I’ve only ever witnessed one fight between women in my life.
It was a bitter January Sunday morning, at an Under 13s football match in a
godforsaken place called Maltby. One boy went in hard on another and a scuffle
broke out. It was sorted quickly by the referee, but the mothers of the two
boys were on the floor scrapping. Can you imagine the embarrassment for all
concerned?
And so it is with Gail and Eileen. Wholly embarrassing.
Embarrassing for themselves, their families and for the idea that 2 middle aged
women would stoop to a physical fight -unconvincing, slapstick, not big, not clever
and not, sadly, entertaining. Later,
Nick tells his mother that he is doing his best to cope with the loss of a
much-wanted baby, in order to put a perspective on events and that the last
thing he wanted was to witness a circus like that.
Neither Gail nor Eileen are stupid women but here they
behave stupidly. Eileen was mightily provoked and why on earth did Audrey and
Maria not stop Gail throwing all the hair products.
Eileen actually encourages
Michael to sort things out with Gail, which he agrees to do. He explains how
angry and upset he was over the deceit about Gavin. Gail faithfully promises no
more dishonesty. Michael, warming to the theme, tells Gail that it was getting
cosy with Eileen that brought on his heart attack. Some things are best kept
quiet. Gail rails at Eileen, who she detests anyway. Eileen says that they only
kissed and reassures Gail that she has no designs on him. Gail is in hot
pursuit of Eileen and starts to fight.
Sweet heavens! Michael hoves into view and gets a ringside seat and
consequently hears the unkind remarks Gail makes about him. ‘He’s a failed
burglar, with a dodgy heart and a fondness for Y-fronts.’
Todd is highly amused. Discovering that his mother was
‘romping’ and ‘pawing’ he says, ‘I know you’re desperate, but that’s
practically grave robbing.’
Tracy makes sure that Brian keeps his date at the Bistro
with Julie Carp. Because Tracy is involved, we know that there will be
something unkind involved. The Julie Carp, who is not our Julie Carp, says she
would like to travel around the world. The poor soul is happy to meet Brian but
Brian has to pull out.
At home, there is quite a disturbing scene where Amy seems
to be Tracy’s mini –me. To see the 2 of them in cahoots that way is worrying.
‘He wanted to meet Julie Carp for lunch and we made it happen,’ says chip off
the old block, Amy. Ken pulls his head out of his latest classic, Emma Bovary,
to tell his daughter that she is monumentally uncharitable.’ Nothing new there,
Ken.
Dev and his women are causing a rumpus. This has made for
uncomfortable viewing. What was Talisa doing there, in Dev`’s house in the
first place? Was she contributing to the family budget, did she realize that
Dev was infatuated with her and if so was she using that to her advantage? Who
did she think Julie was? Dev asks Talisa to leave her husband so that makes
Dev’s motives clear. Dev and Talisa have behaved badly and now, spotted holding
hands in the cafe by Brian, he feels he must let Julie know, maybe seeing this
as an opportunity. ‘I’ve just witnessed a scene of great intimacy,’ says Brian.
‘I’ve seen his sort before – all hair oil and shopworn charm.’
Mary arrives at Dev’s to see Julie sitting very still, all
alone. She approaches her and naturally Julie asks her if she knew anything.
Mary admitted she had an ‘inkling’ and that she approached Dev about it. Should
Mary have approached Julie too? Maybe, but it’s understandable that she didn’t.
Mary tells Julie that Dev is worth fighting for.’ Julie’s response is definite.
‘No he’s not.’
Julie plucks up the courage and confronts Dev and Talisa.
Dev is dev–astated and begs Julie for another chance. Talisa is not in love
with Dev and she tells him that she is gay. When Talisa leaves, Julie rips in
to Dev. She tells him that while he was away she looked after his children, his
house and his business and in return he betrayed her. She did all she did out
of love. What a tour de force that was, Katy Kavanagh! Now I’m even more sorry
you’re going!
Great to see Carla as the Victoria Coren- Mitchell, of
Weatherfield. Bring on the high rollers for a game of poker, brought about by
Jason’s insomnia and his early morning TV viewing. Satisfying to see Carla win
and irritating to see Dan so obnoxious towards her. What a dreadful man! I know
they still exist, but Carla will be only too pleased to beat the cave man. When
he won’t have another game, Carla says, ‘Coward, I was just warming up.’ It’s a good job that Liz didn’t witness the
way in which Dan behaved towards Carla, because had she done so she might not
be so keen to be with him. What a lovely thing Carla does for Kirk by handing
him a substantial amount of her winnings and will take no refusal.
Erica must be feeling distraught. Doubtless she believes
that the loss of her baby means that she will remain childless. She doesn’t
want any contact with Nick and is refusing to take his phone calls. The loss of
the baby is sad for Nick too, as he was very keen to have a child. What should
Nick do? Should he stick with Erica out of a sense of duty or should he follow
his heart and turn to Carla? As we all know, Alison King is taking a break from
the cobbles, so maybe nothing will happen with Nick.
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