Eddie ‘The Grinch’ Grundy

Ewan Bailey (Roman Trench)

We could equally have entitled this episode ‘Ebenezer Grundy’ as Eddie was in full ‘bah, humbug’ mode on Sunday. He caught brother Alf sneaking away with bag packed (astonishingly without taking any valuables – not that the Grundys have many valuables). Eddie invites him to stay for Christmas, but Alf replies that he is a lone wolf and he doesn’t want to outstay his welcome, so he’ll be moving on. Alf and Eddie made a bit of money selling Joe’s old, rusty machinery for scrap and Alf tells his brother that he has left his share behind and Eddie and Clarrie are to treat themselves to something nice.

William and Edward automatically think that Alf and Eddie have had a bust-up and Eddie tells them off when they start bad-mouthing their uncle. Furthermore, he tells them that he hasn’t got time to go gathering holly and mistletoe and, if he had his way, Christmas would be cancelled. He even moans about the turkeys.

Never mind, Will and Ed can do the collecting (they’re both out of a job, after all) so off they go, with Eddie’s warning not to go mad ringing in their ears. While they are collecting, they wonder how they can make Christmas a bit more special and Ed comes up with a suggestion; “The Grundy World of Christmas”. In the past, this has included festive wreaths, mince pies and suchlike and they think it could be a nice little earner.

Excitedly, they run the idea past Eddie (who has already told them that they cut way too much holly and mistletoe) and it goes down like the proverbial lead balloon. They try to persuade Eddie, but he says he’d rather forget Christmas. “The Grundy World of Christmas belongs in the past – I don’t want any part of it” he tells his sons as he storms off. And a merry Christmas to you too, Eddie.

Things do get better later on in the week, as Thursday is Eddie and Clarrie’s wedding anniversary and they have booked up for the cabaret dinner at Grey Gables. The entertainment is a riot and the food superb and the wine flows freely. Emma is also there and goes over to say hello. Clarrie tells her about Will and Ed’s idea and Emma thinks it sounds great – he’s got to do it; the kids will love it. Eddie is still not convinced, but when he and Clarrie return home (a bit on the tipsy side) their breath is taken away by the sight of dozens of wreaths and suchlike that Ed, Will and Poppy have made while Eddie and Clarrie were out. Eddie agrees that GWofC is a good idea, but there is a problem – with Joe gone, who can they get to play Santa Claus? Eddie can’t do it – so who will?

Lily is in a dilemma – should she tell Johnny about the photo of Bella kissing some strange man, or not? Eventually she decides that he deserves to know the truth, so she goes to see him, albeit with some trepidation. His reaction is that the photo isn’t very clear and he quickly becomes angry, telling Lily that she has made a mistake and it’s only a kiss. Lily, who should really just have said ‘OK then’, wonders if this is the first time that Bella has done this – how does Johnny know that she didn’t spend the night with this man?

This makes Johnny really angry and he tears into Lily, telling her that she has already stolen someone else’s husband. “You’ve destroyed one relationship,” he rants, adding; “and now you’re trying to destroy mine. You’re a home-wrecker Lily – leave me and Bella alone!” Talk about shooting the messenger!

What makes it worse for Lily is that she feels that she cannot betray Johnny’s trust, even though her behaviour is affecting her relationship with Russ. Of course, she does eventually tell Russ what happened and he is appalled at what Johnny said. He tells Lily that it was him and not her that broke up his marriage and he would never feel guilty about falling in love with her. It’s time to stop all these recriminations and get on with their lives. “From now on it’s just you and me” Russ tells her.

Talking of Russ, Elizabeth seems to be having a number of heart-to-hearts with him, and the latest one concerns the proposed ghost stories in the attic, read by professor Jim Lloyd, which Elizabeth has imaginatively named ‘Ghost Stories In The Attic, read by [you’re ahead of me here, aren’t you?] ‘professor Jim Lloyd’. Russ thinks this is a spot-on title, and, in the modern cliché, I suppose it does what it says on the tin (oh, the power of advertising). 

Lizzie then says that she thought it would be a good idea if they had some publicity (it would presumably be better than leaving Jim alone in the attic with no audience) but, when she mentioned it, Jim just refused to consider going on the radio, or anything else. Lizzie is confused, but Russ says that Jim is a flake - remember all the trouble they had on the committee to decide the St. Stephen’s Art Project? Russ says that Jim was “obstreperous” and he walked out on them. Perhaps he needs direction, Lizzie suggests, and thinks that Russ would be the ideal person to take the job on - after all, he has an artistic bent and she hasn’t got the time. Russ eventually agrees, but I can’t help thinking that there will be artistic differences between the pair and, as Elizabeth told Russ “I can’t afford ‘Ghost Stories’ to be another failure.”

The week began with Leonard wanting to talk to David. Without going into the reasons why, Leonard thinks that Jill wants him to propose. Having had one misunderstanding, Leonard finally gets David to realise what he is getting at - so how would David feel about it? The answer is, he hadn’t thought about it and needs time to consider it. Leonard makes it plain that he doesn’t want to muscle in on Phil’s memory and would like the family’s reaction, were he to propose. 

David sounds out various siblings and children, and the average reaction is ‘good for her’ and ‘go for it gran.’ David feels otherwise - to him it seems like Phil has just left the table, or gone out on the farm, but, as David himself observes, Phil has been gone ten years. One also suspects that David might not want to lose a good cook and household help - or am I being cynical? As it turns out, it doesn’t matter, as David eventually tells Leonard that he has the family’s blessing, should he want to propose. 

Leonard thanks David, and, thereafter, it all descends into farce. Jill and Leonard have been out for a drive and David comes into the Brookfield kitchen to find Jill taking off her rings. “Let me give you a hug” he says, then; “I assume you said ‘yes’?” Jill asks what is he talking about? She’s removed her rings because she wants to make shortbread “And what exactly am I supposed to have said ‘yes’ to?” she asks. The story comes out and Jill says that she never wanted Leonard to propose, fond as she is of him. At this juncture, Leonard comes in from the sitting room, apologising for having dozed off.

What loose ends have we left? The Rewilding of Ambridge project seems to be grinding to a halt - the PPR (Phoebe, Pip and Rex) consortium is a long way short of the 60% acreage commitment that they need to secure the first tranche of money from Peggy’s trust. The three have a meeting and Phoebe suggests that they are going about this all wrong - instead of trying to get a few acres here and some more there, perhaps they should go for another strategy and try and get two-or-three hundred acres from one source; time is running out. 

She has identified some land owned by BL and thinks if they can convince the BL Board about rewilding, it would be in the bag. How to reach the Board? “I’ll go and butter up my granddad” Phoebe says. Unfortunately, Brian (granddad) says that it would be inappropriate if he were to plead their case and he cannot help, so an increasingly-disconsolate Phoebe pours out her heart to Auntie Lilian, who, to Phoebe’s delight and relief, says that she will have a word with Justin, but she warns her niece that she will have to choose her moment carefully and not to be impatient.

Justin is having his own troubles - he is trying to get planning permission for a development, but is being thwarted by ecological opponents, so he’s somewhat distracted, Eventually, Lilian pins him down and suggests he consider it for BL. To her surprise, he agrees to listen to Phoebe and says that PPR should present their ideas to the BL Board and they are meeting next Tuesday at 11am - can they make it? You bet they can. “I look forward to seeing you in the Boardroom” Justin says. And I bet I wasn’t the only one to add ‘where at least one of you will be fired.’

Joy Horville took some homemade jam to Pat, as a ‘thank you’ to Tony, who not only cleaned her MG’s fuel pump, but gave the car a full service, resprayed it and gave the engine a thorough overhaul (not all of those are true). Joy tells Pat that Tony is a lovely man and she should cherish him. Pat finds that she is getting on OK with Joy and invites her in for a cup of tea.

Let’s go back to the hilarious evening of the cabaret dinner at Grey Gables. Tracy rang Emma up a couple of hours before it began, inviting her to accompany her for the meal. Emma wasn’t keen, and questioning revealed that Tracy had been let down by the man she had invited (Demetrios, from Corfu and the kitchen). Emma eventually agrees. 

Afterwards, Tracy and  Sgt Burns (who was also at the dinner with Fallon) decide to go to the bar, where one of the actors in the cabaret is drinking. Apparently he had been winking at Tracy throughout and, when they introduced themselves, it was obvious that it was not Harrison that he was interested in. Emma realises that SgtB is being a bit of a gooseberry and drags him away, leaving Roman (the actor) and Tracy alone.

The pair are getting along fine and Roman suggests that she could show him the sights of the village (like that’s going to take any time - he’s already seen Grey Gables). He offers to buy her a drink - what would she like? “I’m completely in your hands, Roman” Tracy answers - and I’d be willing to bet that that’s not the first time she has uttered that phrase.