We get it. We're grown ups. We understand that sometimes an actor just isn't available, or is too expensive. Someone who should be in an episode just isn't. These things happen.
Having said all that, where the fig is Sinead's mum?
This isn't like Sarah-Louise "not being able to get a flight", or Toyah "can't get time off work", or Ken "has to look after Adam." We just met Arlene. She was in the programme a couple of weeks ago. She turned up for a wedding. Why isn't she at her daughter's bedside when she's about to have a life-changing operation?
The writers and producers knew that this plotline was coming up, so it was simple: get Alison Burrows to stick around for a month instead of a week. If she couldn't commit for that long, cast a different actress who could. We'd never seen Arlene before - it didn't really matter who played her. Any reasonable actress with a northern accent would do. Just pay her to sit at Sinead's bedside while all this drama happens.
Because we just met the Tinkers, we're wondering where they are. When Tina was in hospital, her non-existent mother wasn't such an issue because we knew there had always been problems between them, and she'd not been around for a long time. Arlene, Nancy and Agnes all turned up at the start of January - so they know where Sinead lives - and they were lovely to her - so there are no outstanding Cilla Brown-esque family tensions. Why aren't they with her now?
In fact, I'm being generous in just calling for Arlene to come back. The wedding episodes established that Sinead was the golden girl of the family, so it would be reasonable for her nan and great-gran to turn up as well. That might be a bit expensive, fair enough. Just bring back her mum then. All the time Beth is sat there worrying - and yes, she's very good at it - I'm just thinking, where is her mum!
Sorry. Had to get that off my chest.
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11 comments:
Agnes said she is booked for 8 episodes, so she's due back soon, probably accompanied by Sinead's mother.
I think Agnes is due back later this week - she appears in the Radio Times cast list for the week
You're right, Scott. As others have said, they will be back but considering the bus and the company that the crash victims work for was in the Gazette, one of them should have noticed and wondered, oh that's Sinead's company innit? Should check that she's ok. (that's given that the names of the crash victims weren't in the newspaper which they probably were)
They've obviously been visiting in the afternoon and have gone home by 7.30pm!
It's down to Continuity or whoever looks after these potholes. When Tina was in hospital, Rita took control of the situation until Mum arrived. It wouldn't have been that difficult for Rita to have had five seconds on the phone, trying and failing to get hold of her. Like-wise here. It's Beth's sister, after all. Easy enough for her to come back to the bedside and tell Sinead that her mother decided out of the blue to go to Lanzarote and was trying to get her plane ticket changed.
0r is Beth really her Mom and not Auntie
Writing flubs such as this one, are not acceptable. Too often, major matters are ignored for some reason and we are left insulted. Of course, her mother would be there, and I would imagine her Nan too. I did read above that they're coming back, so that's good news, but I hope they don't expect us to believe that a mother wouldn't be there for such an important part of her daughter's life. (and just an aside: I really wish they'd given Diedre a better exit story).
Things like this bother me. It's not like we met the characters years ago and the actors are off doing other work. They should have kept them on standby, knowing this was coming up.
And as much as this is television and some things are a little out there, it is very much like real life and this wouldn't have happened. Even the other excuses don't really fly.
Would be interesting if Beth turned out to be Sinead's mother.........
Because THAT'S never happened before. I say, that's never happened ...
Frosty brought this up orginally and was told by many he was "whinging". But its lack of continuity at its worst, in fact just sloppy writing and plannng. Frosty is aware we have to have a bit of poetic licence but this is just frankly ridiulous and makes it like a pantomine play. How are we to have sympathy with Sinead, as I presume we are expected to, when the blatantly obvious absence of her family just make it farcial.
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