I’m all for Brookside returning to issue storylines. I think it’s great. I hope they succeed. In case anyone hasn’t got the nous to read between the lines of my summaries and postings, in case they aren’t clever enough to discern, or in case they’re just too young to understand Brookside at all (thinking of two people in particular who post on the Official Forum and who can’t seem to muster up more than one brain cell between them), I LIKE BROOKSIDE.
I like it, but I hate it. The best way to describe this sort of relationship is to liken it to that of a person who’s supported a particular football team for years - not one of the top-flight, glamourous, wealthy ones, but one of the also-rans ... Scunthorpe, Raith Rovers, that sort. The person watches his team, week in and week out. He’s savoured the highs and puked on the lows. Now the team is near the bottom of its division, and it’s facing relegation. The love turns to hate and despair. The supporter curses the team, the board and the management. He actually wishes the lot of them would simply eat shit and die.
But come next week, he’ll be right there behind the goal, cheering them on. Why? Because there’s always the hope that SOMETHING will improve, that the luck will change, that the team will get better.
THAT’S why I persevere with Brookside.
C’mon, Uncle Phil. Get your tracksuit on and let’s win this league again.
An unkempt, unshaven and wild-eyed Jimmy sits in the back of a police van, handcuffed and facing two young constables. It appears he’s been picked up by the bizzies after being found trying to walk through the Mersey Tunnel. As the van careers along, Jimmy is ranting about the unjust situation in which he finds himself to the bizzies, who both have the patiently bored mien of men who have heard this all before. They tolerate him, but barely.
The bizzies have no right to do this to Jimmy, the Sage maintains, in the loud, booming voice we’ve all come to dread in the last few weeks. NO RIGHT! He repeats, shouting and thrusting his face toward them.
The dark-haired policeman patiently reminds Jimmy that he was found, without any baggage or identification, trying to walk against the flow of traffic through the Mersey Tunnel.
Yes, Jimmy acknowledges, impatiently, as if this is the most natural thing in the world. But that was still no reason to TIE HIS HANDS! And he thrusts his handcuffed wrists toward the two constables. Besides, he was on his way to Newcastle. THAT was why he was where he was. He’d have told them if they’d only asked him.
AND, continues the dark-haired bobby, Jimmy had also head-butted him, when they tried to get him off the through-way. That was called ‘assaulting a police officer’. The policeman reminds Jimmy that it was against the law for pedestrians to walk through the Mersey Tunnel.
But it’s all right to drive a CAR! Shouts Jimmy. THE CAR IS KING!!!!! That’s the attitude of people today! (Thus Uncle Phil puts New Labour’s transport philosophy into the mouth of a madman. What does that say about Tony Blair?)
DOWN WITH PEDESTRIANS! Jimmy rants.
The policeman politely explains to Jimmy that if they had allowed him to continue, he may have caused harm to himself and to others.
Why? Jimmy demands, belligerently. Because he was WALKING? Did that make him a FREAK because he didn’t choose to drive a car through the tunnel. It’s says a pretty piece for this country, says Jimmy, when a fella can’t try to get from A to B on his own two feet without getting pulled in by the bizzies. Well, he continues, he wants to give the bizzies a little history lesson. Did they know what the worst invention ever made was?
The two other men exchange brief glances.
THE WHEEL! Booms Jimmy.
The other fair-haired policeman stifles a giggle behind his hand.
His humourless friend again reminds Jimmy that, for head-butting a policeman, Jimmy could go down.
It’s evening at Sitcom House, and Marty Murray is doing a minor household repair. Dire informs Marty that they have an appointment with Mrs Plummer tomorrow about the latest incident with Antony. This time, says the bleached bombshell, she simply HAS to do something about this bullying. In fact, in Dire’s opinion, it’s about bloody time that they thought about expelling those two girls.
Marty patiently explains that that simply can’t be done, without a pile of evidence; and Plummer still maintains that there simply isn’t enough evidence against Imelda and Paige to constitute this. Even if she did show enough gumption, says Marty, to do that, the Board of Governors would only reinstate the girls. It would be a wasted exercise - anyway, Marty concludes, he understood the Board had discussed this situation. Best leave it to them; they do everything Plummer demands, anyway. Marty reckons it might not be a bad idea to have a word with Max Farnham - he’d just been appointed to the Board. It might help if Max were on his side.
Dire raises her eyebrows sceptically.
It’s true, maintains Marty. Plummer went on a campaign to the board about getting CCTV cameras installed throughout Brookie Comp, and the Board complied.
Plank, who’s been standing nearby practicing his clapboard exercises, is intrigued. So there were actually video cameras throughout the school now?
Too right, says Marty, but what he wouldn’t have given for one of them to have been in that boys’ loo today. That would give Plummer all the evidence she’d need!
Plank scoffs. You couldn’t go putting CCTV cameras in the loos, he protests, laughingly. There’d be hell to pay for that.
Suddenly, Marty realises that, even though there were no cameras in the loo, the corridor CCTV must have caught Imelda and Paige pursuing Antony.
Dire agrees. If the little madams can be shown chasing him on film, so much the better.
Marty immediately decides to return to the school and procure the film; Plank agrees to give him a lift.
Jimmy and the two bizzies have arrived at a police station, and the two men accompany Jimmy to a holding room. The dark-haired policeman tells Jimmy that they plan on leaving him here in this room until he’s calmed down enough to talk to them. In the meantime, the officer suggests, Jimmy should sit down and have himself a rest.
Jimmy’s having none of their concern. He breaks a law by going for a walk, he witters, viciously. He goes for a walk and THEY TIE HIS ARMS! He exclaims. Well, he continues, lowering his voice to a whisper. He can still walk. Right here. Right now. In this Room.
And he starts to stride in a circle, almost marching.
‘I’m walking,’ says Jimmy, as he passes the watching policeman. ‘I’m WALKING! I’M WALKING!’ He continues shouting this at the top of his voice, whilst walking repeatedly in a circle around the room. ‘I’M WALKING! AND THE ONLY WAY YOU’LL STOP ME IS IF YER BREAK ME LEGS!’
Meanwhile, it’s evening at Chateau Farnham, or should I say CHEATeau Farnham. The latest Mrs Farnham is lounging prettily on the sofa in the lounge, whilst the permanent Mr Farnham is busy doing something in the kitchen whilst taking a phone call. He’s heard to say that he’ll ‘be over as soon as possible’. Presumably, the restaurant has need of his services.
He finishes the telephone call and saunters into the living room to join Mrs Farnham, having made for her a delicious-looking sandwich of which to partake. (Er, whatever happened to dinner?)
Mrs Farnham is impressed and asks Mr Farnham if he plans on making her such delicacies when she returns to work. Mr Farnham replies that he certainly hopes that Mrs Farnham remembers to show up around the house from time to time. This incurs a feeling of guilt in Mrs Farnham, who is still not certain that she’s doing the right thing by her children in returning to work. But, she tells Mr Farnham, she needs more in her life than the drudgery routine of looking after children.
Max is entirely supportive of Jacqui. He’ll back whatever she wants to do, as long as she makes a point of being around the house regularly for the children’s needs. And that they spend good time together, Jacqui adds.
Max tells Jacqui that, in addition to hiring a nanny, he’s also been thinking about taking on extra help at The Shelf.
Jacqui replies that she’s come up with the perfect solution to a nanny. She was actually thinking about asking Rachel if she’d mind taking care of Harry and Emma for her.
Max isn’t too keen on this idea. In fact, he’s a bit wary. Thinking more of Mike’s reaction, he intimates to Jacqui that she wants to be careful that Rachel doesn’t think Jacqui’s being a bit patronising in her offer.
Patronising? Repeats Jacqui, in disbelief. She’s being practical. After all, Rachel wasn’t just anyone. She was a close friend, as well as the children’s aunt, so she wouldn’t be leaving them with strangers. They’d be in the familiar environment of their own home, and besides, Rachel needed the money.
Max nods in agreement, but warns Jacqui about appearing patronising again.
By now, back in the holding room at the unnamed police station, Jimmy’s giving the two bizzies another history lesson. This time he’s wittering on about Roald Amundsen and Captain Scott of the Antarctic.
The two watching men exchange helpless glances, and murmur something about not knowing what to do. Before turning again to Jimmy, the dark-haired copper whispers to the other one to phone every mental hospital in Liverpool to see if any patients were missing, as by now, it’s obvious that Jimmy’s not firing on all cylinders.
Jimmy has caught their expression of not knowing what to do and, in his manic state, picks up on it. They don’t know what to do? He repeats, in that all-too-familiar booming voice. Why, he always knew what to do! They could start by releasing him. He simply HAD to go to Newcastle.
The fair-haired copper leaves the room, and the dark-haired one tentatively approaches Jimmy. He suggests that maybe they got off on the wrong footing, and perhaps they should start again. Let’s forget about everything, including the broken nose Jimmy had landed on him. He introduces himself as ‘Keith’ and asks Jimmy’s name.
Jimmy, still standing, with his shoulders hunched, eyes the man with suspicion. ‘I’m no grass,’ Jimmy hisses.
Look, says the officer, all he wanted to know was Jimmy’s name.
Jimmy now looks at him with that curiously screwed up frown that’s become another one of his hallmarks. Is that all the bizzie wanted to know? Jim’s name?
Yes, replies the copper.
Well, Jimmy responds, HE wants to know EVERYTHING. That’s why he spends so much time surfing the Internet. Not only that, but he wants to read every book that’s been written, know every recorded fact ... And all this bizzie wanted to know was his name. Did the copper want to know something really sad? Jimmy finishes, rhetorically. He wasn’t going to tell the constable his name, so there!
As the policeman sighs in frustration, Jimmy is heard to mutter, ‘Thinks I was born yesterday!’
It’s evening at the Dixon house, and Mike is making ready to go to work. Wearing his uniform, he enters the lounge, carrying Ron’s dark suit on a hanger. He hands it to Ray, reckoning it just might fit him. As Ray lost his suit in the fire, he was in need of one for Kitty’s funeral the next day. Mike tells Ray that he’d like to attend the funeral the next day.
Ray appreciates the gesture, but assures Mike that the lad needs his sleep. Jessie is in the Dixon kitchen, cooking a bacon joint for the wake the next day. Mike leaves for work, and Ray chides Jessie coldly about cooking too much. There wouldn’t be that many people coming around after the funeral.
Jessie tells Ray that his brother Bernard and his wife would be up from Southampton (I thought they lived in Bournemouth), but would have to drive back that very evening as Bernard had to work the next day. Suddenly, Jessie suggests that perhaps Ray should invite Helen to attend the funeral.
Ray replies, curtly, that he already had invited her, to Jessie’s surprise.
As the older couple are talking, Mike is taking his leave of Rachel in the foyer. He tells Rachel that he’d planned to take her away for a night in a swank hotel for her birthday the next week, but he had to cancel. Without the rent money from Jessie and Ray (Mike is such an arsehole), they simply couldn’t afford it.
Rachel, who’s gradually getting more articulate after her brain transplant, is philosophical and suggests that perhaps they might be able to do something special next year.
Copper Keith is still trying to pry information out of Jimmy, who’s still pacing restlessly back and forth in the room. Jimmy, however, is becoming a tad more loquacious in his rantings. Copper Keith asks Jimmy if he’s ever been married.
‘Me? Married?’ Scoffs Jimmy, lying. ‘Never.’
‘Not the marrying kind, eh?’ Quips Keith, jocularly.
Jimmy’s face assumes a mischievious look. He coyly asks Copper Keith if Keith’s ever had sex on a pool table.
Keith, with a puzzled frown, has to admit that he’s never had that pleasure.
Well, Jimmy brags, he has. And in a pub too. He’d ‘potted the pink’, he jokes, crudely.
The copper is intrigued. How’d Jimmy manage that?
After hours when the place was locked up. With Bev, he says.
Did she work in this pub? The copper asks.
Noooo! Groans Jimmy. She OWNS the place.
Bev, the copper remarks. What did Jimmy say her surname was? Only, Copper Keith thinks he knows her. Didn’t she own the ............... Downtown?
Jimmy susses the trick. ‘I’m no grass,’ he asserts. And he wasn’t taking orders from anyone. He wouldn’t talk and they couldn’t make him.
Copper Keith asks Jimmy why he was walking to Newcastle. It’s a fair distance. And when they found Jimmy, he had no bags. Did he have friends in Newcastle?
Jimmy replies evasively that he knows a few people.
The copper takes a seat at a nearby interrogation table. Did Jimmy have family in Newcastle? He asks, sensing something.
Jimmy stops his frantic pacing and suddenly takes the chair opposite the policeman. He puts his face close to the copper’s and whispers conspiratorily. Well, there ARE two people in particular in Newcastle. He’d tell Keith who they were, but Jimmy wanted the copper’s word that he wouldn’t be sending a patrol car around there. It would frighten the life out of them to see a bizzie’s car pull up in front of their house.
Keith gives Jimmy his word. If Jimmy tells him who the two people in Newcastle were, there would be no squad car sent.
Leaning close to the policeman’s ear, Jimmy whispers, ‘Their names are ... Ant and Dec.’
And Jimmy begins to laugh uproariously. Then he glances up at the CCTV on the wall and begins to talk loudly to his dead brother Frankie’s spirit.
Later that evening, the doorbell of Chateau Farnham rings, and Jacqui admits a humble-looking Marty Murray. Marty seems uneasy at being in the company of such exalted beings as the Farnhams, and he aplogises to Jacqui for disturbing their evening. In true forlock-tugging, Ronnie Corbett ‘I know mah place’ fashion, he explains that he’s come to have a word with Max, as a neighbour and a parent.
He points out that he realises that Max has recently won a seat on Brookside Comp’s Board of Governors, so Max must be aware of the fact that Antony’s been being bullied at school.
Max is a bit gob-smacked and feels awkward, as Marty explains the latest incident that’s occurred with Antony.
Jacqui speaks up to comment on the fact that the school should have some sort of policy for dealing with bullies.
They do, replies Marty, throroughly sceptical. It’s called the Anti-Bullying Policy, and Mrs Plummer has been trying to use it in Antony’s circumstances. Just try to imagine, he tells Jacqui, how she would feel, if Harry or Emma were suffering what Antony had been through.
Max points out that, even though he’s on the Board of Governors, he was new to the situation. How did Marty imagine he could help?
Marty says just to know that Max was on his side would be a help. He tells the couple that he’s ensured that Mrs Plummer had a copy of the video tape from the CCTV in the corridor outside the loo where Antony was assaulted. He and Dire had an appointment to see the Head the next day as well.
How has Mrs Plummer reacted so far? Max enquires.
She gives the usual excuses, Marty says, brutally. All the usual malarkey about having to go through the proper channels with the girls in order to appease the governors, when everyone on staff at the school knows that the governors always do what Mrs Plummer wants. Anyway, Marty continues, if he were on the Board of Governors, he wouldn’t hesitate in getting rid of the little cows.
Aware, perhaps, of having gone too far in his assertions, he thanks Max for his time and apologises again to Jacqui for disturbing her evening.
After Marty leaves, Max and Jacqui exchange looks of concern.
Back at the holding room in the cop shop, Keith and the other policeman stand at the door to the room, with another man, in civilian clothes. The three men are speaking in guarded whispers and eyeing Jimmy, who’s now sitting on top of the interrogation table, eyeing them with equal suspicion.
Jimmy shouts out to the trio that he knows that they are talking about him.
The men continue to whisper, and PC Keith refers to the third man as ‘Doctor’.
Jimmy shouts again at them to stop talking about him. It’s rude to whisper, he says.
They continue discussing him and glancing occasionally in his direction.
Jimmy now tries another tactic, cupping his ear pointedly and asking the bizzies what they’re saying, just as the doctor nods something and leaves, and PC Keith turns to the other officer and instructs him to phone the hospital and ensure that A & E had enough sedatives ready, as he felt Jimmy wouldn’t go quietly.
Once the other officer departs, PC Keith approaches Jimmy. Jimmy immediately demands to know who the other fella was with whom they were talking.
Him? Asks PC Keith, motioning with his head toward the door. Oh, he’s just a mate of theirs. He apologises for whispering.
Jimmy, again, accuses the copper of talking about him.
Oh, no, not at all, fluffs Keith. In fact, he was just getting some advice from his mate about Jimmy possibly staying here. But it seems that, in fact, Jimmy can’t stay here - so it’s time to go.
Jimmy’s eyes light up with unexpected hope. Go? To Newcastle?
PC Keith nods, smiling. ‘If you want,’ he says. ‘We can even give you a lift there.’
Jimmy hesitates for a second. No, thanks, he says, he’d rather walk.
That’ll take hours, says Keith, pursuasively. If they drove, they’d get Jimmy there in no time.
Jimmy grins broadly, believing him implicitly. That’s fantastic! He booms.
Jacqui and Max now sit ensconced on the sofa, wrapped in each other’s arms and discussing Marty’s recent visit. Max is a bit put out, as Marty has put him in quite an awkward situation.
Jacqui’s sympathetic about poor Antony being bullied - but by GIRLS, interjects Max, laughing shortly. Jacqui reminds him perfunctorily that she recalls some hard case girls being at Brookie Comp.
Max counters that he still hasn’t heard the school’s side of the bullying story. He had to bone up on the situation. Hmmm ... Max thinks. Perhaps, as he’s new on the board, he ought to call Gaby Thaxter and have a word with her about it. She knows more about the case, and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out her business card, holding up in front of his eyes to check the telephone number.
Jacqui immediately spies it and snatches it from his hand. What was Max doing with this Gaby Thaxter’s card? She asks suspiciously.
Max does the fish imitation with his mouth a couple of times before speaking. Well, he stammers, she just gave it to him and he thought it might be useful to have -
‘Property Consultant,’ Jacqui interrupts, reading Gaby’s ostentatious title from the card. ‘Is that a posh term for "Estate Agent"?
Again, Max huffs and puffs, before stammering an affirmative reply, with a nervous laugh. He supposes that she is, after all, a glorified estate agent.
‘Well, you know what that means,’ Jacqui attempts a joke, but with a barb attached. ‘It means that everything she says has to be taken with a pinch of salt!’
Max, with a guilty look on his face, swiftly removes himself from the couch, in order to make a telephone call, leaving Jacqui looking distinctly worried and insecure.
Jimmy and his two bizzie mates are now seated in the back of the police van again en route to the hospital, only Jimmy thinks that they are going to Newcastle. He happily chatters away to them now about being anxious to get there. Why, he can’t wait to see his family. Leaning conspiratorially toward PC Keith, he confides that he wasn’t really going to see Ant and Dec. Newcastle was where his daughter and his granddaughter lived.
He loves them, he vows with conviction. And they love him, as well.
Suddenly, the van comes to a halt, having arrived at the hospital, which Jimmy still thinks is Newcastle.
‘We’re here!’ Announces PC Keith.
‘Great!’ Shouts Jimmy and thanks the policemen for the lift, rising from his seat. PC Keith warns Jimmy to mind his head, as Jim moves toward the door at the back of the van.
Outside the van, we see a doctor, an orderly and a nurse close by the rear door, awaiting the prospective patient.
As soon as the door opens, Jimmy sees them and susses the ruse. The bizzies lied to him, he exclaims. This isn’t Newcastle. He stiffens himself and refuses to descend the van. The policemen try to forcibly lift him, but Jimmy begins to struggle and fight. They manage to lift him to the ground, still struggling and PC Keith manages to wrestle him onto the ground and hold him there, as the doctor approaches Jim with a sedative injection. Jimmy lies helplessly struggling and begging not to be given any drugs.
‘No drooks! No drooks!’ He shouts.
It’s now the following day. A car parks on the Close and we see the door open and a pair of female legs appear. The camera pulls back to show Helen, arriving for Kitty’s wake, after the funeral.
Inside, Nikki stands between Ray and Jessie, announcing to the pair of them that, skint though she might be, she and Jerome were headed for London the following week for a student demonstration against tuition fees.
Jessie raises her eyebrows in mock surprise. If Nicola were so heavily in debt, Jessie purrs, how is it she finds the funds to travel to London?
Nikki cattily replies that the Student Union was paying the fares for the demonstrators (how very kind). Her nan was not to worry, Nikki quips. Nikki wouldn’t be using any of Jessie’s money.
Nikki moves away from the older couple and Helen approaches. Ray hugs her and tells her how glad he is that she came. She thanks Jessie for inviting her, and Jessie smiles briefly, acknowledging that Helen is ‘family’ now, before moving away from Ray and his daughter, herself.
Helen admits that this is a bit strange for her, attending her grandmother’s funeral and not even knowing what Kitty looked like. She doesn’t suppose Ray has any pictures left of Kitty after the fire? Ray shakes his head.
As a matter of fact, Helen continues, she often wonders what Sylvia look s like now and suggests to Ray that, together, they could find out.
Nikki interrupts them briefly, in order to say her good-byes. She hugs Ray and is polite to Helen, before leaving, saying she had loads to do. That’s Nikki, all right - busy doing nothing.
Ray and Helen take a seat on the sofa, as Jessie approaches them with a tray of coffee. Helen turns to Jessie to explain to her that she and Ray had just been talking. Helen wants Ray to help her find Sylvia, but - she adds as an afterthought - she doesn’t want to do anything that might come between Ray and Jessie. (Yeah, sure).
Ray interposes that this has nothing to do with Jessie.
Nikki has so much to do, that she ends up at Bev’s. She finds Bev walking along The Parade and follows her into the Bar. She’s concerned to find Bev moping around on her own. Bev is depressed and moanin about her run of bad luck. Nikki asks if Bev’s seen anything of Jimmy.
No, Bev snaps, shortly. And she doesn’t want to see anything of him either. He’s just another person to whom she owed back-pay and couldn’t pay.
Nikki says she hasn’t come around for back-pay, but she does need a reference and wonders if Bev would provide one for her.
Sure, says Bev. She had nothing better to do. She’d give the girl a reference right now. There was some headed paper and a pen in the office, if Nikki would fetch it for her.
As Nikki disappears, Bev continues to moan about her bad luck in a loud voice, so Nikki could hear. It wasn’t enough that she’s being forced to sell the bar, she says, what with Leanne suing her and all, things couldn’t get much worse -
As she utters these words, however, PC Keith and his partner appear at the door of the bar.
Bev mutters that things are now just about to get much worse after all.
PC Keith asks Bev if she’s Beverly McLoughlin.
Immediately suspicious, Bev asks if this has anything to do with Leanne Powell.
PC Keith asks if Bev owns this bar.
Yes, Bev replies, for the time being.
PC Keith asks if Bev has a boyfriend.
Looking perplexed, Bev says she has no boyfriend.
It’s PC Keith’s turn to look perplexed now. Er, how about an ex then?
Bev throws him a doubtful look and admits that there had been a few exes, but why?
‘One you had sex with on a pool table?’ PC Keith enquires, clumsily.
Bev looks as though the floor couldn’t open up and swallow her quick enough. ‘JIMMY CORKHILL!’ She blurts out.
At that moment, Dr Nikki emerges from the office, hearing Jimmy’s name and seeing the bizzies. Is Jimmy all right? She asks, immediately concerned.
Tim and Plank are having a conversation. Tim has a business proposition for Plank, but Plank’s newly wary of anything Tim proposes. This is legit, Tim says. He offers to buy the tuning gun for Plank’s mobile van business. In fact, he proposes that he and Plank set up the business together - O’Leary & Murray Mobile Mechanics.
One problem, says Plank, using the sawdust in his head. PLANK was the mechanic. Where did Tim fit in?
Tim was the ‘mobile’ bit, Tim says. He could drive Plank around.
Yes, but Plank would do all the work. In fact, he says, he’d do all the work and only get one half of the profit. Anyway, why was Tim so desperate to go legit now?
Tim explains that he was afraid of getting nabbed by the bizzies eventually, ending his life and crime career like Jimmy. Emily had put the fear of God into him.
The phone rings and Tim answers it. It’s Nikki, telling Tim that the police had found Jimmy and now he was sedated and in hospital.
Tim tells Nikki that he and Plank will be around in five minutes.
The two lads rush out, Plank plaintively asking Tim if Jimmy had said anything to the police.
Marty and Dire are, meantime, waiting in the office of Mrs Plummer. As usual, the Head is late - deliberately so, in order to make the Murrays feel small and guilty for infringing upon her time.
She breezily enters the room, greeting the sceptical parents with a bright apology and wanting to get down to the business of watching this tape.
Jacqui has just popped around to the Dixons’ to deliver a sympathy card to Ray and Jessie and to offer her condolences. As she leaves, Rachel walks with her to the door. Jacqui has to speak to Rachel about something. She tells Rachel that she’s decided to return to work and she needs to ask Rachel a favour. She wants to know if Rachel would mind Harry and Emma while Jacqui works during the day. She offers to pay Rachel the going rate for child minders. Rachel’s about to speak, when Mike puts in an appearance.
Mrs Plummer puts the video tape into the VCR and she and the Murrays watch the scene unfold. There’s a shot of Antony trudging down the school corridor, before something is whipped over the camera and the scene goes blank.
Mrs Plummer turns the machine off, smugly announcing that the tape wasn’t entirely conclusive.
Dire looks bewildered and wants to know why the tape suddenly went blank.
Marty’s had enough of the Head’s wet attitude. First he answers Dire’s question, quipping shortly over his shoulder: ‘Because they put something over the camera so they couldn’t be seen on film.’
How could Mrs Plummer say there was no conclusive evidence? He questions the woman sharply. She saw the state of Antony AND the state of the toilet after the assault. AND, he points out, he even filled out an incident sheet.
Why, Mrs Plummer must be up to her eyeballs in incident sheets about those two girls by now. He wants the woman to know that he’s played by the book as far as Antony’’s concerned now. He’s sat back and let the school try to prohibit the bullying their way. They’ve tried discipline reports, reintegration, psychological analyses, all that crap. And now, he wanted to see some positive action on the part of the school’s duty toward his son.
There was no need for Marty to lose his temper, assures Mrs Plummer. The school would take action on the incident with Antony.
‘Prove it!’ Snaps Marty. ‘Exclude them!’
Mrs Plummer looks distinctly put out and uneasy. If Marty would just allow her to finish, she says, with a miffed air, she was about to explain that she was going to exclude the two girls for a three-day period -
THREE DAYS! Shrieks Dire, in disbelief.
Three days, resumes Mrs Plummer, nonplussed by the outburst, until a special meeting of the Board of Governors is convened next week, when she will recommend to the board that Imelda and Paige be excluded permanently. She has to take that official route.
But will the board listen? Asks Marty.
Of course, assures Mrs Plummer, smiling smugly. The board ALWAYS does what she says.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, Rachel smiles uneasily at Mike’s sudden appearance and explains to him that Jacqui’s going back to work and wants her to babysit Harry and Emma. After all, she begins to witter, returning to brainless mode upon seeing Mike assume his truculent, beetle-browed look, we need the moon-eh.
Mike glares jealously at his sister and remarks that Jacqui could afford to go back to work, but others couldn’t. (Go figure). Anyway, he reminds Rachel, didn’t she promise Bev that she’d help out with Josh?
But Josh is in school most of the day, protests Rachel, who really wants the money on offer.
Jacqui, anxious, not to get into a needless altercation with Mike, turns to go, simply asking Rachel to let her know once she’s made up her mind.
Mike interrupts, stopping her. This is another example of Jacqui always getting what she wants. (Hang on a minute! Katie reckons this too. I reckon Mike, with his miserable attitude and inherent self-pity, has more in common with Katie than his own wife). She tries out being a mum for five minutes and when she gets tired of that, she swans off back to work, thinking to dump Harry and Emma onto Rachel. Well, the answer this time, he snarls, is NO.
The faithful four disciples - Bev, Dr Nikki, Tim and Plank - sit in reverance around the bed of the sedated Sage, now in hospital. The Sage rests peacefully.
Bev explains to Plank and Tim that the bizzies found Jimmy trying to walk through the Mersey Tunnel on his way to Newcastle. He was in a state, so they brought him here.
Tim is curious to know how the police managed to contact Bev about Jimmy.
Er, Jimmy told them where he worked, she fudges.
Dr Nikki gazes with touching concern at the face of her Sage. This all comes from not taking his tablets, she nods, knowingly. Now look at him. He didn’t know what was going on, poor sod. (No, Nikki, YOU are the poor sod).
Ray, Jessie and Helen are still seated on the sofa, speaking in hushed tones about Kitty. Ray is sorry that he didn’t get to introduce Helen to Kitty, but Jessie, in a conciliatory manner, remarks that everyone makes mistakes in their lives. People should learn from them.
Ray asserts that he DID love Kitty, in his own way.
Of course he did, Jessie chides. And it’s only natural that Helen would want to find her birth mother, now that she’s found Ray. Uncharacteristically, Jessie offers to help Ray and Helen track down Sylvia Morgan.
Jacqui is relating to Max, in an indignant tone, about the way Mike summarily refused to allow Rachel to take the childminding job Jacqui offered her. Max is telling Jacqui that he thought all along that if Mike got wind of this, he would assume that Jacqui was being patronising.
The Farnham doorbell rings then, and Rachel enters. About that offer Jacqui made earlier, wanting her to babysit for Harry and Emma - er, was it still available?
Jacqui and Max exchange hopeful looks. Well, yes, stammers Jacqui, but what about Mike?
The fact is, Rachel explains, having found her brain and common sense once more, they simply need the money, and she wouldn’t mind babysitting. It was something she COULD do. But, there is one thing ...
She then asks Jacqui if she could have an advance on her wages. Mike wanted to take her away overnight for her birthday next week and he couldn’t afford it.
With no argument whatsoever, Jacqui agrees to the request.
Rachel then swears Jacqui to secrecy, saying that she hadn’t told Mike anything yet, so Jacqui wasn’t to mention anything.
Bev has gone and Nikki is about to leave the Sage’s bedside, but Tim and Plank maintain their vigil. However, their interest in the state of Jimmy’s health is entirely mercenary. The urgently need to know if Jimmy’s disclosed anything about their warehouse escapade to the police.
Tim, again, remarks to Nikki that he finds it strange that the police would seek out Bev first with news of the discovery of Jimmy. Nikki sharply remarks that that was none of Tim’s business and leaves.
Left alone and gazing nervously at Jimmy, the lads vow never again to go on the rob - with or without Jimmy.
Tim asks another favour of Plank. If he wouldn’t go into business with Tim, then Tim wanted to get his own van and start a Sinbad-style ‘man-with-a-van’ business. But he has to get his own van to do something legit - something legit like Plank’s cash-in-hand enterprise (real legit, that, but I suppose that’s as far as legitimacy goes in Liverpool these days).
Could Plank use his contacts to get Tim a cheap van. Nothing dodgy involved, he assures a wary Plank. He had to have Plank help him out on this one, because Plank knew more about this side of things than Tim.
Plank warns Tim that a good van would cost him between £3k and £4k.
Don’t worry, Tim assures him. He and Emily had saved up enough from their scams for that. Then Tim remembers something. Of course, it might have to include the grand Emily had put aside for Nikki’s use ... But what the hell, if Emily were determined for Tim to go straight, she’d have to make some sacrifices too - even if it meant denying money to her own sister.
John Fay, a Brookside stalwart, wrote this. Good one.
Summary © 2002 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2002