Against her better judgement, Liz let Steve stay at her house, though she knew he was lying about his innocence. Steve then made things worse by trying to talk to Vicky; she'd been warned by Uncle Nick that he might try to make her take the fall so she got Deirdre to chuck him out. Jack and Fred were trying to raise money to pay for the horse's vet bills, and left a donation box on the bar, which was soon thrown back in their face as it wasn't a proper charity. Vera was more intent on spending their money on a holiday - if she could find someone to mind the bar for her. Fred took Rita to a friend's funeral, much to Alf's consternation, and then took her to tea afterwards. He talked about his late wife and gained her sympathies.
TUESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 10th and 13th May 1996
The Duckworths' holiday arrangements continued to cause problems. Betty agreed to move into the Rovers and cover for their absence, mainly to prove Billy wrong, because he reckoned she refused because she was worried he'd drink the profits. Meanwhile, Jamie agreed to look after the pigeons for a tenner, which he spent on groceries; a move that Tricia found touching, and I found desperately sad. Jim tried to talk some sense into Steve, telling him about how awful prison was, but he refused to listen and continued to stalk Vicky. He caught her outside the travel agents' and told her he loved her and was sorry he caused her troubles... then walked away with a smirk. Maureen received a visitor: Yvonne, Reg's pregnant girlfriend. She demanded that she give Reg a divorce instead of holding him hostage. It turned out Reg had told her a load of lies, and Maureen felt sorry for her, agreeing to a divorce in exchange for the shop. You're well shot of him, Mo.
WEDNESDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 15th and 17th May 1996
Des had a new girlfriend, a single mother called Claire, and he took her out to dinner while wearing a truly appalling jacket. She talked about her dead husband in a real mood killer. At home, Des started winding up Derek, who'd dug up part of his garden to grow prize-winning turnips. Des said he was going to grow turnips as well just to annoy him. Kelly wanted to become a live-in nanny at number 1 and so she invited her mum - played by Victoria Wood legend Lill Roughley - round to inspect the house. Her mother was a bit of a snob but Ken buttered her up. Tricia cleaned up the now-vacant factory unit for Mike Baldwin, not realising that some men from the DHSS were watching, and Billy got drunk on customer's tips behind the bar at the Rovers and showed up Betty by banging away on the piano.
THURSDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 20th and 22nd May 1996
Vicky overheard Kevin and Jim slagging her off and confronted them. Jim told her that she'd bought Steve, using her cash to sway him away from Fiona, and if she'd said no once in a while they wouldn't be in this trouble. A depressed Vicky considered withdrawing her evidence and taking all the blame because she wouldn't be able to live with herself if Steve went down. Honestly love, get over yourself. Meanwhile a cocky Steve was convinced she'd chicken out and he'd get away with it all. Tricia's benefits were cut off for working under the counter. Distraught, she stormed into the factory, and begged Mike Baldwin for some work. He told her to get lost but Josie intervened and threatened to walk out unless he helped her. Des met Claire's daughter Becky, played by Emily Aston, Chesney's real-life big sister. She was grumpy and miserable but Claire told him she'd come round eventually. I cannot convey to you how dull these new characters are.
FRIDAY - Episodes originally broadcast 24th and 27th May 1996
I have wonderful news: this tedious storyline with Steve handling stolen whisky is done with. Vicky finally broke down in court and confessed that it was all Steve's idea and he got locked up for two years. Vicky got a twelve month suspended sentence, which angered Liz because she thought Vicky should've done more to help him, clearly overlooking the fact that he was guilty as sin. Even worse, the trauma of his sentence meant Liz and Jim got closer to one another, which literally nobody wants to see. Tricia managed to persuade Mike to give her a job, mainly because he realised if she was unemployed he wouldn't get any rent out of her. The Duckworths returned from their holiday with a pair of castanets as a thank you to Betty for looking after the pub; they also brought back some terrible Spanish-themed caricatures that they insisted on showing to all and sundry. They went through the books to check how things went while they were away, causing Betty to do that indignant shirking of her bosom, and discovered that the takings were actually up. Perhaps more people visited the pub when they could be sure they wouldn't be verbally assaulted by Vera? And Martin found a volunteer to help Alma so that Gail could have a week off: Mr Royston Cropper. Unsurprisingly, he turned out to be a bit of a star behind the counter, coming up with ideas to stop people smoking in the cafe and prevent the salt from going damp. I suspect he might want to make that a more permanent arrangement.
There was also a load of nonsense about Kelly badgering Ken to buy a car but as you can imagine with any storyline involving those two it was duller than an afternoon in Widnes. Any complaints to me on Twitter @merseytart.
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3 comments:
I found it quite disturbing the way Jim and then Liz tried to blame Vicky for Steve’s wrongdoings. What with this and some people thinking Jim had done nothing wrong in hitting and abandoning Liz makes me question the writers’ ethics.
Jim is a truly awful person, and the script writers would have written his part to reflect that. Also the storylines portrayed the time before we were more aware of victim blaming. Not long ago Raquel was attacked by Leo Firman and it wasn't until someone else said that she had been attacked too that anyone believed Raquel.
Ps, apart from Curly of course.
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