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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 106135" data-attributes="member: 23">The end of Butterflies approaches, with just two episodes of the entire series to watch.Ben has become the most interesting character on the show. His British, middle class reserve and old-fashioned values could have turned him into a caricature. Instead, as the series has progressed, Carla Lane has peeled back the layers, revealing sides of him to the viewer that nobody else on the show is aware of. Ria has her soliloquies, certainly. But we&#039;ve spent a great deal of time getting to know her and she&#039;s gained more and more support and has people to confide in and collude with: Leonard, of course, but also Thomas, her sons, Ruby and the occasional friend. Ben seems to be very much alone with his concerns. There&#039;s no confidant. He doesn&#039;t even voice his fears out loud to himself as Ria does. Ben internalises it all. This leaves the viewer in the position of trying to work him out: to wonder how much he knows, and what he is thinking. We&#039;ve seen him being given pieces of the puzzle and are left to decide for ourselves what that might mean for him. The last episode saw him answer the phone to Leonard - the first time, I believe, they&#039;ve heard each other&#039;s voices. There have been other moments like this. Rather than Ria&#039;s forte of full on meltdowns, Ben shows just the occasional flicker of concern, unseen by anyone else. There was a beautifully poignant scene in the second series (or perhaps the third) where Ria spoke to Ben as he slept, bewailing the fact that he could sleep contentedly while she was awake and worrying. The camera then panned to Ben&#039;s bedside table where a bottle of sleeping tablets stood (earlier in the episode he&#039;d commented in passing that he wasn&#039;t sleeping well because his mind was racing). It&#039;s moments like this that make Ben one of the most fascinating &quot;sitcom&quot; characters I&#039;ve encountered. The seeds for Lane&#039;s later project Bread, too, seem to have been sown in Butterflies, particularly with the various crises of the sons and their lack of employment. Butterflies takes a more subtle approach to commentary on Thatcher&#039;s Britain than Bread, but they&#039;re both very much on the same page.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 106135, member: 23"] The end of [I]Butterflies[/I] approaches, with just two episodes of the entire series to watch. Ben has become the most interesting character on the show. His British, middle class reserve and old-fashioned values could have turned him into a caricature. Instead, as the series has progressed, Carla Lane has peeled back the layers, revealing sides of him to the viewer that nobody else on the show is aware of. Ria has her soliloquies, certainly. But we've spent a great deal of time getting to know her and she's gained more and more support and has people to confide in and collude with: Leonard, of course, but also Thomas, her sons, Ruby and the occasional friend. Ben seems to be very much alone with his concerns. There's no confidant. He doesn't even voice his fears out loud to himself as Ria does. Ben internalises it all. This leaves the viewer in the position of trying to work him out: to wonder how much he knows, and what he is thinking. We've seen him being given pieces of the puzzle and are left to decide for ourselves what that might mean for him. The last episode saw him answer the phone to Leonard - the first time, I believe, they've heard each other's voices. There have been other moments like this. Rather than Ria's forte of full on meltdowns, Ben shows just the occasional flicker of concern, unseen by anyone else. There was a beautifully poignant scene in the second series (or perhaps the third) where Ria spoke to Ben as he slept, bewailing the fact that he could sleep contentedly while she was awake and worrying. The camera then panned to Ben's bedside table where a bottle of sleeping tablets stood (earlier in the episode he'd commented in passing that he wasn't sleeping well because his mind was racing). It's moments like this that make Ben one of the most fascinating "sitcom" characters I've encountered. The seeds for Lane's later project [I]Bread[/I], too, seem to have been sown in [I]Butterflies, [/I]particularly with the various crises of the sons and their lack of employment. [I]Butterflies[/I] takes a more subtle approach to commentary on Thatcher's Britain than [I]Bread[/I], but they're both very much on the same page. [/QUOTE]

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