Hello and welcome to the start of !ROOF WEEK!. All last week, the wheels were being set in motion, the players being moved into place, now we have the culmination of all those plot manoeuvrings.
First though, we have Beth "singing" as she fixes Rana's wedding dress whilst a balaclava-clad figure does something dodgy on the roof of the factory. Later, we discover that both Nick (jogging) and Gary (tea-making) were up early. CLUES. No sign of Seb or Robert (yet).
Meanwhile, Sally and Gina have joined the Occupy movement but, like all political movements, there are already schisms as Sally and her sis argue about banners. The factory gang plus Gemma and Emma, takes over the building, chucking Beth out and requisitioning Rana's dress as a bargaining chip. The 99% hunker down with sleeping bags, Pringles and phone chargers, but Carla has other things on her mind, namely that Peter is leaving for Southampton to get his new boat. Ken sets off and immediately stops at Freshco's for a packet of mints and the first loo break. This sounds very much like every car journey I've ever been on. Carla phones and finds out where they are, arriving in time to beg Peter not to go. If she was so desperate for him to stay, she shouldn't have bought him a leaving present of a topless woman, to be frank. The Burton and Taylor of the cobbles argue it out whilst the guy who collects the trolleys takes notes of their on/off/on/off/on/off romance from Ken for his short story collection: Tales From The Trolleyman (Weatherfield Books, 2020).
The Seddon siblings quibble over who gets to put up their banner on the roof of the factory and they both climb up and whilst affixing their protest signs, deliver home truths to each other. Sally tells Gina to leave her alone and Gina reaches out to her sister, they scuffle, and Sal through the rotten roof, leaving her insensible on the floor, the other staff/strikers collapsed under piles of rubble.
Imran has been to see Mrs Habeeb, who passes on a wedding gift, jewellery that belonged to Rana's grandma, but tells him that doesn't want to come to the wedding, which upsets Rana as she suddenly decides she needs her mum there. Kate suggests postponing the wedding until Rana-mama has realised it's 2019 and chicks can marry each other (I paraphrase). But Rana wants to go ahead, she wrestles her dress back from the factory lot and the couple prepare to set off separately for the hotel.
Oh and nasty Natalie from Nottingham turns up to blackmail Nick again, offering to play table football for the money she thinks she is owed. She wins the game, obviously, and Nick promises to give her some dough when he comes into "a windfall". David comes up with the immensely sensible suggestion of taking her on as a barber, but Nick doesn't want to give in to "another greedy woman." Says the man who nicked £80K from his own grandma.
And finally, it's Gary's birthday and in the absence of a bought bday pressie, Sarah offers Gary anything he wants. Come on, Sarah started her romantic life when she was 12; if she and her current beau haven't enacted all of the, um, scenarios by now, I'm a weasel's uncle.
Hope you enjoy the rest of !ROOF WEEK!
Rachel Stevenson - on twitter
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Another brilliant review, Rachel. Keep them coming!
ReplyDeleteThank you, David!
ReplyDeleteThe most disturbing thing about this episode was Imran no wearing socks with his suit. Yuk!
ReplyDeleteJeanie (anon):
ReplyDeleteGreat series of episodes in the lead up to the collapse! This producer (Iain McLeod) really does set a very different tone and style than Oates. More genuinely funny and warm in the comic aspects and more devastating and sad in the catastrophic ones, unlike Oates' tone which blended comic and tragic into scenes of dark, unsettling, sometimes sadistic humor. The first works much better for a soap than the second!
All you need to do is contrast some of the Phelan escapades--like the disposing of the bodies in the concrete at the work site (in pouring rain) or the final lead in and clash at Michelle's wedding to this current catastrophe of factory collapse, villain, and wedding to see the difference. Like two different soaps!
You can see the difference too in some of the stories, dealing with character concerns and idiosyncracies, and the relaxed way they unfold. Finally, the integration of some of the smaller storylines and characters, like Alex with his tips or Mary babysitting Tyrone's kids, gives the backdrop/setting more context and density for the bigger stories.