. And anyway, Max doesn’t seem that old.
Sammy asks if it’s hard for Jacqui to live in the Farnham house, where Susannah died. (Never thought Sammy Rogers knew Susannah). Well, anyway, she could never picture Max Farnham with a younger wife. In fact, she often wondered what would have happened if the fling she had with Max had lasted - oh, Jacqui DID realise that she and Max had had an affair?
Jacqui, tongue in cheek, remarks bitchily that she’d been told about that NIGHT they spent together. But Sammy insists it lasted longer than that. Didn’t Jacqui find it hard, she asks, living with Max and knowing his track record? After all, some women find a man with a wedding ring a turn-on. Good sex and no strings.
Jacqui begins to suspect Sammy’s motives for showing up and asks if she’s come to discuss Jacqui’s marriage or Katie’s situation? Immediately, Sammy changes the subject, expressing how horrified she was when she heard what Katie had done the previous day. She had no idea that things had degenerated so much between the two girls to arrive at this point.
Jacqui tells Sammy wearily that she’s tried and tried reaching out to Katie, but has been rejected each time. It’s been horrible watching from the sidelines as Katie tears herself up over Clint, but at the same time, Jacqui says, she’s watched the hate build up in Katie against, not only Ron, but also Jacqui, herself.
The doorbell rings at that moment, and Jacqui excuses herself to answer it. It’s Rachel, back to pester Jacqui some more about babysitting. She sees Sammy there, but that doesn’t deter her. Has Jac-keh thought anymore ‘bout bay-behsittin’ Beth? Oooh, it were only to be few hours a week.
Again, Jacqui expresses doubt that Mike would approve, but Rachel nags on and on. Just to achieve a peace and to get rid of the nagging no-brainer, Jacqui agrees to babysit the child the coming week - but only for a few hours each time and not indefinitely.
Rachel is pleased, but Jacqui again, ominously warns her that Mike won’t be happy with this.
Mrs Plummer, having spoken to Imelda and Paige, returns to her office and the waiting Murrays. As she takes her seat, Dire asks what the ‘little madams’ have had to say for themselves regarding accusations of bullying Antony at the play the night before.
Well, of course, begins Mrs Plummer, they categorically denied everything. But it seems she’s changed her tune now too. She has to admit that she doesn’t believe them, herself; but she hastens to add that she HAS to be seen to act fairly in this circumstance. She’s almost certain that they were behind what happened last night, and therefore, she has to monitor the situation carefully. There have still been no independent witnesses who say that the girls have been bullying Antony, after all.
Dire protests, but Mrs Plummer silences her by saying that they have loads of cases daily, like Paige and Imelda. Her office is constantly full to the brim with teachers who know exactly what various students are up to, but can’t do anything about it because they have no concrete and independent proof. They simply must continue to watch for any slip-up on the girls’ part.
Dire is disgusted and she rises from her seat. Is that the best the school can offer? She demands. What else does she have to do to protect her son? Well, ta very mooch, but it looks as though the Murrays will have to deal with this themselves! And she and Marty flounce from the office.
Jacqui is trying to explain to Sammy some of the aspects of Katie’s irrational behaviour. Ron shot Clint, she admits, but that was a horrible and unintentional accident. Yet Katie blames only Ron. Clint wouldn’t have been in the Dixon house in fhe first place if it hadn’t been for Gobby. But Katie refuses to see it that way, Jacqui explains. She was first intent on blaming Ron, when the event occurred and then somehow, for some reason, she twisted events around so that now she blames Jacqui as much as she blames Ron. But it’s all down to Gobby. He’s good at twisting things, himself, Jacqui continues. Jacqui learned that much about him the first time he raised his fist against her.
It was because of revenge on Jacqui the Gobby broke into the Dixon house, and if he hadn’t done that, then Clint would have had nothing to do with this.
Sammy tries to urge Jacqui to talk to Katie, but Jacqui tells her that Katie refuses. And she’ll continue to refuse, Jacqui says, until Katie sees that the one person she should be blaming all this on is Gobby Moffatt. Sammy pleads with Jacqui. Katie is ruining her life and there’s nothing Sammy can do. Of course, says Sammy, Sammy is Katie’s sister, but Jacqui was more than a sister to Katie. They were soulmates. Jacqui is the only chance Sammy has to save Katie from destroying herself.
Tim and Christy slink along The Parade until they come to the entrance to the flats. I had always thought this entrance was exclusive and had a buzzer, but they manage to catch the tail end of someone entering and go inside. Upstairs in the corridor, Christy stops outside what was Jacqui’s old flat. He tells Tim to kick the door down and Tim obliges.
Jacqui is still trying to explain her opinion of Katie’s behaviour to Sammy. It’s as though Katie has the abject NEED to blame Ron for Clint’s death, she says. It seems to be the only way she can cope with life, by focusing all her intense hatred on Ron and the Dixons, notably Jacqui.
Sammy tells Jacqui that Nisha told her Katie had tried to kill herself. (Well, actually, she didn’t. She just drank too much and spilled a bunch of tablets). Jacqui is visibly shocked to hear this.
Oh, she’s not that bad now, assures Sammy .
Oh no? Enquires Jacqui, sceptically. Well, yesterday, Jacqui saw the raw hatred in Katie’s eyes, she says. Hatred for Ron, for Jacqui and for Katie, herself. Katie is going through the motions of life, Jacqui continues, carrying the memory of how perfect Clint was. And he was perfect for her. She’ll never get over him, Jacqui swears.
Inside Jacqui’s empty flat, Christy and Tim enter the bathroom. It’s a luxury suite. Right, begins Christy, Tim should start ripping the bath out. He’ll sort out the van and he wants Tim to have the bath etc ripped out and downstairs before the locals start coming home from work.
Tim protests that he might need a plumber, but Christy asks him rhetorically if he wants Emily to have her gala bathroom suite.
Sammy is taking her leave of Jacqui, each equally as stunned by the other’s revelations about Katie. Sammy tells Jacqui that she had no idea things were as bad as they were with her sister. She keeps remembering how strong Katie was when Frank Rogers died. Jacqui expresses the hope that the old Katie will return, but she’s doubtful that that girl still exists.
Sammy tells Jacqui that together they MUST help Katie cope. Jacqui agrees. And as Jacqui closes the Farnham front door, Sammy remains on the doorstep, with a worried look on her face ... But what is she worried about? Katie or Max?
P.S. I wonder why the Rogers’ brother is never mentioned ...
Summary © 2001 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001