Mike turned up at Ingram's with a spring in his step. He was confident that now he'd seen off Ralph the company would soon be his. He was shocked to find Jackie there, planning on running the business herself, so he pretended to have another job offer to make her give him more money. Sure enough, she asked him to run the company, while she assisted as an exec and learned the ropes. Tracy was bunking off school to hang out in the arcades, which gave Ken an opportunity to slime up to Deirdre and pretend he wanted to discuss their daughter. She refused to talk to him then, when the school got in touch, exploded at Ken's suggestion that Tracy's broken home was causing her to act up. Jim took on new premises for his bike spares business: the railway arch on Viaduct Street (now the Bistro) which had been stopped up after thirty years of being a cut through to Jubilee Terrace. Jenny was back from France, and not keen on going back to the Poly, but luckily she had a new friend to persuade her to return: Angie Freeman. Flick had apparently fallen in love in France and decided not to return so Angie took her room. She slotted in so well and so quickly it was hard not to suspect that the actress who played Flick decided not to return so they did a swift rewrite with the same lines for a new character. Mind you, Deborah McAndrew as Angie displayed more character and charm in her first scene than Flick did in six months so it was no great loss. The only tragedy was Angie's floppy velvet hat and scarf combination which made her look like a Blossom tribute act.
TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 12th and 15th October 1990
Excitement! A new title sequence! It's that one where a dog belts down the street and nearly knocks over an old lady. Jackie Ingram's office is now a set, instead of a location shoot, as befits her decision not to sell the factory and put Mike in charge. He celebrated by verbally abusing his secretary because just because he's working for a woman it doesn't stop him from being a big old sexist. Tracy continued to bunk off from school to hang out at the arcade watching Andy play Streets of Rage. Deirdre found her there and caused years of psychological harm by dragging her into Ken's classroom and demanding he sort her out. Tracy did notice that at least her bad behaviour had got her parents talking again, the sneaky minx. Deirdre went back to the arcade to speak to the manager, and found it to be such a den of iniquity (there was a young girl SMOKING!) she resolved to shut it down. Jenny's debate over whether to return to Poly turned out to be academic as she was chucked off her course for slacking off. She told everyone she'd decided to jack it in, but finally confessed to Rita that she was a failure.
WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 17th and 19th October 1990
Mark Casey turned 21 and his dad interrupted him dancing to absolute banger Naked In The Rain at his party to give him the garage. Kev was naturally put out at being relegated to an employee after years of running the show and decided to jack in his job. Mark's promotion also attracted Jenny's attention; she'd decided that now she wasn't an intellectual she could be a kept woman, and bought him a Walkman with money borrowed off Rita to snare his attention. Of course the most interesting part of all this was that Angie chose to attend the party wearing a kind of hand embroidered hood/cape combo. Deirdre continued her crusade against arcades, starting with telling Alma off for having a fruit machine in the cafe, then moving on to demanding the owner of the arcade bar under 18s. However, the owner was Phil Jennings, and he charmed her into thinking he was a stand up guy and sent her some flowers. At the factory, Mike continued to bully Sandra the secretary for no apparent reason, and fired her. Jackie was going to reinstate her, but was persuaded by Mike not to undermine his authority and instead tried to move Sandra to a different job. She threw it back in Jackie's face and told her she'd been having an affair with Peter before he died then stormed out. Mrs Ingram was destroyed by the revelation and left the factory to Mike. He took no time moving into the boss's office and invited Alma to celebrate with champagne.
THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 22nd and 24th October 1990
Phil Jennings continued his charm offensive against Deirdre, promising to keep the kids away from his arcade and offering to buy sports kits for Wethy High. She told him she wouldn't be swayed by his honeyed words but still went out for dinner with him. Bet and Alec's holiday plans were wrecked when he got an ear infection and couldn't fly. She threatened to go with Rita instead but relented and they agreed to flog both tickets. Jenny got a job alongside Steph at the perfume counter, and began to look at her as an inspiration. She agreed to pal up with the Barneses for a Sunday lunch in Bakewell, which was unlucky because Mark had just made up with Kevin and they'd decided to do overtime that day. When he told Jennie he couldn't make it she told him to make Kevin do it, as he was now the boss, which caused Sally to explode. She pointed out that Jenny hadn't paid Mark the slightest bit of attention until he had a few bob.
FRIDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 26th and 29th October 1990
The PJ Leisure sports kits arrived at the school and Phil made sure to let Deirdre know about his generous donation. Ken was furious that the school was advertising a company that lured children into frittering away their pocket money. The rest of the street had their mind on far-off climes. Alma was disappointed that Mike's new position meant he had no time for her and tried to pressure him into having some time off. He finally agreed to a long weekend in Paris. Bet casually mentioned the cancelled holiday to Mavis, and she agreed to take it off her hands for half the price: £600. Alec was horrified at having to swallow a six hundred quid loss so tried to upsell it to £700 with Derek, only for Des to swoop in and offer £750 for it. Money talked for Alec of course so he agreed to sell it to the Barneses, forcing Derek to up his bid to £800 and outraging Steph who was left with two weeks off and nowhere to go. It was a poisoned chalice though as not only did Mavis have to allow Percy into her home to feed that damn budgie, but they also arrived at the airport to pick up the tickets and found there'd been some kind of mix up. They were forced to pal up with Jim Branning from EastEnders who'd also paid Rosamund Travel for a flight to Madeira and had no tickets. The programme ended with their flight zooming off to exotic parts without them...
If you can offer the author two weeks in a four star Madeiran resort for £800, please contact him via Twitter @merseytart. No timewasters, hawkers or Derek Wiltons, thanks.
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