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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 366027" data-attributes="member: 23">Episodes 76 - 80 20 July - 3 August 1983This is really just a love letter to Jimmy McGovern’s writing.Last night I watched four of these five: two consecutive Andy Lynch episodes followed by two Jimmy McGoverns. Good as the Lynch episodes were (particularly Barry’s exit for London, taking Sheila’s kidney fund collection money and rubbing her nose in it) I was struck by how things sparkled into life when I hit the two McG episodes.Particularly notable was the injection of humour running through the episode, especially in any scene featuring the Grants.The household itself was a hotbed of quips and acid put-downs, each one met with raucous laughter from Bobby and Damon. Such as Damon speaking about Karen’s physique:(Incidentally, Damon's teasing vindicated an irritation I'd had with an earlier scene in which Sheila discovered Bobby was considering working in Saudi Arabia. I didn't catch any of the dialogue in the scene because I noticed Shelagh O'Hara was constantly moving food round her plate with a fork but didn't once eat anything. Once noticed it was a complete distraction). There was a continuation of a theme introduced in an earlier episode (which I’m guessing was also penned by Jimmy Mac) where Bobby and Damon had made merry over Karen’s boyfriend’s surname being Bacon, with endless puns on the subject: such as Bobby claiming to know his father… Smoky. This time round, Karen’s boyfriend (Jack Boswell from Bread) is named Mike which provides the male Grants with much fodder. When Mike says he’s unemployed, having recently completed a YOP, Damon asks if people tap him on the head twice and ask why he’s not working. As Mike is leaving, Bobby comments that he bets Mike’s parents are great speakers. It’s not all one-sided, though. When Bobby explains that it’s just their sense of humour, Mike returns that this explains Damon’s shirt.Less watchable for me are a series of scenes where Damon and Gizzmo wear shades and effect American accents with Damon influenced by Mickey Spillane (somehow I just can’t see Damon lying on his bed with a book).Following a hastily-introduced peeping Tom lurking in the woods behind the houses, there’s some business with Damon and Gizzmo frightening Karen and her friend who are sunbathing in the Grants’ garden by pretending to be ghosts. It’s daft and would be unnecessary but for Sheila’s reaction when she tells Gizzmo:  This causes him to leave almost backwards, tripping over a sun lounger as he exits. I’m not sure if this was by design or an accident, but either way it was really funny. Adding more iconography to his departure, this is immediately followed by Gizzmo spotting a pile of gravel on the drive and propping the two wellies so that it looks as though someone was buried beneath it.The Grant humour affects interactions with other households as well. There was some Corrie-esque business with Damon and Roger competing to replace a pane of glass in Alan’s front door in a bid to impress Sam, with Roger initially winning but botching it so badly he has to go to Damon, cap in hand, to ask for the correctly-cut glass Damon has. Naturally, Damon makes a few quid from it, as well as the satisfaction of enjoying Roger’s humiliation.And mixed in among this is more conventional soap drama with Roger’s ongoing affair and the zenith of Petra’s disturbed emotional state which sees her overturning a table in a pub garden, bingeing on biscuits and then having a meltdown in a supermarket.Incidentally, Michelle really clicked with me in these episodes after Sam fought off the Brookside flasher in her bungalow and Roger had gone upon hearing Sam’s scream, smashing that door pane with his briefcase. Michelle believed the injury to Roger’s hand was from singlehandedly fighting off a rapist-stroke-murderer to rescue Sam, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. What’s more, it seemed this had given her a crush on him. Something about her naivety in these scenes was very endearing, and I realised she’s kind of the template for later characters such as Debbie McGrath.It’s also worth noting that neither Heather nor any of the Collinses featured in these last four episodes. Roger was flying the flag for the Haves and the Habitats all by himself.A bit of a milestone: Episode 77, which I watched last night, was broadcast 40 years ago today, which means episodes from here onwards will all have been screened within the past four decades.</blockquote>

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