Molly Pipe (Mia Grundy)
Have you noticed how some characters have emerged from the shadows and are coming more and more to the fore? One such is Mia, Nic’s oldest, who never used to have a speaking part but last week took centre stage. On Sunday she was at church and asked Alan if she could help out at Children’s Church, which was Nic’s pet project. Alan tells her to ask the person who organises it and she runs off to enquire.
Alan is in a quandary - what scheme can he come up with for the Lent Appeal? “We seem to have run out of things to give up” he tells Clarrie. They talk for a while - mostly about how Mia should be spending time with children of her own age - and Alan says that Clarrie has given him an idea, but he needs to fine tune it and run it past Will. Nice to know that the Rev Franks’ fertile mind is still working when it comes to Lent.
Mia is, if not sixteen, going on seventeen, then thirteen, going on thirty (don‘t worry; these musical references will, hopefully, become clearer, as the following day she runs into Ruairi, who offers her a lift on his bike (isn’t that illegal - where’s Harrison when you need him?). Clarrie finds the pair together and immediately leaps to the wrong conclusion, banging on (when Ruairi has gone) about teenage crushes and how she had some when she was younger, which is a tribute to her memory, if nothing else. Mia insists that she doesn’t have a crush on Ruairi, but Clarrie won’t let it go. Mia eventually loses it, saying angrily “You just don’t get it, Clarrie - I ain’t got time for boys, all right?”
So what is Alan’s great idea? He goes to see Will and says that he suggests a ‘Pay for a Favour’ scheme, where people get someone to do them a service and then donate an appropriate sum to the Appeal fund (no doubt Tracy could raise three figures). The total will be donated to Borsetshire hospital’s Intensive Care Appeal in Nic’s name - what does Will think? ‘Not much’ is the answer, as a disgruntled Will observes that they didn’t manage to save Nic. “But they might save someone else” Mia points out but Will is in mega-truculent mood (takes you back a year or two, doesn’t it?).
This gets worse because Mia has suggested that they could celebrate Nic’s life by going to a sing-along performance of the Sound of Music on the anniversary of Nic’s death. Alan is in favour, but Will is appalled - as he tells Mia later, he cannot begin to tell her on how many levels this is inappropriate - the anniversary of Nic’s passing is not a time for celebration and singing - presumably he has the sackcloth and ashes waiting for the family.
So now you will, hopefully, have sussed out the musical references, but, going back to the Alan/Will/Mia situation, Mia lets her feelings known, as she tells Will “I hate you” and locks herself in her room. He knocks on her door and she lets him in (“for a minute”). Mia tells him that she thinks Alan’s Lent idea is a good one and she is also going to tell Clarrie about TSoM - she bets Clarrie thinks it’s a good idea. Will begins “No, I think…” but is interrupted by Mia saying “It’s all about what you think - what about us? We miss Mum too, or have you forgotten?”
The following day, Clarrie finds Will on the estate and tells him that Mia has been in touch - Clarrie cannot understand why he reacted as he did and says Alan’s idea is a good one. For once, Will accepts that he is in the wrong and says that he should apologise to Alan - Nic would be ashamed of him. To cut a long story short, Will does apologise to Alan and agrees to his Lent Appeal idea. Not only that, but, as he later tells Mia, the TSoM idea is a good way of remembering Nic. Had you realised this four days earlier, Will, we could have saved ourselves a lot of grief.
Going back to paragraph one, we have another comparatively new voice - that of Ruairi. When he has spoken in the past, he had a strong Irish accent, but that has vanished now. Earlier, we had him and Mia meeting with Clarrie (Ruairi even called Clarrie “Mrs Grundy”, which presumably made her look round to see who he was talking to). Later on, he was talking to Ben at The Bull and, to the two boys’ glee, Lily came in with Russ and they both went over to needle him, calling him ‘Mr Jones’ and asking if he is going to apply for the vacancy at the college, ‘which has suddenly arisen.’ Russ approaches Lily and says that he wants to go home - a former colleague at the college said she was amazed that he had the nerve to show his face and, as Russ tells Lily, that this “and the comments of your smartarse cousin” means that he wants to go home.
Ruairi confides to Ben that he has agreed to give up his boarding school and go to the Cathedral school for his A-Levels - Brian and Jennifer believe that this is because he wants to ease their financial burden, but he tells Ben that it is because he wants the opportunity to meet the girls at the school. Nice to think that Ruairi is giving his academic future such profound and considered thought. It seems that we have yet another truculent teenager - or two, if you count Mia - to look out for in the future. It’s enough to make you sigh deeply. I suppose it’s because we are all getting older - people probably moaned when Grace Archer died in the 1950s and said that things would never be the same.
But let’s backtrack - what are Lily and Russ doing in Ambridge? Isn’t it kind of them to return and support Elizabeth? Well, yes and no, as we soon find out that they have been evicted for rent arrears, but this fact is glossed over when they tell Lizzie that they are there to look after her. It soon becomes apparent that Russ has other ideas, as he says that Elizabeth seems to be getting on all right with her family and he therapist and so on. All he and Lily really need is some money - Lily is appalled; how dare he think of touching up Lizzie for a loan (gift, more like) when she gave them some money before Christmas? Russ says that she misunderstands - there’s always Lily’s Gran, or other family members, to sponge off, although he doesn‘t put it like that.
Russ suggests that their “hovering” presence isn’t doing Elizabeth much good; especially as she reveals that she has told Freddie about her depression and Lily feels down, because a few words from Freddie appear to have bucked Elizabeth up no end, while Lily’s presence does not meet with such praise, or even seems to be having such a positive effect. Russ thinks that leaving would be a good idea, but Lily says “We can’t go back to Manchester - we don’t have a flat; I don’t have a course and you don’t have a job.” Russ replies that he won’t ever be able to get a job in Borsetshire and is Lily using her mother’s illness as an excuse to get rid of him? Lily is upset and says she needs him more than ever and “whatever we do next, we’ll do together; I promise.”
From young love (at least in Lily’s case) to more mature affection, as Jill goes to see Peggy. Peggy has made Jill’s favourite shortbread and soon lets it be known that she wants the lowdown on Leonard, Jill’s new friend. Jill describes him and Peggy suggests that he might be more than just a friend - they have Scrabble days and apparently there is the sound of much laughter. Come on - Scrabble is nothing to laugh about. Jill asks what Peggy would think if they were more than friends, to which Peg replies that it’s nice to see Jill happy. We might ask the question, what’s it got to do with Peggy? Jill is old enough to make up her own mind about friends - and men.
Peggy tells Jill not to worry about what people - and family - think and Jill resolves to contact Elizabeth the next day, as it is she that Jill is concerned about. As it turns out, Elizabeth gives her mother food for thought, by telling her about her depression and the fact that she is on medication and seeing a therapist. Jill is shocked and, as we learn later when she talks to Kenton, Jill is concerned that Lizzie’s problems might be rooted in her childhood and it could all be Jill’s fault. Jill’s anxiety is because Elizabeth was treated with kid gloves due to her heart problem and was she spoiled? Kenton assures her that no-one could have had a better mother and not to worry.
Midweek, Kenton had to eat a large helping of humble pie - he had booked his mate Des in to sing at The Bull and Kenton and Jolene were having some musical differences. She was dismissive of Kenton’s stack of vinyl as ‘pretentious’, while he describes it as ‘classic’. The one example we were given was ‘Tubular Bells’ by Mike Oldfield and, while I would agree with Kenton that it was ground-breaking, I would be the first to admit that it isn’t the kind of music to get the party started.
Kenton went further and described Jolene’s Country & Western music as - actually, I cannot remember exactly what he said, but the words ‘sentimental’ and ‘American rubbish’ seem to spring to mind - I just recall that I agreed with a lot of what he said. In the event, Des never turned up - he called Jolene, citing car trouble as the reason - and she reminded Kenton that she had always thought Des was unreliable. Kenton was confronted with a packed Bull, awaiting the appearance of an artiste who wasn’t coming - what was a man to do? The answer? Grovel, Kenton, and boy, did Jolene exact her pound of flesh - Kenton had to beg on his knees “Whatever happened to stand by your man?” he asked, plaintively Jolene eventually gave in and performed, singing and playing her banjo.
There was a tense moment when the floor collapsed as everyone dived for the door - no, that is a total lie, as even Ben and Ruairi admitted that it was a good show “if you like that sort of thing” and “she was OK for her age.”
Jennifer was paid a visit by Susan, who came bearing a gift of chocolate brownies. Susan was keen to see what Jen had done to Willow Cottage and Jen was keen to get rid of her as soon as possible, but, with protestations of being neighbourly, Susan inveigled her way into the kitchen. Su admired what Jen had done with the kitchen, but hints about what they had done upstairs were batted away by Jenny. Susan even asked to “use the facilities” and, when she started to go upstairs, Jenny reminded her that there was a downstairs cloakroom, just across the hall. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that” Susan replied, in a mournful voice. However, the day belonged to Susan, as there was a blockage in the U-bend and she returned home to get the requisite tools to fix it. Jenny did so, under Susan’s supervision, and was delighted. Susan then played her trump card - would Jenny and Brian join her and Neil for a dinner party? “How can I say no?” asks a bemused Jennifer. Pity Brian wasn’t there - I bet he would have shown his wife how to refuse; and not gracefully, either.
No comments:
Post a Comment