Moaning Freddie

Toby Laurence (Freddie Pargetter)

There’s no doubt that Freddie could moan for Great Britain, if not the Galaxy. Ok, he’s had a hard time, but it was largely self-inflicted and if he is expecting people to let bygones be bygones, he is delusional. He gets an inkling of how the land lies at Rosie’s christening, where we learn later that Kate “more or less told me I’m not wanted around here”. It seems that Kate is not alone, as Freddie says that the Aldridges have closed ranks on him.  

Shula is all right with Freddie which, given the amount of time that he is spending hanging around The Stables, is a good thing. Shula suggests that he should get out and talk to people, so Freddie asks Johnny if he fancies a drink or three that evening. Johnny was going to go out with Bella, but he tells Freddie that he’ll cancel that, the fool. The evening is disappointing, with no live music at the pub and a good time is not being had by all. I think the boys are lucky – in my neck of the woods it’s hard to find a pub that opens on a Monday evening, let alone has live music.

Freddie’s mood is not helped when he gets texts from Russ, asking where is Freddie? Russ is doing this on behalf of Elizabeth, who is stressing over how her son is feeling and coping. When it comes to coping, the answer is ‘not very well’; when Johnny suggests that Freddie tells his family of his whereabouts, Freddie yells “It’s not necessary!” He then screams “Will you all just leave me alone!” and rushes off into the night, leaving Johnny behind, no doubt reflecting on what he and Bella could be up to at this moment.

The next day, Freddie is having a hissy fit at breakfast, as he can’t find the jam (it’s all ‘me, me, me’ with this lad). Lily wants to talk to him and he takes the opportunity for more snide remarks about Russ. Lily says she’ll make him breakfast (hemlock on toast would be favourite), then they’ll talk. Freddie thinks it’s going to be about Russ, but Lily is trying to make her brother see how bad a state Elizabeth is in – she can’t make decisions and some days she’s living in a fog and cannot function properly. Lily does mention how much Russ has been helping Elizabeth to get through the days, but this cuts no ice with Freddie. He does seem to realise that his mother is suffering a serious illness and not just feeling a bit under the weather and he says he will try to help a bit more, but he will not work with Russ – on this or anything else. “I want nothing to do with that creep.” Freddie says.

One person that Freddie has been dreading running into is PC Burns, but on Friday he goes to see the local copper and apologises for messing up his stag night and all the trouble afterwards. PCB demonstrates that he is a nice bloke by saying that Freddie has done the time and, as far as PCB is concerned, that’s an end to the matter and they can shake on it. Freddie is both pleased and surprised and enquires about going to cricket practice. PCB says he’d be welcome, but he (PCB) won’t be running tonight’s practice – Chris Carter will be taking it. Bearing in mind what Freddie said about the Aldridges earlier, he decides to take a rain check.

Freddie also had a heart-to-heart with Kenton, who told him that he defended Freddie when he got arrested, but when the true story (dealing drugs, getting Noluthando into hospital) emerged, Kenton wasn’t happy “Me standing up for you nearly split this family apart” he tells Freddie, but adds that Freddie is his nephew and he cares for him, but Freddie should remember that he’s not the only one who has had a hard time.

Perhaps emboldened by these relatively positive reactions, Freddie goes to see Fallon at the Tea Room and apologises to her. She says she’s willing to start again, but when Freddie asks if he can have Tyler’s job (who has recently quit), Fallon tells him bluntly that she doesn’t want him working there. Freddie gets angry and says that she owes him, as it was her father Wayne who originally sold him drugs. As a bargaining ploy, this is a spectacularly bad strategy and Fallon tells him to get out and bans him sine die from the Tea Room. Nice work, Freddie.

In paragraph one, we referred to Rosie’s christening and Toby’s cunning plan, which was, just as Alan came to the name ‘Grace’ to fake a sudden and violent fit of coughing. This would have worked if Alan hadn’t decided to recite the names again and, when another coughing fit ensued, a third time. In the end, Jill learned her great-granddaughter’s full name. The ceremony was a bit of a downer for Jill, as Rosie was wearing the Fairbrother christening gown and Robin was acting like the Lord of the Manor, organising the photography and generally strutting around. However, Leonard to the rescue, saying what a wonderful family occasion it was and that Josh had tears in his eyes. I have a theory about this – before the ceremony started, Josh was asking how long was it going to take, as he had a tractor auction to attend. I reckon the tears were because he’d missed the start of the auction. Whatever, Jill had a few precious moments alone with Rosie and her day didn’t turn out too badly.

We turn now to Leonard, who some of our more cynical readers have been eyeing with suspicion – nobody can be so unfailingly nice and he must be harbouring a terrible past or a dark secret. And so it seems – he gave Jill a painting of snowdrops which was really quite well done, so much so that Shula commissioned him to paint a picture of a horse. Leonard turns up at The Stables and sets to work. After about an hour, Jill drops by to see how he is getting on. The answer is ‘not very well,’ as he has just painted a patch of grass and hasn’t started on the horse. Bit by bit, the sorry story emerges – he never painted the snowdrops, but bought the picture. When Jill assumed it was his work, he didn’t disabuse her. He did try to paint snowdrops, “but they looked like miniature lampposts” he tells her sorrowfully. Can she ever forgive such a deception? Jill breaks into a foul-mouthed tirade and tells him to never darken her door again. No, of course she doesn’t – not only does she forgive him, laughing about the whole thing, but she asks him if he has one of the pictures he painted, as she’d like to display it. Presumably this is as a conversation piece; the conversation going along the lines of ‘what the bloody hell is that monstrosity doing on the wall?’

Leonard is worried what he is going to tell Shula, but she has enough troubles of her own. She is scheduled to preach the sermon at Rosie’s christening, but, as she stands in the pulpit, she catches sight of Jim and his comments about hypocrisy come back to her. Unable to continue, she abandons her sermon and leaves the pulpit. Later on, she leaves a message on Alan’s phone, telling the vicar that she doesn’t feel able to preach again, sorry.

A day or two later, she runs into Jim at Grey Gables, and he invites her for a coffee. Shula thinks that he is going to gloat, but on the contrary, he says that what she did was an act of great courage and honesty. Shula admitted that she felt like a hypocrite and now she isn’t sure of anything any more and she feels like the ground is no longer solid beneath her feet. “I need to think this all through on my own” she continues, begging Jim not to tell anyone.

What else has been happening? Ruairi learns from Mia that she is having trouble understanding fractions, so he offers to come round and help her out. The pair are having a break and there is much laughing (Ruairi tries to make it fun). They are having a break for a game of tea bag golf (don’t ask) and Will bursts in on them. Ruairi is holding Mia’s hand to demonstrate how to best throw the tea bag and Will loses it totally, saying “She’s only thirteen!” and throws Ruairi out of the house, stopping just short of accusing him of being a paedophile. Will is furious with Mia as well, for not telling him that Ruairi was coming round. Ruairi is shaken by the whole episode and, as he tells Ben later, all he can do is avoid Will like the plague and make sure never goes near Mia again. Will, who has been exhibiting signs of niceness and consideration over recent weeks, is slowly reverting to his former, unlovable self and, if he isn’t very careful, he is risking alienating his own family, including his step-children.

Someone else who is heading for family trouble is Tom Archer, who has behaved over the past few weeks with a breath-taking lack of subtlety and consideration. He was at it again last week, telling his parents that he had something to tell them. Pat immediately assumed that Natasha was pregnant, but no – Tom’s big idea is to sell the pig herd. He only needs pork for the sausages, so it makes sense to buy from a big organic producer and not bother about raising his own herd. 

Tony and Pat are stunned – what about Jazzer? Tom says airily that he can find Jazzer work on the vegetable side, but Tony protests that Jazzer is a pigman (in every sense of the word). For her part, Pat is worried because the pigs were originally John’s business and getting rid of them seems as though they are expunging the memory of John. In fact, Pat thinks that this is all Natasha’s idea and the two women exchange some frosty (on Pat’s part at least) words. When they are alone, a tearful Pat tells Tony that Natasha is changing Tom (good job too, I say) and she is “taking over one of my sons and riding roughshod over the memory of the other.” Tony tells her that Natasha was just backing up Tom and that Tom would never forget his late brother.

Natasha takes Tom to task – he knew that talking about the pigs would inevitably lead to a discussion about John and he never told her, leading to the bad feeling from Pat. “You let me down Tom, and it wasn’t the first time, was it?” she tells her husband, referring to the fact that he never told her about Helen’s bad experiences at the hands of Rob, leaving Natasha to blunder into an embarrassing conversation about it. Sensitive as ever, Tom tells Natasha that Pat will get over it.

Certainly, when it comes to tact, Tom was at the end of the line when it was handed out, and he now has the job of breaking the news to Jazzer that the Scotsman’s ‘wee lassies’ are living on borrowed time. Tom’s strategy is to approach the subject at a tangent and, so successful is he with this, that it takes Jazzer an age to realise what he is on about. “You mean you’re getting rid?” he cries incredulously when the penny eventually does drop. It’s fair to say that Jazzer is not best pleased and his mood is not made any better when Tom tells him about the vegetable working, adding rather patronisingly that Jazzer could expect to be paid as a pigman for a whole three months after the pigs have gone. An irate Jazzer tells Tom that he’s out of there and marches off the farm and it speaks volumes for Tom’s man-management skills and all-round empathy with his fellow human beings that he genuinely cannot see what Jazzer is upset about.