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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 445366" data-attributes="member: 23">Close Encounters Of The Wrong Kind / The Second Coming / Come Blow Your Horn / Frankie and Johnny / The Odd Couple / A Fearful ThingA few episodes after Home and Away’s Sheila Kennelly appeared, her screen husband, Frank Lloyd showed up playing a fantasist who dines out on war stories when it turns out the stories he tells (and believes) are those of his brother. As a coward, a pathological liar and an attention-seeker, he’s not a very likeable character, but there are shades of grey and the psychology is quite interesting. Another future H&A original lead can be seen with Roger Oakley - sporting a rather fetching moustache - playing another less-than-likeable character: the bloodsport-loving father of a pair of teens who take pot shots at Molly while she’s feeding her animals (one of said boys becomes the series’ next gunshot victim when he is involved in an accident). Roger’s character kind of reminds me of post-stroke Tom Fletcher when he went all gruff and irritable. Fortunately, while we see the pig-hunting party, we don’t see the pigs being killed. We do hear the squeals of the injured pig, though, which are enough to put anyone with a heart off the very idea. Among the ongoing storylines, Molly took over from Shirley as receptionist while the latter recuperated from her surgery. But Shirley hurried back when she saw Molly’s newly-implemented system which left a lot to be desired (“Wednesday is below the waist day. You’ll have to come back tomorrow”). Molly’s lack of tact about people’s various ailments also raised some eyebrows, so she was replaced with a slut who slept with both Terence and Simon (with all respect to the actress, I struggled to see why these sane characters would abandon all dignity over this rather ordinary creature. But such is often the way with promiscuous people. It’s the quiet ones - and the plain - that one has to watch). The big news has been Frank and Shirley’s wedding, with lots of potential glitches including last-minute nerves for both, a misunderstanding over wedding attire (Frank saw Shirley trying on a dress Molly had made for a local production of The Mikado, thought it was her wedding dress and showed up for the service in full Japanese regalia), and an escaped snake crashing the ceremony. In true “eye on the purse strings” style, the wedding was in Shirley’s living room… which has now become Shirley and Frank’s living room. Vicky is being characteristically intolerant of Frank moving in a few boxes of his favourite things, with no mention of the fact that he wasn’t given a say in giving up his home and moving into the pink-painted bungalow. I can kind of understand Shirley’s unhappiness at him struggling to remove his wedding ring (a ring that I only really spotted a few scenes ahead of it becoming a plot-point. I’m not renowned for my powers of observation, but it seems too coincidental), and she ultimately gave him “permission” to wear it on his other hand. And yes - him placing his wife’s ashes in pride of place on the mantelpiece was too much. Shirley being Shirley, she even hit the roof about him scattering the ashes in the garden as a compromise. Welcome to married life, Frank. Still, at least Shirley was reasonable about Frank’s pianola being installed in the living room. And it looks as though Vicky's intolerance will drive her to move in with Simon. Jason/Jacko made a brief return for the UFO storyline, pipping The Colbys to the post by half a decade. Rather than an alien flying saucer, the UFO here had a more grounded explanation. The radiation poisoning, though, was very real, and Jacko’s vomiting sounds were up there with the most realistic heard on TV. They even got it right with the his eyes being shown to be watering as he raised his head again. I love the attention to detail here. Rounding this dozen off was a two-parter about a woman with leprosy and the town’s reaction, which yielded some more information about the characters. Terence in particular had an interesting response with his compulsive hand-washing and instinctive pulling away which we learn was due to his formative experience with the Bible (which answers some questions I’ve had from earlier episodes, such as his evident pro-life bias sometimes appearing to outweigh his professionalism). It’s also interesting how this storyline kind of anticipates the AIDS epidemic, hitting the same sort of beats that an AIDS story would a couple of years later. We may find out for sure, as I’m fairly sure it’s another issue ACP will cover in due course. The leprosy storyline ran alongside that of an abandoned baby and the mother who has abandoned her child and eventually agrees to give the child up for adoption. It’s a sweet and balanced storyline, shown to be an agonising decision for the young woman who doesn’t feel equipped to be a single parent. In terms of our characters, it also shows Marta’s regretful side as she becomes attached to the child, letting us know that her immersion in her work has come at a great personal cost. A new face at the hospital is the no-nonsense Sister Grace Doherty who doesn’t have time to put up with the likes of visitors or the feelings of her patients and colleagues. Her lack of height was especially comical as she marched up to Bob Hatfield while berating him, giving herself neck ache as she looked up to a man almost twice her height. The fear in his eyes doubled the amusement.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?

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