You can almost SMELL it at Brookside. This week was like no other - setting the stage for bigger things, yet so subtly that the viewer can sit back, relax and prepare to be caught unawares. This is Brookside approaching what it used to be and can be again, but it needs to ...
WIELD AN AXE.
Uncle Phil, I know you’re adamant about not axing for axing’s sake, but it HAS to be done. Now would be an excellent time to rid the series of Jimmy, for starters. He’s been there, done that, read the book, seen the movie and bought the tee-shirt - three times over!!! The Corkhill era should be gently finished now, with dignity and respect as a long-serving character deserves. Jimmy’s place as resident scally failure could be more than aptly taken by Christy or Tim or a combination thereof. In fact, let Christy win enough on the lottery to buy Hotel Corkhill from Jackie (who really owns it) and move him and Leanne into the place.
Bev needs to become Ms Chatelaine of Casa Bevron again, which would necessitate Mike’s departure. Now Mike could suddenly realise that he and Katie Rogers share the common bond of jealousy towards Jacqui, as well as a propensity to self-pity. They could marry, move away and Katie could maintain a permanent shrine to the sainted Clint whilst Mike draws the dole and hates Jacqui from afar.
Max needs to have the fear of God firmly placed inside his britches in the shape of Jacqui’s hand and squeezed HARD.
Nikki and Jerome should eventually just bugger off too. Unnecessary, unsympathetic, unwholesome and under threat of seriously damaging the credibility of the show.
Oh, yes ... And Plank. Well, I’m sure he’d come in handy as part of the wood used to build the Farnham’s extension.
So there you have it ... The first round of axings Uncle Phil should consider - Jimmy, Katie, Mike, Nikki, Jerome and Steve.
Honestly, would anybody miss’em?
Another day dawns at Hotel Corkhill, without the master of the house. The doorbell rings, and Tim answers it, only to find Plank propped against the door frame. The two partners in crime, greet each other unenthusiastically. They are worried men and understandably so. The success of their non-raid on a local warehouse depends on the ability of a madman to keep schtum.
Plank enters the house and the lads make a beeline for the Corkhill lounge. Plank asks if Tim’s had anymore news on Jimmy.
No, replies Tim, slumping onto the sofa, but he and Emily were going to the hospital later to visit him.
Plank wonders if Jim’s said anything to the police about them, but Tim is certain that he hasn’t. Plank, however, isn’t at all sure. He reckons the bizzies are just biding their time, trying to catch them out.
Tim reassures his mate, telling him not ot work himself into a sweat. Why, the state Jimmy was in when the police found him, would they be inclined to believe anything he happened to rant on about? They wouldn’t believe anything Jimmy had to say.
Plank heaves a sigh of relief as he and Tim relax a moment, reflecting on the raid. It was a high price to pay, says Plank, all this tension for a load of chocolate and a few cases of lippy.
Tim changes the subject and asks Plank if he’s managed to sort our a van for Tim. Plank replies that he has, but his mate wants to see the money up front.
No probs, says Tim, confidently.
Well, muses Plank morosely, if Jimmy happens to open up, both Plank and Tim will be in a van of their own, all right - a police van.
Next door at Sitcom House, Antony Murray is getting ready for school, whilst his over-protective stepmother hovers at his elbow. Is Antony sure he’s all right? Dire asks, anxiously. Is he certain that he didn’t want her to walk with him to school?
Antony assures her that he’ll be all right, but Dire senses that he’s worried. Antony admits that, it might be all right for the next three days with Imelda and Paige suspended, but what happens after that, when Imelda comes back?
Oh, Antony needn’t worry about that, says Dire, smugly, when Imelda returns, she’ll be too busy worrying about protecting herself from the Head to have much to do with Antony.
Ant starts to whinge about the fact that he has games today. He hates games, especially when they play football. The teacher knows he hates that too. And no one picks him, so he’s made to go in goal. It’s freezing in goal, he says.
Dire asks solicitously if he’d like her to pack him an extra vest. Antony says he’d rather have a note from her, saying he’d be unable to play today.
Dire, for once, refuses to mollycoddle the kid she’s virtually turned into a sissy with the emotional content of an eight year-old, and Antony goes off to school.
Over at Chateau Farnham, Maxie’s on the blower having a conversation with what appears to be an architect. He’s asking the person if he can have a viewing of the plans without specifications, when the doorbell rings. Max ends the conversation, telling the architect that he’ll ring him back.
Opening the door, we see the Frankensteinian image of Gabby the Grin. I say that, because this woman seems to have been assembled from various body parts belonging to other actresses - Geena Davis’s grin, Minnie Driver’s facial shape. Why or how Max imagines her to remind him of Patricia is anyone’s guess. She reminds me of a piranha.
Max, however, is visibly pleased to see her, and she explains that she wanted to drop the minutes from the last Governors’ meeting by for him.
Oh, waffles Max, that wasn’t necessary. She surely could have e-mailed them to him. (Er, since when did the Farnhams acquire a computer?)
Well, smirks Gabby the Grin, she was in the neighbourhood anyway. (Yes, as in living in the neighbourhood).
Max immediately invites her in for coffee. As she enters the house, she gazes about admiringly. Max tells her that he was on the phone with the architect when she called. He and his wife were planning on adding onto the house at the rear and the side. Oh, and Max was going to call Gaby the Grin, anyway.
Oooh, Gaby witters, intrigued and flattered.
Well, Max explains, he needed some advice. Antony Murray’s father had called round the other evening about the situation with Antony at the school.
Gabby is surprised. Hasn’t Max heard the latest development in the tale? She asks.
Max is equally surprised. He hasn’t heard anything since the Board meeting.
Well, continues Gabby, it seems that Imelda Clough is on a fast-track to exclusion. After the latest incident, she and her mate are being excluded for three days. Then Mrs Plummer planned to call a special meeting of the Board of Governors next week and she’ll push to have both girls permanently excluded. They’ll return from their initial suspension only to be told that they were being expelled for good.
Max observes that at least Antony will be O K. So much for Brookie Comp’s position in the league table, he muses.
Gaby the Grin shrugs. It’s just passing the problem onto another school, and how that school deals with Imelda Clough is their business.
Max shares an amusing thought of how this exclusion will grate on George’s liberal pomposity. Then he asks why Gaby got involved with being on the Board of Governors of the local secondary school.
Gaby flirtatiously tells Max that this added interest gets her out of the house, makes her use her brain and - besides- she meets the most interesting people. And she smiles knowingly at a flattered Max.
Across the Close, Tim has found the money for the van Plank is arranging for him. £3500 in cash, kept in a bag in Hotel Corkhill. Plank can’t believe Tim actually kept dosh like that lying around Hotel Corkhill. Wasn’t he afraid of it getting nicked (like, by Jerome and Nikki)?
Tim laughs, as Plank pulls the dosh from the bag, wrinkling his nose in distaste. This money stinks, he says. Tim reaches into the bag and pulls out one of his dirty socks (which doesn’t really look dirty at all).
Plank tells Tim that he hopes he knows what he’s letting himself in for ... This man-and-a-van lark can be hard graft, he says.
Emily, dressed demurely in her white Jackie Corkhill original bathrobe enters the scene just then, overhearing the last remark. There’s something unusual about Emily tonight, besides the fact that she’s not entering the room showing excessive cleavage or arse. It’s her hair. It seems to have acquired unusual-lookin g layers. Then I recalled seeing Jennifer Ellison, her hair bobbed short, one morning not long ago on The Big Breakfast. She’s left off wearing hair extensions, and tonight she appears to be wearing a haripiece under her new short haircut.
Seeing Tim hand Plank the money, she voices a warning to Tim, reminding him that part of that money was to be kept aside to help Nikki in the event that she wanted the money.
Tough, says Tim. She’s had her chance.
Emily insists that £1000 of that money is Nikki’s. Emily is certain that her sister will ask for it.
Plank feels that he’s intruding on family matters here and offers to leave, but Tim wants him to stay. Emily, however, tells him to ‘do one’, and as Emily’s word is law, Plank departs.
Mike Dixon has just returned from his night shift and tells Rachel that he’s so knackered that he’s going right upstairs to bed. Rachel, however, stops him. She has something she wants to tell him, she says, and it won’t wait.
Mike sits down on the sofa in the Dixon lounge area and Rachel sits down beside him. It’s something that she’d mentioned earlier, she begins. Mike is worried it might be something serious, and again asks Rachel to explain.
Rachel begins by reminding Mike that Jacqui had offered her the job of looking after Harry and Emma on a daily basis.
Yes, recalls Mike, and he had vetoed the offer.
Well, Rachel continues, she had since told Jacqui that she would take her up on her offer.
Mike is adamant. Rachel is not doing this.
This is just why she hadn’t said anything before, Rachel wails. Mike was so stubborn, he’d let a row like this stand in her way of earning a living. It was something that she could do and that she wanted to do, and anyway, Jacqui was paying her the going rate.
Well, that’s good of Jacqui, sneers Mike, ungratefully. She plays Lady Muck.
She wants to leave her children in good hands, says Rachel, trying to defend both Jacqui’s actions and hers.
She’s been a mum all of five minutes, whinges Mike, until she’s found out what hard graft it is, and now she’s prepared to dump those two kids with all and sundry whilst she swans off and resumes her career.
It would be all right, Rachel assures him, anyway, Jacqui had already given her a two-week wage advance - so now they would be able to go to that swank hotel for a night for her birthday.
Mike’s still not pleased. This would mean that RACHEL was paying for her own birthday present.
Oh, why couldn’t they just enjoy it? Asks Rachel, exasperated by Mike’s constant carping.
What about Beth? Demands Mike. Where does she fit in all this?
Well, Rachel would be in the Farnham home during the day. She’d just take Beth with her. It was the easiest thing to do, really.
Back at Hotel Corkhill, Emily is banging a gong about the £1k she and Tim were saving for Nikki. She tries to explain to Tim that Nikki is her sister, and that their dad had big plans for Nikki to attend university. (And he had the requisite insurance money too! Where’s that gone that Nikki’s skint?) She was the only one in their family to go to uni (and the only one not to have profited from it). And now Tim wants to sacrifice Nikki’s future for a minty old van that his friend Flash Harry was trying to obtain from him.
Tim refuses to budge. The van was their future, he maintains. Emily lunges at Tim and the two begin to tussle, before Tim pins her up against the wall. If Emily were serious about Tim going legit, she’d do well to let him buy this van. It was an investment in their future as a couple.
What about Nikki? Emily demands.
Tim explains that they would be able to help Nikki even more when his business venture started making money. Then she wouldn’t refuse their offer, because the money would be legitimate.
As he leans against Emily, the two engage in the requisite snog, before they are interrupted by Nikki, herself. She’s just got the morning’s post, she says, and it includes the final demand for her fees from the university.
Glancing apprehensively at Tim, Emily offers Nikki the chance of £1000 yet again.
No, Nikki refuses, primly. It’s dodgy money. And she leaves the room.
Tim smiles. That means he can get the van.
It’s morning at the Walk-In Centre. The patients are waiting, whilst Nisha and Katie unprofessionally discuss their private lives in front of the waiting public. Nisha makes a point of asking Katie if Sammy plans on finding a place of her own for her and Louise.
Katie, whose skin can be as thick as a rhinocerous on certain occasions, doesn’t rise to the bait. It takes a few sticks of dynamite to prise Sammy once she’s settled someplace, says Katie.
Nisha’s face drops, as Katie continues. Anyway, it was Louise Katie was worried about. She doesn’t seem to be adjusting too well, something about problems at school.
Nisha isn’t interested. Kids are resilient, she says. Louise will be all right.
At that moment, a young girl sitting in the waiting area, tumbles off her chair in the throes of an epileptic fit. Nisha orders Katie to fetch Dr Parr.
Dimily have arrived at the hospital to visit Jimmy. They find the Sage sitting bolt upright in bed, staring blankly into space. He makes no response to their presence, not even seeming to realise that they are there.
Emily whispers to Tim that Jimmy’s like a zombie. She wonders if he can even hear them. Tim tells Emily to go get the two of them some coffee, and sits down beside Jimmy’s bed, as Jimmy starts to move his mouth slowly.
Tim asks Jimmy if he can hear him. Jimmy makes no response, so Tim asks the same question again.
Jimmy replies in a slow, monotone voice. ‘Of ... course ... I ... can ... hear ... yer. I’m ... not ... deaf ,,, Sinbad’s ... deaf ... I’m ... not
... deaf ... or ... Dumb.’
Tim asks Jimmy if he’s said anything to the police, but Jimmy wants to talk about deafness. He had an uncle who was deaf, he says in that monotone voice. They say deafness runs in families.
What about the bizzies? Tim demands, more urgently this time.
‘The ... Bizzies ...’ Recites Jimmy, in a somnolent tone. ‘Know ... why ... they’re ... called ... Bizzies ... Because of ... busy bees. Buzzin’ round.’
Jimmy’s speech seems to be returning now, as his latest dose of tablets are wearing off. A fella can’t go for a walk on the Ring Road, he moans to Tim.
Tim urgently demands that Jimmy tell him what he’s told the police.
Jimmy says he’s told them that it’s a free country - but not for Jimmy Corkhill. He starts ranting about the right to walk on the Queen’s Highway. The Queen! Jimmy reckons that not even the Queen would be allowed to walk on her own highway.
He looks piercingly at Tim. ‘I had the right to defend myself,’ Jimmy says, crypticall.
‘Jimmy,’ pleads Tim, now worried by the hint that Jimmy had an altercation with the police, ‘What did you do?’
As Dr Parr escorts the little epileptic girl and her mother out of the surgery, poor pitiful Katie stops him in the corridor. She was worried. What was wrong with the little girl?
Dr Parr explains that the child had an epileptic fit. It took everyone by surprise, but thank goodness, it happened in the medical centre. He explains that the majority of such fits are harmless, but in some cases people could swallow their tongues of choke on their vomit.
Katie exclaims that she didn’t know what to do.
But, points out Dr Parr, Katie kept her cool. That’s half the battle - make people think that you know what you’re doing. He says that he hopes he’ll see her later that evening at the flat warming.
Back at the hospital, Tim has finally and painfully extracted the information from Jimmy that Jimmy had hit a policeman. Jimmy protests that it was in self-defence.
What did Jimmy SAY to the police? Tim presses.
Jimmy replies that he was no grass.
What about Bev? Continiues Tim. What did you say about her?
Emily enters with the coffee and Tim tells her what Jimmy’s said. Emily is shocked that Jimmy’s admitting belting a police constable; Tim’s worried too. This could be serious.
Maybe he’s making it up, suggests Emily.
Tim shakes his head ominously. If Jim’s had a go at a bizzie, they’re not going to let this one drop. And if Jim goes on to say anything about the robbery, Tim’s knackered.
The Farnham kids have had their lunch, and scramble from the table in the direction of the television in the lounge. Jacqui warns them that they may watch the television for 10 minutes and then they must return to Auntie Rachel next door.
Max remarks that his children watch more films than he’s seen in a lifetime. (This is Jacqui’s philosophy on child-rearing - dump them in front of the television set). It keeps them quiet, Jacqui says.
Max reminds Jacqui that they are invited to Dr Parr’s house-warming party that evening and wonders if Rachel would babysit for them tonight. Jacqui makes a moue of mock impression at the information, before noticing two empty mugs on the counter.
Oi, she queries, who’s been here drinking out of my mugs?
Oh, says Max, suddenly recalling his houseguest, that would be Gaby Thaxter. She dropped by this morning with the minutes of the last Governors’ meeting for Max.
Jacqui raises her eyebrows. Oh? And does she still remind you of Patricia?
Max moans that he made one comment about an ex-wife and his present wife won’t let him forget it. He abruptly and guiltily changes the subject to ask Jacqui how she’s getting on at work.
Jacqui’s bored at the club. Sol has everything running to perfection, and even Sammy’s doing a good job. There was simply nothing for her to do. In fact, she was so bored, she was tempted to act on Rachel’s suggestion (er, when did we hear this?) and invest in Bev’s Bar.
Max is flabbergasted. Bev’s Bar? Jacqui would be well-advised to stay away from an investment like that, the state that place was in. That place was a mess at the moment, and Jacqui would be wasting her time.
Dimily are still at the bedside of the Sage, when his number one disciple, Dr Nikki, enters. She’s surprised to see the couple there, and Jimmy seems calmer than he was previously. Nikki asks Tim how Jimmy is, and Tim replies that the nurse has been around and given Jimmy some more tablets, as he had begun to rant earlier. He asks Nikki if she’s heard whether or not the police want anything more to do with Jimmy, and Nikki shocks Tim by telling him that the police want to charge Jimmy with assault.
Tim is, indeed, shocked. In fact, he’s bricking it. That’s not fair, he protests. Couldn’t they see Jim was ill?
They have to do it, explains Nikki. Jimmy assaulted a police officer.
It’s the end of the school day, and Antony Murray has arrived safely at home, to be met by his overprotective and hypocritical mother, Dire. Anxiously, she asks the lad how he fared at school that day. Antony, to her surprise, is very chatty about the events at school.
They had double maths today, he explained, but he didn’t enjoy that because the teacher shouted.
Dire is immediately concerned, looking as though she wants to clasp the child protectively to her ample bosom, whilst assailing the guilty maths teacher. Why did he shout at Antony? She demands, feverishly.
Oh, he didn’t shout at Ant, the boy clarifies, but at the lad next to him.
And how was the Games lesson? His step-mother asks.
She’s in for an even bigger surprise. Antony exclaims that Games was great. He even enjoyed playing football. His team thumped the other team 12-1. He admits that everything’s better now that Imelda had gone.
Dire heaves a sigh of relief and casts her eyes heavenward in a mute prayer of thanks.
Dimily and Nikki have arrived back at Hotel Corkhill. They enter the empty house and Tim immediately whips out his mobile and tries to contact Plank. All he receives, however, is a voice mail message, much to his consternation.
Emily gives a sneering gaze around the surroundings of the house. She proclaims the place ‘depressing’. Nikki agrees, saying that the house seems weird without Jimmy’s presence. (Actually, it was weird WITH Jimmy’s presence. I’d say it was pretty normal now).
Tim is worried because he can’t contact Plank, and Emily berates him for trusting Plank to go to an auction with £3500 of their money. Anyway, she’s more interested in re-decorating the house than either Tim’s or Jimmy’s predicament, and she’s in no hurry to have Jimmy at home. She wonders aloud if there’s any danger in Jimmy going mad again. After all, he had a go at that bizzie, no telling what he might do to one of them.
Dr Nikki, with all the infinite wisdom of a psychology undergraduate, piously defends Jimmy, saying that the only reason he had lashed out at the policeman was because he was frightened. (Poor, timid Jimmy!)
Emily starts casting a critical eye over the lounge and kitchen areas, wittering on about a make-over, when Dr Nikki suddenly stops her. She has to talk to her sister about an important matter.
(Question: Several months ago, when Tim and Emily moved in, Jimmy gave the couple permission to re-decorate and make the house theirs. Tim even borrowed paint from Ray and began painting the lounge area institution green. As I recall, he never finished. What happened with that storyline?)
The Farnhams have arrived at the Parrs’ housewarming. Dr Parr greets them and asks if he can take Jacqui’s coat. Up pops Gaby the Grin, who reminds be increasingly of Saskia the bunny-boiler on Eastenders ca. 1999 (something about the way she bobs her head when she speaks). Just like a doctor, she quips, always wanting a person to get their kit off.
Max is delighted to see his new friend and turns to Jacqui to introduce the would-be slut as ‘Gabby Thaxter’.
Actually, says Gaby the Grin, interjecting, tonight she’s ‘Gaby Parr’.
Max is astounded and perplexed until Gaby the Grin explains that she’s married to Dr Parr.
Nikki sits opposite Emily on the Hotel Corkhill sofa, swallowing her pride. She needs to talk to Emily about giving her the £1000 she’d previously refused to help her out with the money she owed the university.
Emily tries to understand the situation. Does Nikki actually mean that they uni will kick her out if she can’t pay them the money in fees that she owes them?
They woulnd’t exactly kick her out, per se, explains Nikki. But they won’t mark any of her work, nor would she be allowed to take exams. She’s asked for more time to repay the debt, but the £1000 would definitely be a start and show her good intentions.
Emily reminds Nikki that Nikki had deemed that money ‘dirty money’.
Nikki begs Emily. She’s desperate. She apologises for being so high and pious before, but she really needs this favour off Emily.
Emily tells her sister that she’d love to help her, but Tim was in the middle of doing this deal with Plank in order to procure a van. Seeing the dubious look on Nikki’s face, Emily hastens to tell her that Tim’s going legit and he needs the van for business. Unfortunately, they had to use the £1000 promised Nikki to buy the van. Nikki should have said she wanted the money earlier, Emily tells her.
They’d love to be able to help, Emily continues, but for the time being, until Tim gets some business in, they’d be living on Em’s wages from the Salon.
Nikki gathers her shattered pride about her and tells Emily stiffly that she’ll manage somehow.
Emily asks Nikki why her sister simply doesn’t phone their mother, Margi, in Belgium.
Nikki shakes her head, saying that she’s FLEECED Margi already. (Of course, she has. Every bit of money Margi sent Nikki for her tuition fees was spent on designer clothes, drink and a good time. She fleeced Margi, all right, and if Margi found out, she’d beat Nikki’s arse ten ways until next Sunday before she’d let the girl’s feet hit the ground).
Nikki vows to get out of this situation her own way.
Jacqui and Max stand amidst the throng at the Parr-ty. Jacqui’s casting a critical and suspicious eye over Gaby the Grin, who’s holding court in another part of the room. Why, she isn’t at all like Patricia, she comments to Max.
Max qualifies his statement, whilst eyeing the slut (Gaby, that is) admiringly. He didn’t say she was LIKE Patricia, he tells Jacqui. He said she REMINDED him of Patricia.
Not even that, disses Jacqui. For a start, Gaby is much younger than Patricia, she points out. (I’d say she was only about a couple of years older than Jacqui).
In another part of the Parr-ty, poor, pitiful Katie stops Dr Parr to ask after the little epileptic girl he’d seen earlier. Dr Parr explains that the child had been refusing to take her medication, medication that would have controlled her disease and precluded her having any seizures.
Funny, Nisha remarks, must be something about this time of year ... Seems as though it’s making people determined to come off medication.
Gaby the Grin is standing at the doctor’s elbow and screws her little Minnie Driver-Geena Davis-Saskia face up with curiosity at the nurse’s remark. Dr Parr explains to his wife that this was the second one of his patients refusing to take their tablets. He had to send the mother away with a flea in her ear. And a few months back, another one was refusing to take lithium.
There’s not much a doctor can do, remarks Nisha, if patients won’t take his advice.
Gaby declares that Dr Parr should get everything down on paper, as proof that he tried to advise patients about the proper course of treatment to take. That way, there would be no repercussions and no malpractice suits to follow. EVERYTHING DOWN ON PAPER, she reiterates and flits away.
Nisha gives the woman one of her best condescending looks, remarking that paperwork was becoming more important that patients.
Sometimes, the good doctor muses, it was best not to disclose what people did.
Katie sees Jacqui standing alone, as Max is paying court to Gaby the Grin. Jacqui apologises for not getting in touch with Katie recently. (I thought Katie said their friendship was a sham?) She’s been busy, Jacqui explains. She’s back working now.
Since when was Jacqui too busy to have lunch with her bezzy mate? Asks Katie, content to resume the friendship, it seems, on her terms. How about lunch the next day?
Jacqui looks uneasy and tries to tactfully say no to Katie’s request. The truth is, she errms, she has other plans.
What’s more important that her best friend? Katie selfishly demands. (Well, Jacqui’s husband, her children, her house ...)
Jacqui admits that she’d planned on visiting Ron the next day, and Katie leaves in a huff. (Geesh!)
We next see the lights of a van pulling up and parking on the Close. Plank gets out of a big white van - typical that Tim would want to become ‘White Van Man’. Tim emerges from Hotel Corkhill, asking Plank where he’d been.
Hey, Plank soothes him, these things take time. Was Tim afraid he’d absconded with the money? Anyway, this van was sound. It’s got a full-year’s MOT, is taxed and has a nice, clean engine.
Tim wants to know how much the thing cost.
Plank says he still has money left over from the purchase and laughingly hands Tim a tenner.
Jacqui approaches Max in order to prise him away from the piranha’s side. Gaby coos a bitchy apology to Jacqui for monopolising her husband. It’s just that they have SO much in common. When the flirty slut moves away from the couple, Jacqui ticks Max off for not saying two words to her all evening. In fact, it was as though he’d been mesmerised by Gaby Parr.
Max protests that he was merely being sociable, as he didn’t want to be caught in the middle of a passel of doctors all night. Anyway, there was only one woman he cared about (and it doesn’t appear to be Jacqui). He kisses his wife.
Jacqui warns Max to watch himself around that Gaby one; he didn’t want to give her any unfounded ideas. She was NOT another Patricia. Max kisses Jacqui once more, and as the couple embrace, we see the predatory Gaby the Grin watching their performance with a calculating stare. (Ten pounds says she’s been unfaithful to Parr before now!)
Plank Murray enters Sitcom House and plonks himself beside his step-mother on the sofa. He asks the whereabouts of Marty, and Dire tells him Marty’s off down at The Harvester. Plank assumes his parents have had a row, but Dire assures him that Marty simply wanted to go to the pub.
Hey, she tells him, Ant was on a real buzz when he returned home from school. It seems that the pall has lifted since Imelda’s been excluded. Ant told her that two lads actually thanked him for helping to get rid of that little madam. Her reading between the lines told the omniscient Dire that ALL the children were glad that nemesis had been excluded. It seems that Imelda wasn’t exactly Miss Popularity, herself.
She’ll only be back in a few days, Plank points out. What then?
She’ll only be back, says Dire, for as long as it takes the Board of Governors to exclude her. That will be the end of it.
No more Imelda Clough, muses Plank, in satisfied wonder.
Yes, his dippy step-mother agrees, the Murrays’ nightmare will finally be over.
(But, of course, we know that it’s only just about to begin!)
David A Young wrote this. Another good one.
Summary © 2002 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2002