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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 209687" data-attributes="member: 23">Episodes 356-358The hiatuses taken by the veteran cast of the series fascinate me. Ray Meagher has commented in recent interviews that the powers that be on the series have been very good at writing him out for periods of time in order for him to travel and pursue other things he wants to do as an actor, from regular panto to Priscilla. And I believe he’s had more of these as the years have gone by, allowing him to remain a series regular for thirty two years while having an increasingly reduced workload. It’s a progressive approach, and a successful one because it makes commitment to a long-running series a more attractive prospect.Alf’s not alone in having such gaps. Pippa had one not so long ago, which I’d guess was for Vanessa Downing to do either theatre or some singing work with The Madrigals. Morag has come and gone, of course. But perhaps the character to have had the most noticeable farewells and comebacks at this stage is Celia. It’s not necessarily that she’s been absent more than the others (although maybe she has). But Celia has previously had a number of scenes that felt very final, such as when she previously she left for an extended stay with her parents (with many of the more mature cast members being Stewarts, it’s canny of the writers to give them parents who live in Tahiti).These few episodes have seen such scenes. Only this time, Celia’s going a little further. The wheels are set in motion by Celia’s recent crisis, which has been nipped in the bud by Ailsa’s gynaecologist (who no doubt would have been Dr Phil were he still around):And so begins Celia thinking out loud to a number of characters. China’s out (“They’re fighting. I could get shot”). So is the U.S. (“Far too brash”). She wonders if Europe is safe with the fallout from Chernobyl to think about (Stacey reminds her that with Tahiti so close to Moruroa Atoll, not to mention Maralinga on home turf, she’s probably already glowing in the dark). Then there’s Ireland (“I’d have to remain in the South. It’s far too dangerous in the North… the IRA. But then the Southern part of Ireland is the papist part.”)Evidently, Celia works things out. And she’s not slow to take action:This leads to a classic Alf angry rant about her leaving him in the lurch. Until Celia explains:<img src="https://i.vgy.me/Pp77tM.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://i.vgy.me/bV7770.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />I’m not sure why Fiona Spence was going, but I do remember that a lot of the UK promotion for the series really kicked off after it had been running here for some months. So the timing could fit for that. And while I don’t think Fiona appeared in the Prisoner stage show until the following year, the TV series was becoming a phenomenon in the UK around this time. And the initial version of the stage show was touring at the same time So there are three good reasons why Fiona - as well as Celia - should want to be in Europe.Whatever the case, I’ll miss her while she’s offscreen. Who knows, perhaps this is the last I’ll see of her before Amazon Prime episodes run out in around forty short instalments.One aspect I won’t miss post-Prime is Lance and Martin. They’ve taken on a surreal turn recently by having fantasy sequences in which they morph into caveman costumes to perform new single Primeval Man (a terribly naff jingle that also happens to be a complete earworm. I've caught myself singing it around the house a couple of times in the last couple of days), as well as wearing said costumes out and about. They now have a name: Image. And despite Carly putting herself forward to be the group’s female lead (Nina refused, concerned that she would be viewed as exploiting Carly’s resemblance to Samantha), Marilyn has apparently stumbled into the diner at exactly the right time....continued</blockquote>

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