Episodes 807 - 836
16 July -21 September 1990
In recent episodes I noticed a number of scenes that are, in the best kind of way, quite lengthy and dialogue-heavy. It occurs to me that these might be a positive by-product of the 50% weekly episode increase, with stories now having a little more breathing room. As I write this my mind goes to American daytime soaps, which I think are notorious for glacial pacing with two characters on one set often having one conversation that drags on laboriously for several episodes. This is different. These scenes mostly come from character and feel like a deeper dive into their inner worlds while other events are going on around them. It feels balanced.
Before Sammy left for her chambermaid course in Blackpool, for example, Owen sat down with her and poured his heart out as they reminisced. It had pages of dialogue for Owen in particular, and both did really nice work. It also made Sammy’s choice to then depart without saying goodbye to Owen more poignant, reinforced by the sight of him arriving to get the news from Chrissy, handing her a present he’d wrapped for Sammy and walking away dejectedly.
Naturally, Sheila and Billy - no stranger to such scenes - had another in which Sheila told Billy about Barry’s biological father (where both, to my ears, clearly enunciated the name “Paddy” more than once, leaving me to feel I’d missed something). This time round the revelation was only softened by knowing it was coming. I disliked it then. I dislike it now. It smacks of The Producer’s Revenge… a way to further demonise Bobby’s character because of their feelings towards Ricky Tomlinson. I just don’t believe it, and everything we’ve seen on screen over the last eight years tells us it’s simply been pulled out of thin air in 1990.
Dialogue has sparkled at times, with one late July episode causing me to prick up my ears and become interested to know who wrote lines such as Terry’s bitter “Life’s a bitch an’ then you marry one”; Billy’s “A man chases a girl until she catches him”, and Barry’s comeback to “Baron Hardup” Jonathan proclaiming that he doesn’t let emotion get in the way of business: “So your girlfriends tell me”. It was Maurice Bessman.
Barry’s enmities are sparking at the moment. As well as his bitterness towards Jonathan for knowing about Daniel’s parentage and for putting the house on the market - and, no doubt also for telling Barry he can stay no longer - he is also still hugely resentful to Billy. That one’s fascinating to watch because of the layers and the fact that both make efforts to bury their real feelings about the other when Sheila is around.
Rod The Plod returned just in time for Billy and Sheila’s wedding (for which Billy was
not on time, creating a soapy storm in a teacup) and best of all Karen made a final return to the series for the event, giving us a full complement of adult Grant and Corkhill offspring and creating endlessly watchable dynamics at the wedding and reception. Jonathan’s attendance also felt like an opportunity for reflection on his time on the series as he remembered the summer garden party for his wedding to Laura some three years earlier.
The cloud on the horizon was the Godden business, with Jimmy hiding a wreath they’d been sent so as not to spoil the day before it all eventually came up to the surface. While comfortably within the realm of many people’s reality, to me it feels slightly outlandish and un-relatable. Not more so than Tommy McArdle’s antics, of course and possibly not even Demon Duane of the earliest episodes. Perhaps at this point I’m just a little weary of gangster and hard-man themed storylines.
Other storylines have dragged as well. There was a window of time when it felt Sinbad was in every scene, dragging the show down with him. And as always, the less said about Sue the better.
More exciting was Doreen’s final ride on the merry-go-round with a three episode return. It’s always wonderful to see her and this was no exception. Still, there was a sense of it being time-limited. Things moved quickly with a little less depth than Doreen’s previous returns. At times there was even a sense of re-treading old ground with matters that seemed somewhat laid to rest on Doreen’s previous return.
The functional nature of the short arc is possibly best summed up by the scene in which we join Doreen and Jimmy chatting. They’re already discussing Godden, with Doreen advocating getting their retaliation in first. This is conveniently overheard by Sheila who asks Jimmy to leave the room so they can talk about the
real reason Doreen is back. Within a couple of minutes Sheila is packing Doreen’s things and telling her to “get out of my house*. Then she opens the garage door (which made me chuckle as I had forgotten it was still there until Sheila opened one of the “walls) and boots Doreen out, shouting at her, where Billy and Tracy are conveniently standing, having arrived right on cue. Adding insult to injury, Billy and Tracy immediately accept what’s going on with Tracy even standing alongside Sheila to turn down Doreen’s offer to return to Bristol with her. It’s all perfectly watchable, and a nice Easter egg as Billy and Sheila’s time on the show draws to a close, but it felt just a tad more underwhelming than I’d have hoped.
As with Doreen’s previous return, I found myself feeling sympathy for her. The writing played up Doreen as the “scheming bitch” (Jimmy’s words in his warning to Sheila), but overall the arc wasn’t a good look for Sheila who came across as insecure, ungracious and possessive. Sheila - still a relative newcomer to Number Ten - telling Doreen to “get out of my house” seemed a step too far, but this could be partly down to my feelings as a viewer.
Doreen isn’t the only yo-yo-ing-ex-who-abandoned-her-family to feature in this run. Josie running off to be with Tony and returning every time they have a barney is already feeling stale. The dynamic does feel truthful and is played as such. There’s good chemistry between Suzanne Packer and Louis Emerick and I can also understand how he’d be blinded by his feelings towards her. I also appreciate how unapologetically brash and self-centred Josie is (almost to the point I can imagine her fitting into the early years). But the fact remains it isn't pleasant to watch. With current
Brookside writing standards somewhat lower than earlier years, we know little about Josie, and much of what we do know isn’t endearing, so it feels the character’s main function is to elicit viewer sympathy for Mick. At the same time, Mick loses self-respect each time he tells her this is the last time she’ll give him the runaround and this time he really, really means it. We know he doesn't like her trotting off to be with another man while keeping the door open, but it keeps happening all the same to the point it's feeling quite repetitive. He’s stronger, more interesting and more watchable without Josie, but even that has its limits. It’s quietly pleasing that it’s taken a while to clear out Harry’s old furniture, but the fact that it’s happening is a reminder that the bungalow is changing irrevocably, as is the series.
And as it’s out with the old, it’s in with the Farnhams, who continue the Chois’ middle-class non-traditional family setup whilst also serving spiritual successors to Number Nine’s traditionally Yuppie couples the Huntingtons and the Gordon-Davieses. Their initial episodes show potential, particularly with a little conflict with Frank Rogers when Max accused Growler of theft after Growler and Bumper’s Damon-esque antics when helping the Farnhams move boxes. Margaret is problem solving whilst her trying to sort out her job description when Max has her ironing his shirts and cooking for him is a new wrinkle (on the page, Margaret is shown to be competent and practical, though the actress hasn’t convinced me she knows her earth from her life). There’s even a throwback to The Early Years, with Max’s botched alarm driving the neighbours to distraction, just as Roger Huntingtons did almost eight years before.
The only people still on the Close from the time of the original alarm chaos are Sheila and Barry (with Terry somewhere in Bumper territory at the time: the bezzie mate who visited occasionally but lived elsewhere). Indeed, Sheila remarks more than once that it’s eight years since she moved in as she and Billy prepare to leave.
Sheila said:
When I came here eight years ago I thought “That’s it. We’ve got a house that belongs to us after all these years of paying rent.” I mean, really, does it matter? …My marriage broke up for all sorts of reasons. I could have been left for dead but instead I found you, almost on my doorstep. An’ I was lucky I found you. I wanna be with you. I wanna have a chance with you… Please, come with us.
It’s worth noting that Damon was spoken about fondly, with Sheila telling Barry that out of all the terrible things that had happened to her, Damon’s death is the worst. Bobby was mentioned as well, with Barry pointing out that Bobby would have handled the Godden business less foolishly and Sheila conceding that he was right.
continued...
