This is Brookside at the moment. A passable episode on Wednesday written by Carmel Morgan, only to be followed by two loads of tripe so thick and stinking and capped off with what can only be described as the closest thing to soft pornography to be shown before the watershed hour that I cna remember. One only hopes that scores of people complained vociferously to Channel 4 and to Mersey Television.
What in the name of God, Hell and Highwater is Phil Redmond thinking? Was he trying to be provocative? (If so, it didn’t work. We were repulsed.) Was he trying to be clever? (If so, why is there no one posting on any of the major Brookside forums, official and un- with the exception of a dim, adolescent lass from Kilmarnock who was stupid enough to make a homophobic comment early on and lucky enough not to be banned from posting on the Official Forum - who thought the incident praiseworthy?) Or is he that desperate for viewers, he’s hoping to rope in any old wanking pervert with the promise of something the other soaps don’t eschew - i.e., pornography? If that’s so, I’m sad, Phil, because you’ve compromised your integrity and proven yourself to be an even bigger whore than you obviously wish your actresses were. OTHER SOAPS, Phil, win accolades, gongs, awards, praise. Brookside doesn’t.
I just wonder what sort of weekend Alex Fletcher is having, after revealing to the viewing world her black lace knickers and assuming the gynaecological position to be poked by Stephen Pinder on prime time. What proverbial stick she must be taking now! And for such a tacky scene.
Has anyone booked her in at Harley Street for the implants yet? That’ll be the next thing.
Jacqui’s people carrier comes to a halt outside the bar on The Parade. She emerges, looking as though she’s either very tired or she’s been crying - probably both.
She goes to the rear of the car and starts to remove smallish cartons from within. Gary Parr ambles along The Parade from the direction of the surgery and, greeting her, stops to help. She gratefully accepts his offer and immediately starts to witter frantically about having so much to do in order to get the bar up and running for tonight.
As he helps her shift some cartons to the door, she asks if he and Gaby Thaxter Parr plan on attending the bar’s opening. Dr Parr says that he had formerly avoided this bar like the plague, but that, yes, he and his wife would be attending.
Jacqui jokes that she will give Max strict orders not to bore Gaby to death.
Finally getting a word in edgewise, Dr Parr asks Jacqui how she’s feeling.
Jacqui deliberately misunderstands his meaning and again begins to witter on about how nervous and excited about the opening she feels.
No, corrects the good doctor, he means how she was feeling in herself, although, he adds, he knows that this baby isn’t her first. Has she got round to making the first ante natal appointment yet? Because, he advises, these first appointments are important and they go like wildfire. Of course, the midwife would want to see her as well as Max for the first appointment.
Now it’s Jacqui who can’t get a word in edgewise. She manages to silence his concern by saying that she hadn’t got around to making an appointment yet.
Dr Parr keeps stressing the importance of ante natal appointments, and Jacqui is noticeably frustrated at his concern.
Max, meanwhile, is at home at Chateau Farnham, gazing out the window in the direction of Matthew’s and Emily’s trees in the back garden. On the small table beside him, rests a picture of Matthew and Emily. Immediately the camera pans back to Max’s face, we see a black-and-white flashback of a much younger Max (five years have aged Stephen Pinder a lot) speaking to Susannah, sometime after the deaths of the two children. He’s telling Susannah that there’s a place in his mind, something like a parallel universe, where Matthew and Emily are still alive, and where they’re looking after him and Susannah.
We know from the flashback that it was five years ago today that Matthew and Emily Farnham were killed.
Bev meets Katie coming out of the garage. Looking over Katie’s shoulders into the building, Bev remarks quizzically that there was no Leanne working today. No, Katie replies, apparently Leanne was off at some trauma therapy session. Bev has a favour to ask Katie, as the camera catches sight of Ron Dixon walking along the Parade.
As soon as he spies Katie talking to Bev, he dashes behind a large lorry and hides.
Bev wants to know if Katie would babysit Josh tonight during the bar’s opening, as she assumes Katie won’t be going because Ron would be there.
Katie protests that she has to babysit Louise, whilst Sammy works the opening. Bev convinces her that the kids would be good company for each other. Katie agrees and then says she has to dash back to the surgery. She’s having teething problems as Dr Parr’s head receptionist and wants to make a good impression.
Ron continues to spy on the two women as they converse.
As Dr Parr helps Jacqui move the cartons onto the upper level of the bar, he remarks on how different the place looks.
Jacqui thanks him for his help, saying that her first priority was to get the cash tills ringing.
Dr Parr succinctly corrects her. That’s her SECOND priority.
Jacqui reluctantly admits that the bar shouldn’t be her first concern. She asks if Dr Parr and Gaby were thinking about starting a family, and the doctor parrots a phrase that the intelligent and discerning viewer is able to recognise as coming straight from Gaby Parr’s mouth. (Lez, this means that Dr Parr is hen-pecked).
The Parrs aren’t 100% sure that they want kids, he says. They hadn’t decided definitely. Oh, he realises that people expect young married couples to start a family, but their philosophy is: What’s wrong with having a life of one’s own first?
Jacqui agrees, wholeheartedly.
After all, Dr Parr continues Gaby’s sermon, their parents were of a generation where one got married and immediately started a family.
Yes, agrees Jacqui, and THEIR generation was brought up to further their careers. What’s wrong with starting a family later? She wants to know, thinking that she has a willing ally.
Then, Parr continues, there arises the problem of leaving starting a family too late. Suddenly mindful of what he’s saying, Dr Parr begs Jacqui to ignore what he’d just been saying. It comes from dealing with too many sick people, he says, shyly. Besides, he’s so neurotic, if they did happen to decide to start a family, he and his wife, he’d probably prove to be firing blanks.
Bev enters the downstairs area of the bar, carrying a box. She stops and calls out to Jacqui above, holding up something from the box in her hands. It’s the invitations for the opening. They’ve only just arrived, Bev says.
Leaning over the bannister, Jacqui berates Bev. The invitations are late because SOMEONE forgot to phone the printers last week, she says pointedly.
‘Is that a dig?’ Bev asks.
‘It was your duty,’ replies Jacqui, coldly, as Bev sprints upstairs. She tells Bev that Nikki was going to be late, but Sammy would be around shortly to help Bev out.
Bev informs Dr Parr that Graham Norton and The Nolans attended the opening of the Bar when Bev took it over.
Dr Parr makes no reply and Jacqui reminds Bev of the tacky topless night she conned on the public.
In order to stem a bickering session, Dr Parr asks if there’s any chance he could have a cup of coffee. Jacqui agrees to the request, but Bev pointedly refuses. The place wasn’t open officially yet and they couldn’t be seen to be handing out freebies. Besides, there would be a buffet later.
Jacqui hurriedly takes Bev aside and ticks her off about her attitude towards the doctor. From now on in this bar, the customer was always going to be seen to be right. She orders Bev to make Dr Parr some coffee, as Bev continues to insist on reminiscing about her tenure as owner.
Jimmy’s standing in the lounge area of Hotel Corkhill, as Nikki, uncharacteristically wearing a micro mini-skirt and carrying a pair of skin-tight knee boots, sways into the area, talking on her mobile phone. She’s talking to Jerome, who can’t seem to make the bar opening that evening. She finishes the conversation and sits down in a chair.
Under Jimmy’s very nose, she proceeds to stretch out her long, supple leg and provocatively pull on one boot, then the other, whilst wittering on about Jerome wanting to get back with her and her not being so sure about it.
She’s so busy listening to herself talk, that she doesn’t clock the lecherous, narrow-eyed look of lust Jimmy is giving her as she dresses herself in front of him. Oh, and by the way, Nikki remarks, has Jimmy taken his tablets today.
This morning, Jimmy replies, huskily, still watching Nikki’s movements.
Nikki has a sudden idea. Why doesn’t Jimmy come as her guest to the bar opening tonight? Jacqui had told her she could bring a guest, and as Jerome couldn’t make it ...
Watch the Dixons enjoying themselves? Asks Jimmy, petulantly. No, Nikki’s all right. She doesn’t need to feel that she must watch him 24/7 either. Or does she think he should have padded walls?
Nikki is speechless at Jimmy’s callous remark.
Ron returns to Number 8 to find that the postman’s left a card in the letterbox. It’s from Anthea, welcoming him home.
The stress of the early stages of pregnancy, along with the worry about that pregnancy and the opening of the bar, is taking its toll on Jacqui. When Nikki arrives, Jacqui ticks her off about her tardiness, saying that Nikki shouldn’t expect to make a habit of being late.
At that moment, Max pops in, suggesting that Jacqui join him for some lunch. Jacqui, he states, looks as though she’s been run off her feet.
All this has to be done, Jacqui says, as Sammy makes an appearance, late as well.
Jacqui demands to know where Sammy’s been, as she should have been at the bar an hour ago. Sammy replies pertly that she had gone with Sol to collect some stationery for the Health Club.
‘It takes two of you?’ Jacqui rejoinders, sarcastically. She tells Sammy to help out behind the bar, as she turns to Max, muttering about Sammy’s attitude.
Max tries to tell her not to let Sammy get to her, but Jacqui knows that Sammy’s trying to get to her via her association with Sol. Why, they’re having a real laugh behind her back, she reckons.
As she prepares to leave the bar, with Max following, Jacqui turns and leaves one last set of instructions with Bev, Nikki and Sammy. If Leanne Powell shows up, they are NOT to let her inside the premises.
Following in Jacqui’s wake as she strides toward her car, Max tells her that she’s stressing herself out, and also that he knows why she’s doing it. She’s throwing herself into her work, he says, in order to forget about the pregnancy.
Jacqui replies that it’s hard enough to cope with what’s on her plate without Max worrying her too. She gets into the people carrier and leaves.
As Max turns away from her, he sees Gaby Thaxter Parr coming out of the entrance to the flats. He calls a greeting to her, telling her that he hadn’t seen her at the last Governors’ meeting, not that she’d missed much.
Gaby says that she gathered that the school is terrified about receiving bad publicity in the light of the bullying incident, followed by Imelda Clough going missing. Gaby asks if there’s been any news of Imelda.
Max confirms that there’s been no news.
Shaking her head, Gaby admits that she finds it hard to fathom what the Cloughs must be going through, what any parent must go through when they lose a child.
Suddenly she notices Max’s grief-stricken face, and he tells her that he lost two children five years ago that same day - in a car crash.
Immediately sympathetic, Gaby offers to buy Max a coffee, so they can talk - even if they have to buy a coffee from that rip-off merchant who owns The Shelf, she jokes. And putting her arm through his, they walk off in the direction of the restaurant.
Meanwhile, Ron trudges despondently into the lounge of Number 8, amidst a welter of activity surrounding Mike and Rachel. As he slumps into a chair, after greeting Mike, he asks the whereabouts of Jessie and Ray.
Rachel, passing through, mentions that Ray and Jessie have gone out for a bit, but would soon be returning.
Of course, quips Ron. They wouldn’t miss countdown - not that Jessie can spell, he adds. He moans to Mike that he feels as though he’s an unwelcome guest in his own home.
Mike, however, has other things on his mind and is whingeing about some new toothpaste Rachel has bought for his toothache. Rachel replies that she bought the stuff because she got two for the price of one.
Ron jokes that that aptly described the state of this house, two families in a house built for one.
Oooh, witters Rachel, forgetting she has a brain (and we can tell that she’s forgotten, because she’s batting her eyes as she talks and moving her head from side to side), sor-reh, Mr Dixon, boot ‘l’oney be fer few weeks.
Ron FINALLY confronts Rachel and tells her that, in view of the fact that the people in this house were living cheek by jowl, it was about time that Rachel started calling him ‘Ron’ instead of ‘Mr Dixon’.
Rachel blushes and agrees to the request.
Mike tries to jolly Ron, by telling him that in a few weeks’ time, everything would be back to normal in the house.
Ron protests that things would never be back to normal, and then he reveals the reasons behind his tetchiness. He shows Mike the card he received that morning from Anthea. Just a card, he says. Nothing more. She couldn’t even face phoning him.
Well, observes Rachel, she IS in the U.S. (How, exactly, did Anthea find it so easy to re-establish herself in the U.S.? Not very good research here, Brookside. Why? Because Megan, and it’s dubious as to how SHE, with all of the A-Level in Computer Technology managed to fulfill something that’s anything BUT a skill shortage in the U.S., wouldn NOT be able to effect emigration for her mother, quite simply because the pyramid familial system no longer exists. And, as Anthea is a trained cleaner, well, we do very nicely getting our cleaners from Mexico and Central America, thank you).
Ron is upset because there was no one, no WOMAN particularly, waiting to welcome him back into the fold that was his family. No one cares, he says. He even managed to drive Anthea away.
Mike protests that it was Anthea who let Ron down. Rachel passes through the room, excusing herself to see about the kids upstairs. She had them drawing pictures for Adele, who would be babysitting them that evening.
Ron disagrees. Maybe if he had handled her situation differently, tried to see things as they were from Anthea’s side. He handled everything wrong, he muses. The simple fact is, he says, that Ron simply misses having someone to luuurve.
Max and Gaby have finished their tea and sympathy at The Shelf and are departing the premises. Max walks Gaby back down the pavement of The Parade, smarming and having recovered his old personality.
As they reach the door to the flats on The Parade, the oily Max, smoothly opens the door for the younger woman, hoping aloud to see her later at the bar opening and apoligising in advance for anything his father-in-law might say later that evening. Suddenly, his mobile sounds. Excusing himself from bidding further adieu to Gaby, he turns away briefly to take the call.
We are never told from whom the call emanates, whether it’s the hospital or the police, but we are treated to another black-and-white flashback in Max’s mind from five years previously. We briefly see a car screeching into another and Susannah’s horrified face as the crash occurs.
Max is momentarily gobsmacked. Seeing the look of horror on his face, Gaby asks if he’s all right, but Max briefly excuses himself, muttering something about an accident and Jacqui, before he dashes away from the bewildered woman.
Meanwhile, within the walls of the Walk-In Centre, poor, pitiful, stinky, smelly, greasy, desperate, smarmy, brown-nosing Katie makes an unnecessary visit to the inner sanctum of Dr Parr’s office, solely for the purpose of telling him she’d written out ALL the prescriptions he’d left for her, like a conscientious receptionist.
Dr Parr looks up briefly. Is this Katie’s way of making an apology? He asks dismissively. Only, she could try saying ‘sorry’.
Poor, pitiful Katie hunches her shoulders and wrinkles her forehead, looking desperately at the ground in shame. Dr Parr continues. Of course, he SHOULD have reported her to the Practice Manager, who’s the person Katie should REALLY apologise to. Katie’s lucky, he says, that the Practice Manager didn’t sack her on the spot when she denied treatment to Ron Dixon.
Seeing the wretch’s discomfiture, Dr Parr indicates that Katie should take a seat. He knows that she’s been having a lot of personal problems, he says, softly. But in the future, rather than drowning her sorrows in drink and them putting her job at risk, he’d rather she come talk to him - either here or maybe down at the pub. Then he corrects himself - maybe the pub wasn’t such a good idea. She has to set a good example, he says, to the public.
Poor, pitiful, ignorant, selfish, self-pitying Katie growls that she doesn’t give a toss what the public thought of her; she wants people to know how crap she feels. (Of course, she does. Misery loves company, and Katie isn’t happy unless everyone around her is miserable too).
Max is on his way to where he’s been told Jacqui’s had her accident. Only he’s not getting that far, because he’s frustratingly caught in a traffic jam. He honks his horn repeatedly, as another black-and-white flashback occurs. We see Susannah, trapped inside the car and screaming. There’s a brief flash of Matthew lying lifeless in front of the car and Emily lying unconsicous in the back seat.
Reaching beside him, Max grabs his mobile phone and rings Jacqui’s number. He obtains her answerphone with an incredibly rude message: ‘If you’ve reached the answerphone,’ the message goes in Jacqui’s voice, ‘it means the phone’s terrned off or I don’t want ter talk ter ya, so leave oos a message.’
Katie tries now to make amends for her outburst to Dr Parr. She tries to say that she wants to be good at her job, really she does.
Dr Parr wisely says that he realises that. In fact, he’s spent quite a deal of time telling the other directors of the clinic how good Katie was at her job. Katie is embarrassed.
So, he continues, there was really no need for Katie to wallow in self-pity when she really does have friends like Nisha who are willing to talk and listen to her.
But poor, pitiful Katie likes her self-pity. She wears it like a warm, comfortable coat, and she’s loathe to discard it. So, she plays the self-pity card one last time. She feels like the local mug, she says, deprecatingly. Only good for babysitting duties and cleaning. As for friends, she was Billy No-Mates, she was.
Dr Parr gazes at the wretch for a moment, and then tries to offer comfort. He realises that her grief stems from the situation with Jacqui and Ron; but he assures her that grief does lessen. It does get better.
Why do fellas always offer solutions like that? Snarls poor, pitiful Katie. Grief gets better. It doesn’t. And now Ron’s out and it’s as though he wants Katie to solve HIS problems. He wants to be friends with her. And she hates that. In fact, she hates what Ron’s turned her into.
At that moment, there’s a knock on his office door, and Dr Parr encounters his wife, who apologises for intruding. She’s wondering if either Dr Parr or Katie have heard from Jacqui Farnham this afternoon, she says intriguingly.
Max has arrived at the scene of the accident. He sees the crashed people carrier (he’s not had much luck with that car, has he?) as well as the other car involved in the accident, which appears to be an old Austin Allegro. (Doubt Brookside had that much of a budget).
As he wanders frantically about, trying to find someone who can tell him where his wife’s been taken, he has another flashback, and we see another sight of the crash from five years before, and see Susannah screaming, as Ben O’Leary shouts to her that they’ll have to cut her free.
Back at the bar, three ungrateful employees are preparing for the opening. Nikki complains about the background music, and Bev replies that it’s specifically what Her Royal Highness had ordered to be played tonight.
Sammy wonders where Jacqui is, and Nikki agrees that it’s not like her to be late for her own opening. Sammy replies that Jacqui’s probably got a big entrance all planned, while Bev indulges in some bitching about Jacqui as well. Nikki asks if Jacqui’s always been the ‘Big I Am’ to work for.
(Rant: I find this disgusting. First of all, Jacqui gave Lady Muck a job out of sympathy for Louise and as a result of Katie’s manipulative friendship. Sammy’s lucky Jacqui did this, in view of the trick Sammy tried to pull on Jacqui at Christmas. Secondly, Bev, herself, would be out on the STREET without Jacqui’s purchase of the bar, and - again - she was under no obligation to provide Bev with a topnotch job enabling her to keep her lujo flat and custody of her son. Sorry, but it IS Bev’s responsibility to provide adequate child care for Josh, not Jacqui. And thirdly, Dr Nikki has worked for Jacqui before - at the Health Club in 1999. And, again, she’s lucky Jacqui’s apparently offered her her old job back. So the three of them should just shut up and do what they’re paid for and stop whingeing and taking liberties).
Nikki asks if Katie’s putting in an appearance that evening, but Sammy replies that she’s babysitting Louise.
And Josh, pipes Bev.
Besides, Sammy continues, bitchily, Katie wasn’t exactly into the Dixon scene these days. (Ah, but she’s not too good that she couldn’t ask and demand favours from them, could she?)
Bev asks Nikki if Jerome is coming by this evening, but Nikki tells her that the couple have had a massive falling out. Sammy opines that she though Nikki and Jerome were good together. (Another unrealistic remark. Since when has it been established that Sammy Rogers even knows Nikki Shadwick, especially since by the time Sammy arrived, the bar was all but dead and there was no way Sammy would have or should have know the Shadwicks.
Nikki says that Jerome wants to get back together with Nikki, but she was afraid to allow him. (Strange, that - especially since the previous day, she was telling Jessie how she HAD to forgive Jerome in order to salvage their relationship. Really, there has to be more continuity and consultation between Brookside’s writers). Nikki says that if she gets back together with Jerome, it would be like going around in circles.
Bev remarks that she told Nikki all this when she was working for Bev a couple of years ago. There are bigger fish in the sea, and Sammy responds to this with a crude remark.
At that moment, Jimmy enters the bar. Bev is taken aback by his appearance as he hasn’t been invited, and Jimmy explains that he’s there as Nikki’s guest.
Oh, in that case, says Sammy, she’ll offer him a drink on the house, which Jimmy accepts. Bev objects, saying that that’s against Jacqui’s policy, but Sammy arrogantly says that Jacqui won’t know anything about it.
As Jimmy takes the glass of wine, he gazes unblinkingly at Bev’s outfit, which consists of a pink, low-cut and tight-fitting top. He announces to all and sundry how nice Bev looks, before glancing around and announcing that they appear to have moved the pool table.
Bev is clearly embarrassed and pushes past Jimmy. Nikki takes umbrage with that tasteless remark and also advises Jimmy that he’s not supposed to be drinking alcohol whilst taking his tablets.
Jimmy sarcastically takes Nikki to task for babysitting him in public, before asking Sammy for a top-up to his wine.
Max is seen, still at the scene of the accident, demanding to know Jacqui’s whereabouts.
Back at the Dixons’, Mike and Rachel are preparing to get ready to go to the bar’s opening. Ron announces that he won’t be going to the do. Mike protests that he has to go; Jacqui expects him to be there.
Why? Asks Ron, rhetorically. Is he the side show for the evening? Everyone come to see the psycho that’s killed a man? Did Mike realise that earlier in the day he ran into Katie Rogers at The Parade? Does Mike know what Ron did? He hid from her, he tells his son.
Mike tries to encourage Ron to come out with the younger couple that evening. All Ron needs, Mike reckons, is to be in some decent company for a bit.
Ron entreats Mike to try to consider his father’s position at the moment. Ron says he’s 54 years old. (Odd, that, considering that last year he was only 50 years old. More inconsistency). What does he have to show for his life now? He has no job, his own home isn’t his anymore. And he’s lost his wife. It’s female company he craves, Ron tells Mike.
Mike professes that he doesn’t understand what Ron’s on about. He’s back in the bosom of his family, with his grandchildren close by.
Bending down over his sitting son, as the phone sounds in the background, Ron spells out what he means for Mike. A man has NEEDS, he says. He’s been four months inside a prison, and has returned to a house devoid of female companionship. Ron’s never been so long without a woman, he says.
Rachel, meanwhile, has answered the phone to a frantic Max, ringing to apprise them of Jacqui’s accident.
Max is now panicking at the scene of the accident. After phoning Rachel, he tries Jacqui’s mobile once again.
Back at the Dixons’, the family are phaffing about the news of Jacqui’s accident. Rachel takes it upon herself to ring Bev at the bar and tell her what’s happened.
Max, meanwhile, has arrived at the hospital and dashes into reception. He breathlessly identifies himself to the receptionist at A & E, demanding to know where his wife’s been taken. As the woman calmly takes his details, he suffers another flashback. We see a younger Max and Susannah in the hospital, being told that Matthew was dead.
The receptionist tells Max that Mrs Farnham has been taken to X-Ray and Max sprints off.
At the bar, Nikki is still worried about Jacqui’s non-appearance. It wasn’t like her to be late. Sammy again, lazily reiterates that Jacqui probably had a grand entrance all staged. Anyway, she continues, throwing down the towel with which she was cleaning the bar, she was off. She’d pop in later.
Bev takes umbrage and tells Sammy that her place was supposed to be helping them that evening. Where is Sammy going now?
Well, drawls Sammy selfishly, if Jacqui couldn’t be bothered to show up for her own bar’s opening, she couldn’t be bothered to stay. She would rather be helping Sol anyway at the Health Club. Bev is left with her mouth agape as Lady Muck scarpers, and Nikki turns her attention to an increasingly surly Jimmy, seated nearby at the bar and downing wine.
Before she can say a word, Jimmy anticipates another lecture coming. She doesn’t get paid to lecture Jimmy, he remarks.
Nikki quips that she isn’t in this carers’ game for the money, but Jimmy is aware that Lindsey is paying her to look after him.
Lindsey offered her the money AFTER she had agreed to become Jimmy’s home support, she tells him.
Jimmy demands to know why Nikki’s bent on caring for him. It certainly can’t be something that her family would condone her doing. And as for Jimmy’s family, well, they couldn’t be further away.
Nikki tells Jimmy that she’s not bothered what people think about her. She’s caring for Jimmy because he’s her friend.
Max rushes up the stairs breathlessly at the hospital, until he finds the X-Ray Department, but no Jacqui. He dashes down the stairs again, until he arrives back at the reception desk. There’s another black-and-white flashback, this time of the bearded doctor telling him and Susannah that Emily had died. He raises his voice in panic at the receptionist, demanding to know something about the condition of his wife.
At that moment, Jacqui steps out of an examination room behind him, her left arm wrapped in an ace bandage. Max crashes toward her, pushing her back into the examination room, kissing her and pushing her back until she’s pinned against the wall. He keeps telling her over and over again that he loves her, as he pushes up her skirt. We are treated to the sight of him pulling her skirt up to her waist, revealing black lacy knickers. Then we’re treated to Max groping her thighs, before the camera focuses on his waistline, as he undoes his belt, unzips his trousers and lowers them to reveal black slip pants.
There’s a brief scene of them snogging, before the camera returns with a fetish and a relish to linger on Max’s and Jacqui’s black-clad pubic regions grinding together.
Totally unnecessary, over the top, gratuitous, cheap and tacky!!!
Neil Jones wrote this orgy of male sex hormones and near porn. Someone says
he writes for Hollyoaks. He should be sacked. What an arsehole!!!
Summary © 2002 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2002