ONE YEAR ON
Just before I wrote this, I noticed the file was stored directly below the summary for 23 May 2001. Out of curiosity, I opened the file and read it, in order to see what was going on at this time a year ago.
Well, folks, not much has changed. A year prior to this episode, we had the famous two-header between Jacqui and Katie. One year on, and Jacqui’s married to Max Farnham and mothering his children. She’s back running two businesses and about to swop houses with Ron.
Katie, on the other hand, is still wallowing in a mire of self-pity. Let’s admit it frankly. She’s no more mourning Clint, than I am supporting England in the World Cup (and I’m not, by the way). She’s still there, still scrounging off another better-off female (Nisha), still whingeing, still drinking and still jealous of all and sundry, thinking herself hard done by.
At the risk of flogging a dead horse, I think it’s time that the character of Katie Rogers is axed. It’s tired. It’s old. Old in a way that the likes of Jessie, Ray and Brigid, all of whom will soon be gone, will NEVER be old. She’s boring. Going nowhere and doing nothing for the show.
Notice how the show mostly always begins with the dawning of a new day, as if Brookside, itself, stands on the threshold of a brave, new dawn? Symbolic, eh? (Now let’s see who borrows that idea and posts it on the Official Forum!)
Nisha stands in the kitchen of NNT, chomping away on her bowl of muesli, yet again. Poor, pitiful, stinking, sordid, filthy, putrid Katie passes through the kitchen and into her lair, still wearing her stale pyjamas. Nisha looks at her departing form with a look of frustration.
Meanwhile, over at the Dixons’, Mike wolfs down a tablet for his toothache.
Back on The Parade, Bev shouts for Josh. Bev, like Dire, has a big voice too, since her return from Brazil, where she’s been playing football, lolling on the beach and dancing the samba in the street to Astrud Gilberto records. Josh is making Bev run late. As the truculent-looking child appears, Bev immediately launches into a tirade about the messy state of the flat, as they leave for the school.
(Er, sorry, but how many hours a day DOES Bev work? She surely has time to do housework.)
Back at the NNT flat, Nisha finds Katie’s lair empty.
Now, Mike Dixon sits on the sofa in the Dixon lounge, nursing his sore jaw and trying to read the paper to take his mind off the pain in his tooth. As Rachel bustles about the house (and why isn’t she babysitting for Jacqui?), baby Beth toddles close to the sofa where Mike’s sitting. Mike has a cup of tea set on the carpet by his feet, and Beth accidentally knocks it over.
Mike jumps up from the couch and scolds the little girl severely for tipping over the tea, as Rachel rushes in to scoop the baby up, chiding Mike for having a go at Beth.
Mike apologises, citing his sore tooth as the cause of the outbreak.
Well, Rachel counters, ‘e’s oopset Beth’n all. (Although, Beth looks as though she couldnt’ care less; she’s more interested in looking at her real mother stationed somewhere off-screen).
Mike grabs his jaw ans moans that he’s in pain.
Rachel replies that he’s been a pain since he’s had that toothache. In fact, he’s turned into a right nark lately, because of that pain.
Mike grabs his jacket and stalks to the door. He’s off to the clinic to get a painkiller, he informs Rachel angrily.
Katie walks along The Parade. As she comes to the door of the Walk-In Clinic, she hesitates before opening the door. As she enters, Nisha looks up, surprised. She honestly didn’t think Katie wouldn’t come in.
Katie, looking abashed and ashamed, tells Nisha that she wasn’t about to let a mate down, and she apologises again for betraying Nisha’s confidence about the secrets Nisha told her about Nisha’s family. Katie promises Nisha that something like that won’t happen again, but Nisha looks dubious.
Upstairs in Bev’s flat, she’s returned home and is taking a call from Josh’s childminder, Margaret, as the teapot begins to boil. Margaret has rung Bev to tell her that she’s quitting. As of that evening.
Bev begs her desperately to carry on babysitting. She even offers to pay her time-and-half wages until the end of the week, she adds, as she rises from her chair to remove the boiling kettle from the cooker. In doing so, Bev manages to burn her hand. Wincing, she takes Margaret’s refusal gracelessly. Well, she certainly hopes Margaret didn’t come hunkering after her for a reference, she blabs, tactlessly before slamming the phone down.
Max and Jacqui enter the back door of Chateau Farnham, having been in the back garden. Max has had another idea about the house swop. The garden of Number 8 is considerably smaller than that of Number 7. The Farnhams have two small children, who could really make use of a large garden. And with a smaller house and his laundry business to get up and running, Ron would surely want a smaller garden. It’s just a simple matter of re-arranging the property boundaries, he says.
Jacqui isn’t so sure. It might involve solicitors and the like and take up to six months. Max is certain that it won’t. Besides, he points out to Jacqui, even though the downstairs of the Dixon house has been extended, the upstairs still had the same number of rooms as Number 7. If Ron’s as desperate as Jacqui says he is to re-establish himself in the business world, he won’t quibble over ceding a couple of metres of garden space.
By the way, Max asks, what do Mike and Rachel think about the swop?
Er, well, Jacqui hesitates, they haven’t been told yet. Besides, she adds, it’s nothing to do really with Mike and Rachel.
That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? Asks Max.
Well, says Jacqui, if they’re not happy about the situation, they can just move out. They surely didn’t expect to stay there forever, did they?
(A lot of people will take umbrage at that, but Jacqui’s right. Mike and Rachel have been subsidised by Ron ever since he bought the house and moved in. The rent that they originally paid was nominal, and since Mike’s accident, they have paid no rent at all - which begs the question as to why, exactly, they are in such debt. Consider this. They paid zilch in child care, because Anthea and Ron did this for free. And even now, Rachel uses the services of Jessie and Ray without benefit of pay. At the moment, Rachel must be being paid about £10k (in cash, with no taxes) by Jacqui, IF she’s being paid ‘the going rate’ for child care - which, according to Bev, is £10k. Now Mike, in his security guard’s job, must be making rougly the same. £20 per annum, no rent, no child care expenses, minimal travel expenses, no car to maintain, no utilities or rates- and they’re in debt. AND, furthermore, they EXPECT to continue being subsidised both by Ron AND Jacqui. This couple are the worst kind of scroungers.)
Mike and Bev arrive at the Walk-In Clinic, simultaneously - Bev for the burn on her hand, Mike for his tooth. Poor, pitiful Katie is nowhere to be seen, so the Naughty Nurse is holding the fort when they arrive. They approach the desk at the same time, both speaking at once to describe their various ailments.
Mike asks Bev what happened and Bev explains that she wasn’t concentrating when talking to her childminder about THEIR son, and burned her hand on the kettle. She’s come, she tells Nisha, to see about getting some ointment or something to put on her burn. Mike suggests holding it under a running tap of cold water.
Well, remarks Bev, sarcastically, forgetting the reason she’s come to the clinic, as Mike was so full of suggestions, perhaps he’d suggest that he give her a hand in minding Josh.
Mike reiterates that he can’t do that, as he’s always working nights.
Well, pursues Bev, what about Rachel?
Mike shakes his head, adamantly. Not after the last time, he says, laughing grimly.
Bev can’t understand what happened, and Mike tactfully explains that Josh went a little bit wild the last time.
Bev begins a proper argy-bargy about Mike assuming responsibility for child care and doing his bit with Josh. She’s got no child-minder now and this has to be sorted out, she shouts at the top of her voice. (Bev spent an undue amount of time shouting this week).
Mike makes another unwelcome suggestion and hits upon a home truth. Maybe Josh is the problem, he says to Bev. Did she ever stop to think about that?
Bev categorically denies that HER son (now the boy belongs only to her) is a problem.
Well, she’s lost another child-minder, hasn’t she? Goads Mike. All’s he’s saying is that maybe Josh is a bit too much at times. This is the second minder to pack it in, isn’t it?
Mike turns back to Nisha to explain why he’s at the clinic, and Bev, not liking what she’s heard, grabs him roughly by the jaw and turns his head toward her, demanding that he look at her when he talks to her.
Mike pulls away, grabbing his jaw in agony. He couldn’t help her, he winces. He’s got a full-time job.
So does she, she shrieks, and she’ll lose it and then she and THEIR son will be out in the street, if Mike doesn’t sort it out.
Nisha moves swiftly in to quell the fray.
Rachel is preparing to go to the shops, whilst Ron sits at the Dixon kitchen table. He asks where Mike has gone and Rachel tells him that he’s gone to the Walk-In Clinic to get some painkillers for his tooth. It’s just a patch-up job to kill the pain, she explains, mutely begging for Ron’s sympathy (and hopefully some financial support). They couldn’t ‘fo-ad proper denTIST.
Ron shakes his head, woefully. He’d like to help the couple, he says, sincerely, but he can’t at the present time.
Bev leaves the Clinic, having seen Dr Parr. As he enters the reception area, he notices Katie sitting at her desk.
‘I see we have a new girl,’ he remarks, sarcastically, to Nisha, returning to his office.
Nisha offers to make some coffee, but Parr insists that he do it. As he leaves the area, Katie grumbles to Nisha that ‘somebody’ didn’t get a leg-over the previous night. (Or maybe he just doesn’t like a scrounger, Katie?)
Mike sits holding his jaw on the Dixon sofa, as Rachel enters, ready to leave for the shops . He immediately asks her where she’s going.
Rachel answers irritably that she’ll only be gone a coople o’hours. Is Mike having a bad time?
Not waiting for a reply, she informs him that they would be having chops that night, and she’d cut them up fine so he could chew them. If they didn’t have any chops locally, she would have had to go all the way to Tewbrook.
Where’s Ron? Rachel wants to know.
Mike tells her that Ron’s gone over to Jacqui’s, laden with a tape measure and pad. Rachel asks him if he’ll look after Beth, while she’s gone and tells him that the baby is upstairs asleep. Mike whinges that he won’t be getting much sleep that day.
Back in her flat, Bev’s made a desperate phone call to a childminding agency. She asks frantically if any of the minders on the agency’s roster were free to begin work this week. She’s told no one is free for at least one more week. Bev is gobsmacked and puts the receiver down.
Ron is visiting Jacqui at Chateau Farnham. Something strange is happening as Ron and Jacqui sit on the sofa in the lounge. There’s a distinct sound from upstairs of children playing rambunctiously. The Farnham kids never do things by half. Either they’re as still as the grave or they’re waking the dead.
Jacqui shouts for the kids to be quiet. Ron remarks that this reminds him of when Jacqui and Mike were small and he’d have to yell at them - now he’s sitting here, listening to Jacqui do the same.
Jacqui tells Ron that she and Max wanted to do something special with the kids for the Jubilee, and she asks if he knows of any street parties occurring. Well, Ron replies, sceptically, Jimmy Corkhill is trying to organise a Jubilee party of sorts - only he calls it a ‘citizens’ party.
Jacqui asks if Ron plans to attend. Ron scoffs at the idea, but admits that it might be all right for the kids. (Not one of Jimmy’s dos, I should imagine). Anyway, Ron muses, it won’t be like any of the parties they used to have.
He gazes silently around the room, saying that there’s a lot of history in the houses on the Close. (History? Twenty years?) He reminisces about when the Dixons moved onto the Close, within one month of the Farnhams. Ron recalls how he used to refer to Max and Patricia as ‘Lord and Lady Muck’. Jacqui reminds Ron that Max used to call them ‘the Clampetts’, which wasn’t surprising, she laughs, considering that they arrived in the dreaded moby. And speaking of the moby, Jacqui suggests that Ron remove the metal lump, which is all that remained of the machine, from its shrine in Number 8’s back garden. Max wouldn’t appreciate it remaining there.
Ron then laughs and reminisces about the time he ordered 10 pizzas to be delivered to Max Farnham’s house. Max had to pay for the lot and he and Patricia lived off pizza for a week. He and Jacqui enjoy a chuckle, and wiping a tear away from his eye, Ron admits that he’ll miss Number 8 ... But he won’t be changing his mind.
It’s lunchtime, and Dr Parr is off to the garage for another nutritious sarnie. He asks Nisha and Katie if they want anything, and both girls, sensibly, demur. When he’s gone, Nisha asks Katie what she’s doing for lunch. Katie tells her that she wants to have a quiet lunch on her own in the flat, but tells Nisha that she doesn’t have to worry about Katie, as Katie won’t let her down.
Ron returns to Number 8 and is surprised to see Bev ensconced on the sofa in the lounge. Mike’s in the kitchen, and the two are still bickering. Hearing the dispute, Ron asks what it’s about.
The second childminder Bev’s employed has binned Josh, Mike informs him.
Bev’s just come by, she says, on the off-chance that Ron might babysit for her tonight.
Ron refuses, and Bev is stumped. What is she going to do? She wails.
Ron suggests that she ask John Parrott to babysit for her, and Mike is confused by the remark.
Bev understands and mutters that Ron means she should ask Jimmy Corkhill.
‘If you’re that desperate,’ Ron remarks, ‘and seeing as you both share a passion for the green baize.’
Bev is astounded that Ron should know the secret of her tryst with Jimmy on the pool table, and asks how he came by the information.
Oh, he got the full match commentary from the horse’s mouth, Ron says.
But that was nothing, Bev assures him. It was just sex, not like anything she had with Ron, she says. Anything else was just sex, after Ron. Of course, she adds, flirtatiously, no one else could kiss the pink the way Ron could. (ABSOLUTE YUCK!!!!!)
Ron refuses to be swayed.
Bev begins to get desperate. She thought at least that Ron would help her out, even if Mike wouldn’t. And it’s just for tonight, honest.
Even if he babysat tonight, Ron says, it wouldn’t help Bev in the long-term.
Bev begins to plead in earnest now. If she doesn’t find a sitter for tonight and has to cry off work, she says, Jacqui will sack her.
Ron suggests flippantly, that she ask Jimmy Corkhill.
Quickly grasping the nettle of reverse psychology, Bev jumps up from the sofa and strides toward the front door. All right, she says, determinedly, she’ll ask Jimmy Corkill.
Mike dashes from the kitchen to stop her. ‘Are you crazy?’ He exclaims. ‘Jimmy’s well off it!’
Bev cajoles Ron again, and Ron notices the burn on her hand. He suggests that she put it under the cold water tap and run water over it. Ron agrees to show up at 7pm to babysit for Josh, admitting that he’d been ‘snookered’.
Dr Parr glances in on Nisha to see how Katie’s coping. Nisha tells him that Katie’s gone home to lunch.
Not a pub lunch? He queries. But seriously, he amends, if Katie’s not up to this-
Nisha interrupts to assure him that she is going to keep tabs on Katie.
Dr Parr mentions the possibility of counselling for Katie as an option, and the sooner, the better. After all, she’s part of a professional team.
Nisha is reluctant to mention this to Katie, and the Dr volunteers to raise the subject, saying that it would be better if Nisha were not involved.
Rachel returns home after shopping. Mike notices that she’s empty-handed, and Rachel tells him that she couldn’t find what she wanted. Mike tells her that he’s put Beth to bed after a bit, as she was cranky.
Ron passes through and asks Mike how his teeth are feeling. Mike admits that his teeth aren’t so bad after he’s taken a painkiller, but Rachel complains that he takes too many and that they might affect his stomach. Rachel remarks, as she goes upstairs to see Beth, that Mike should read the label of the medicines.
In typical Dixon fashion (the sort that made Jacqui a member of the pudding club), Ron pooh-poohs this idea. He fills the kettle in order to make what he considers a proper cup of tea - none of that rubbishy fancy stuff that Jacqui has, he says, just a normal cup of tea.
Suddenly Rachel rushes into the room, carrying Beth. Beth has a raging temperature, she shrieks.
It’s the afternoon shift at Bar Brookie, and not only Bev, but also Jacqui are working behind the bar. (Where are all the staff? There only appeared to be two people there? Surely, Jacqui can’t be that strapped that she can’t hire underlings). Anyway, the phone rings and Jacqui takes the call, whilst Bev serves some customers at the bar. (Realistic, at least - showing that the bar isn’t nearly as full as it used to be during Jacqui’s last regime or Bev’s - and so it shouldn’t be at this point. It’s trying to recoup its reputation).
She calls across the bar to Bev. The phone call is for her. It’s the After School Club.
Bev sprints to the phone, as Jacqui takes over from her at the bar. In the background, we can hear Bev shouting and arguing with the other person on the other end of the phone.
She finishes the call and dashes back to the customers’ side of the bar. Josh has been expelled from the After School Club, she explains breathlessly to Jacqui, apparently for spitting and fighting. The Club’s administrators want Bev to come to collect him now, she says. She’ll be right back, she promises.
As she turns to go, hoping to leave before Jacqui recovers her voice, lost from astonishment, Jacqui asks if she’s managed to get a babysitter for this evening.
Bev turns back briefly. Yes, she confirms, Ron’s agreed to babysit Josh. And then she hesitates briefly - from tonight and for the rest of the week, she lies.
Then she rushes out before Jacqui can stop her, with Jacqui calling after her not to be late because Jacqui had to go home.
Rachel is fretting over Beth, carrying her around and occasionally feeling her forehead. Mike, however, is interested in something else. He’s looking out one of the back windows at the Dixon house at Ron, who’s next door at the Farnhams’. Mike calls Rachel’s attention to Ron. He’s been over at Jacqui’s for hours now, he says, and he’s walking around the place with a tape measure in his hand AND a clipboard, as though he were some kind of surveyor.
Rachel isn’t interested at all. She’s got Beth ready and is going to take her to the Walk-In Clinic to see a doctor. She reminds Mike that Harry and Emma are playing in the back garden, and Mike should keep an eye on them.
Ron, meanwhile, has moved indoors, much to the reluctance of Max, who’s trying as hard as he can to be civil to Ron. Ron remarks that he really likes Max’s bathroom suite. Plus, he has to measure up the back wall of the Farnham kitchen, in order to ensure that there’ll be enough room for TWO washing machines.
Through gritted teeth, Max asks Ron if Ray and Jessie have a completion date for the bungalow yet, but Ron just laughs uneasily.
Dr Parr pops into Nisha’s nursing area for a quick word. Is there any chance he could catch Katie for a word before she left today? He asks.
Nisha promises to send her into see him as soon as possible.
Parr then asks Nisha if she’s thought anymore about moving out of the flat.
She’d decided to remain, Nisha tells him, although the three of them aren’t exactly bezzy mates anymore. In fact, she didn’t think she’d ever be that to Sammy again, but at least this is a start.
Jacqui has arrived home to find Ron still visiting Max. Ron enthuses to his daughter that he just can’t wait to get his laundry business up and running.
Max quips that he needs to get things up and running too - there’s lots to organise, he says, the removal men -
Ever the cheapskate, Ron disses that idea. It’s only next-door, he scoffs. They could do that themselves. What Ron’s more interested in is getting a start on making the necessary alterations to the house for his business and family. Turning to Max, he superciliously hopes that he has better luck in Number 7 than Max had.
Max and Jacqui exchange alarmed glances, and Jacqui asks Ron to explain himself.
Ron stutters that he was referring to Susannah’s death, and Max looks as though he’s about to shit his pants.
Jacqui wades in to remind Ron in no uncertain terms that Susannah’s death was a tragic accident, but Ron ignores this and goes onto another subject, of which he is the centre and emphasis. He’s got a list of things to go over with the couple before seeing a solicitor. How about a cup of tea? And by the way, he adds, holding up a tea-bag, he’s brought his own brew.
Well, I wonder who’s covering the bar? Jacqui wasn’t supposed to reach home before Bev took over the place for the evening, and there Jax stands in her kitchen , whilst Bev’s only just arriving back!!!! CONSISTENCY, BROOKSIDE!!! Psssst! This is the sort of thing Paul ‘Magic Rabbits’ Taylor can pick out on a dime, but then, he’s used to driving with one hand.
Bev arrives back at her flat, virtually DRAGGING a recalcitrant Josh in her wake. The little thug’s Neanderthal face is wearing a truculent frown. It’s patently obvious WHO started the fight at the After School Club - obvious to everyone but Bev, that is.
Bev’s scolding him about being kicked out of the Club, but Josh matches her mouth for mouth. It WASN’T his fault, he shouts back at his mother. Sam White started everything, but Josh ALWAYS gets the blame.
‘WELL, MAYBE THAT ‘S BECAUSE IT’S YOUR FAULT!!!’ Bev shrieks, losing her temper and raising her voice. Josh HAS to stop doing these things. This is the SECOND After School Club from which he’s been expelled. This is getting BEV in serious trouble?
Josh glares at her.
‘DO I HAVE TER SPELL IT OUT TER YA?’ She shrieks. She can’t get ANYONE to babysit him as it is, because of his behaviour, and it that continues, and she has to lose time off work to come remove him from a playgroup and such, then SHE’LL lose her job. And there’ll be no more nice clothes, no more computer games et al. (This is Josh’s problem; he’s spoiled).
Now, she has to go to work, she explains, and she tells him that his Granddad will be by later to babysit him. She warns Josh sternly to keep the chain on the door and NOT to open it to anyone except Ron. Josh could ring her later if he wanted, she says, and disappears out the door of the flat.
Back at the Farnhams’, Ron is studying the layout of the kitchen. He informs Max that he’ll have to take the units in the rear of the kitchen out, if he’s to fit two washing machines in the kitchen. Seems a shame, he mulls.
Max tells Ron that that’s down to Ron and Ron would have to do that.
But what would he do with the kitchen units? He asks.
Jacqui suggests that maybe Ron could sell the units, and Ron thinks that’s a good idea.
Looking at the clock, Jacqui reminds Ron that he has to be over at Bev’s to babysit Josh. Then she thanks him for volunteering to do that for Bev the rest of the week.
‘The rest of the week?’ Repeats Ron, amazed. ‘Is that what Bev told you?’
Jacqui tells Ron and Max that Bev had to leave the bar early this afternoon, because Josh has been expelled, yet again, from After School Club, for misbehaving. When Jacqui queried her about babysitting arrangements for the evenings, Bev told her Ron had arranged to babysit Josh the rest of the week.
‘Tonight is strictly a one-off,’ announces Ron, flatly.
Jacqui grabs her jacket and heads for the bar, saying that she needs to have a word with Bev.
Dr Parr is examining Beth Dixon. He diagnoses an ear infection and tells Rachel that a lot of this bug is going around.
Rachel jokes that she has two babies crying at home - Beth with her ear and Mike with his teeth.
Dr Parr agrees that adults are worse at coping with pain than kids.
Jacqui arrives at the bar to see Bev serving punters. She issues her classic frown.
Dr Parr calls Katie into his office for a ‘little chat’, as he calls it. Poor, pitiful Katie is reluctant, knowing what’s about to transpire, and tries the feeble excuse of leaving reception unattended.
Only for a minute, begs the doc.
As she takes a seat, Dr Parr comes straight to the point. Has she ever considered counselling? He asks.
Before she can answer, a repetitive thudding noise is heard from above. Josh is kicking a football in the foyer again.
Katie replies sullenly that she’s not ‘an alkie’.
Dr Parr clarifies himself. He means bereavement counselling.
The thudding noise continues.
Katie lies and turns her face away from Dr Parr’s, saying that she’s fine.
Dr Parr eyes her sceptically, warning her that he’s not giving her anymore time off to nurse hangovers. When she’s at the clinic, she’s an asset to the staff, he tells her. When she puts her mind to it, she’s very good at her job -
But he’s interrupted again by the annoying thudding from above. He terminates the interview and storms out of the office.
Bev notices Jacqui and asks what she’s doing back at the bar. Jacqui replies blandly that she’s come back to see how Bev’s coping this evening. Where’s Josh? Asks Jacqui.
Bev gives her a sheepish look and admits that Josh is upstairs watching television.
But Josh is doing no such thing. He’s wildly practicing penalty shots in the foyer, outside the flat.
Downstairs, Jacqui asks Bev what happened at the After School Club and why was Josh expelled: Bev defends Josh, telling Jacqui, like any trailer trash mother, that his expulsion from the Club was not Josh’s fault in the least. Another kid started it, and Josh copped the blame.
Er, what time is Ron due to babysit? Jacqui asks, innocently.
It won’t be long now, Bev promises her. He’s supposed to arrive at 7PM.
Same tomorrow? Enquires Jacqui.
Same tomorrow, lies Bev.
‘Well, that’s foony,’ remarks Jacqui, ‘because when I saw me Dad earlier, he told me that tonight was joost a one-off thing with Josh.’
Bev looks mortified.
Angered by the disturbance Josh is causing, Dr Parr runs upstairs and confronts the rude, little toerag. The doctor snatches the ball away from Josh on the bounce.
‘Just what do you think you’re doing?’ He demands.
‘Playing footie!’ Snarls the little thug. ‘What does it look like?’
Dr Parr tells him in no uncertain terms that this isn’t allowed in the foyer, and it’s causing a disruption to his surgery below, where there are sick people. Josh simply couldn’t do this.
The arrogant, little prick, snatches the ball from Dr Parr’s grasp. ‘Watch me!’ He taunts.
Dr Parr grabs the ball again, and Josh begins to retreat toward the door of the flat. Dr Parr follows him, demanding to speak to Josh’s mother. Where is she? He demands, as Josh opens the door. He tries to look into the flat.
Josh cheekily informs the doctor that Bev’s not there. She’s at work, he laughs, and slams the door in the doctor’s face.
Downstairs, Jacqui is demanding to know what Bev is doing about Josh’s sitting arrangements for the rest of the week. Surely, Bev couldn’t expect Ron to continue doing this. Why couldn’t Bev manage to retain a sitter?
Whose fault is it? Bev asks, rhetorically, trying to shift the blame onto the Dixons. Whose fault is it that Josh has turned out the way he has? Neither Jacqui, not Mike, not even Ron gave a toss about Josh. Why, Jacqui was his auntie and where was any compassion she’d ever shown him?
Jacqui makes an avid point of walking away from Bev, throwing her hands into the air helplessly. This just isn’t working, she complains, referring to Bev’s management of the bar, and Jacqui had put too much money into the place just to let Bev ride roughshod over this.
At that instant, Dr Parr storms angrily into the bar, demanding to see Bev.
Bev turns to face him, knocking her burned hand as she does so. Wincing with pain, the doctor, forgetting his complaint of the moment, takes a brief look at her burn and suggests she holds it under a tap of cold water.
‘Oh!’ Mouths Bev, sarcastically. ‘Is that what I pay me taxes fer - a piece of stupid advice?’
It’s good advice, reiterates Dr Parr, but that’s not what he came to see her about. He wants a quiet word with her about her son.
What is this? Demands Bev, loudly, giving the punters a good show. A witch hunt? What’s Josh done now?
Dr Parr tells her he’s playing football in the common foyer upstairs.
Well, where would the doctor like him to play? In the car park along The Parade? She quips, and turns away from Dr Parr, dismissively.
Dr Parr, noble man that he is, will not give in and follows her relentlessly. It’s in the building regulations about games of that sort being prohibited in the foyer. Not only could he break a light, someone could get hurt and then Bev would be liable. And speaking of liability, he informs her, it’s technically illegal to leave a child that age on his own; and as a health professional, the doctor would well be within his rights to report Bev to Social Services.
Well, what does Dr Parr want Bev to do about it? She exclaims, nastily.
Dr Parr asks the whereabouts of the boy’s father.
His father’s around, all right, shouts Bev, but he doesn’t want to know him; and his father’s family could care less, she adds, emphatically, glaring at Jacqui, who’s trying her best to keep a semblance of normalcy about the place. And as for child care, again she glares at Jacqui, it’s all right for those people who have two fat wage packets; but she needs at least another £10k more to cover child care costs - and then there are her bills and taxes.
She’s had it with everyone’s advice and sermons, she shouts at the top of her voice. Now she just wants everyone to get off her case and leave her alone.
Did anyone ever notice that ALL Bev’s done since she came back to Brookside is whinge and shout. And she used to be such an interesting character.
Peter Cox wrote this.
Summary © 2002 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2002