Written by Daran Little, directed by David Kester.
Joe's raiding Gail's kitchen frantically. For drugs, no less. Or drug money. Bingo! Gail drops her wallet out of her purse on the table, and forgets it in her haste to get to work on time. How long is this loser going to be pilfering from Gail???
Joe's now resorted to selling off his tools for drug money. How is this going to help his kitchen-building, that's he's supposed to be doing right now, to pay off that loan from one of Len's "guys." No matter which path he seems to take, it leads to a dead end. David plays "keep-away" with Joe's pills until he can cough up the rest of the 100 quid he requested.
Back to square one, Joe eyes Gail's purse again on the counter top. Gail comes home with her shopping, with Tina who's helped her with her bags, to find her purse and notices right away that she's missing approximately 30 quid. Immediately, as predicted, David's getting blamed for it. Joe gets overwhelmed with guilt and admits that he took the money. Well, admits to borrowing it. Uh huh. Snake in the grass! Oh, Joe even makes Tina apologise for calling David a loser when he was being wrongfully accused. Well, seems like David's got his pawns lined up nicely.
In private, Gail confronts Joe about the money missing from her purse last week, but Joe denies taking it. Gail tells Joe she needs trust in a relationship. Well, then get your foot ready and the door open Gail! Joe tells Gail that he promises he won't hurt her. As Blanche would say: "Get to my age, and you make a lot of promises." How many broken promises has Joe left in his wake, I wonder?
David produces the pain pills to Joe, as promised. With one condition: he'll only give him half now, and the other half after he gets Tina to be nice to him. Oh, David! That ship has sailed!
Looks like Chesney's back on his paper-round and groaning about it. He makes it sound like he works for some big railroad boss or something. It's a paper-round! Fiz offers to take him into town at lunch to exchange his trainers. He makes a sassy comment about being surprised she has enough time for him. Fiz needs to open a can of whoop-ass on him!
Alas, Fiz cancels on Chesney, because she has to work overtime. Fiz wonders if Chesney's new-found attitude is because he's turned 15. Well, that is the magical number it seems. He's a man now. Where he's gone, there's no coming back. All you can do is mourn the boy you used to adore. I still miss my adoring kid brother...
Chesney angrily pushes past Rita, and rudely tells her to watch where she's going. Oh *slap* for that from me! Rita puts him in his place, and reprimands him for screwing up Mr. Windass's delivery. Chesney tells her she can take her job and shove it. Well, not quite, but pretty much.
Back at home, Chesney complains about his problems to the only one who's always willing to listen: his dog. Chesney is rooting through the pockets of everyone's coats on the rack looking for the receipt for his trainers. But that's not all he finds. He picks up a small box to reveal Fiz's engagement from John and utters "no way..." Yes, way Chesney, yes way.
Fiz comes home early and apologises to Chesney for cancelling lunch earlier. Fiz checks her coat pockets with a panicked look on her face, and leaves in a haste with an excuse. Chesney pulls out her ring box from his pocket. What's he up to now? You know, I feel bad for Chesney and all, but I feel bad for Fiz too. She's a young woman, and she's doing a lot taking care of a teenage boy when she could be living her life. Chesney should still be grateful to her, even if he's not happy with the decisions she makes.
Becky won't be inviting any of her family to her wedding. You know, sometimes I forget how much of a mysterious woman Becky really is. How much do we really know about her? Betty tells Becky to scratch her name off the wedding invite list. Betty has decided that for the rest of her life she doesn't want to attend another wedding. Fair enough. Becky thinks it's a shame how not one of Steve's family members is going to see him get married, so she decides to track down Jim McDonald to invite him. Thank heavens! I love Jim and Liz in the same room!
Emily informs Rita that Norris will be late since he's helping Freda pack her suitcase. Rita notices that Emily's got her hair done and wonders whose benefit it's for. No flies on Rita! Emily tells her she needs to stop reading romance stories.
Ramsay signs Freda a farewell goodbye, and gets it somewhat wrong. Freda was very rude with him. At least he was trying. Emily doesn't look pleased. Good riddance Freda. She was like a 24 hour flu.
Later, Ramsay and Emily are sitting by the glow of the projector looking at Emily's old slides. My, my, this is very intimate. Of course that couch leaves no room for the notion of personal space. The projector switches to a slide of Emily and her Ernest on their wedding day. Emily gets embarrassed and quickly switches the slide. Ramsay insists she go back to her wedding slide and tells her how happy she looks. He then tells Emily he's never been married and he's honored that she's shared her memories with him. Norris busts in and interrupts this intimate moment. Much like a parent coming down to the basement and turning the lights on demanding to know what's going on. What a party-pooper!
It doesn't take long for Norris to spill the beans about the scene he'd just witnessed to Rita. Norris tells her, "It was like a scene from Mrs. Miniver. I kept expecting to hear an air-raid siren." Good one writers, that was classic. No pun intended. Rita asks Norris if it ever entered his mind that Ramsay and Emily might be attracted to one another. Norris accuses Rita of inhaling too much hairspray! Poor Rita, according to her friends she's a hair-sprayed, romance-reading old woman! Norris doesn't believe that Emily could be attracted to Ramsay. Denial isn't just a river in Egypt, Norris.
The scene where Rita and Norris are enjoying a cuppa and biccy was pure Corrie magic! Norris's Mrs Miniver remark, Rita's replies in between dunking were so funny I was screeching with laughter! Corrie is the best.
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with Mrs Miniver so didn't get this reference - can anyone enlighten me please?
ReplyDeleteNo! How can you say that about Freda?! I love her. Her impromptu alliance with Norris against Ramsay may have been slightly unfair but i could certainly see where they were coming from. He is really quite irritating!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, i thought Freda's return was going to be something more permanent? Yet she only stayed for 3 and a bit episodes or so. I am confused. I want more Freda!
Click on the link Flaming Nora
ReplyDeleteYou can tell Daran's back! Lovely little moments, a flash of Corrie history in the slide show! Yay! Say what you will about Mr. Little, but he loves Coronation Street and he always puts little nods to us long time viewers who remember the history of how it used to be.
ReplyDeleteHow sweet Ramsay and Emily were watching those old slides. Shame he is to be written out and and Emily will be left heartbroken.
ReplyDeleteI am so fed up with Joe now, this painkillers story is becoming very tedious and Gail fawning around him makes me want to scream!
To be honest all Gail really does is 'fawn around'. Good way of summing her up to be honest.
ReplyDeleteSo no news for me about Freda? How dissapointing.
Nora - Mrs. Miniver was a story about an English family living the good-life in 1939 before the war, until their lives changed. Norris was referring to people sitting in the dark trying to shelter themselves from bombings. Hence, the "air-raid" reference.
ReplyDeletePeter - That's exactly why I wasn't sad to see Freda go. We didn't even get to see much else from her. Just her being irritated with Ramsay. Wasn't enough for me! If she stayed longer I might have been able to see more of her personality.
ReplyDeleteBut having her react to Ramsay like that makes the point that for once, maybe Norris isn't just crying wolf. He does come across like a patronizing git.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tvor. He really is. It must have been infuriating for Freda. But still no light shed on Freda's return. Was that really it? If it was, i am gutted. She is a great character and there really is scope for me from her. I need to know!
ReplyDeleteI loved the biccy scene wi' our Reet and Norris aswel, a scene of normality, just them having a chat over a brew but it was pure Corrie. Loved it. I liked Freda, Norris rarely has someone who agrees with him and i thought it was nice for him to have someone to listen to his little moan.
ReplyDelete