Good evening. I have returned and will therefore provide a brief update of events on Friday night. Much centred around the Platt household who were having a house re-warming episode to exorcise Gail and to show off all the new furniture and decorations in the house. This is mainly a barbecue in the garden but David is keen to show off the new furniture including the table for which an oak tree died and on which Shona is not permitted to place any nibbles when the family start arriving. Audrey has decided that instead of a family party she is going to a farewell drinks do with her former neighbours in Grasmere Drive, whilst there are ructions when Shona admits to asking Leanne (who cannot make it) as Nick is keen to remind her of the sins which Leanne committed. They all express views on how they might redecorate their pads - all sound a little outrageous!
A running sore throughout the episodes is Lou (and her children) who has a run in with Maria in the first two minutes after advising Liam not to get stressed over his chemistry GCSE if he is not going to be a scientist. Later she observes Audrey put the salon cash takings (really?) in a brown envelope and give them to Shona for banking as David had forgotten to do it. Shona leaves her phone on the salon counter. Lou tells Brody that the family need to do more to fit in if living around the Street but he is not bothered, nor will he pick up the girls later so Lou leans on Tim who collapses without much resistance and agrees to look after them. Joanie and Shanice are watching television quite politely when Sal returns from work. Tim sells it to Sally as getting some practice in before the social workers appear again. Sal defers her planned beauty session and comes downstairs moaning about Tim's untidy habits and voices get raised. The two girls get quite upset. Eventually peace is restored and we learn about the arguments in the girl's house. Later Tim and Sally start wondering if Lou is a fit mother and that perhaps Lou should not be permitted to collect the girls. They believe that something must be done.
Along at Carla's flat Lisa is house hunting and staring at remote country cottages whilst Carla has her heart set on a city centre, open floor plan with a roof terrace and a coffee shop less than 2 minutes away. So this is going to be hard to achieve. Lisa is quite dismissive of the floor to ceiling windows in these loft places! Carla suggests Ancoats and apparently you need £0.5m! Betsy appears from the bedroom and the house hunting computer is rapidly closed. Betsy makes an excuse that she is seeing Dylan today so cannot go to lunch with her mother. She is of course lying and with new bestie Lauren the two of them are at the local prison waiting to see Logan Ratcliffe, although he is not so keen to see them it seems. However Steve is able to tell Lisa at lunchtime in the Rovers that Betsy and Lauren are in prison visiting someone - Highfield. Logan eventually emerges and effectively plays with her wish to know the truth - asking for money and implying he might know more than he probably does. Eventually admits he is winding Betsy up. Betsy returns home and is challenged by Lisa. After some discussion the great soap lie emerges "no more secrets" and they tell Betsy about buying a house together and that the allegation against Becky were falsified. They settle down on the sofa and start looking at properties on the interwebby thingy.
Whilst David and Nick argue over the barbecue Lou pops into return Shona's phone and gets invited to stay for a drink, Maria's body language at Lou's arrival is worth a thousand words. Gary arrives a little later with Vin Diesel which David thought had been put in the skip but it was rescued and as Gary has not sold it he donates it back to David. Gary gets himself a drink and exchanges a few words with Lou which leads to Maria storming across the garden to pick a fight with the woman chatting to her man. Gary tells her to back off. Later food is being consumed even if the courgette is completely cremated and Maria spots Lou slipping indoors. Nick proposes a toast to the Platts - love, peace and harmony. When Lou comes down from the toilet she is tempted by the salon cash and goes to Shona's bag looks at it and puts it back - Maria comes in and after exchanging words there is a scuffle. Glass smashes and Lou is lying on the remains of that nice new table.
In the interest of trying to put things right Gary, as the only sober person, takes Lou, who claims she was pushed, to hospital. He argues with Maria and Shona proves the money is still in her bag. At the hospital Lou is patched up in no time at all with a couple of stitches and Gary convinces her not to report it to the police after admitting that things are not good between him and Maria at present. He returns home where he catches David and Maria talking and he gets the hump saying that having heard both sides he reckons that Lou's story is more credible. Later Maria challenges Gary saying that he fancies her - he tells her she is being ridiculous and later he goes off in a huff. Lou phones Tim who is talked into letting them have a sleepover - so there is no-one to be able to give an alibi for either Lou or Gary so I think we can all guess what might happen next. What does happen is that the police come into the Rovers and Maria is arrested on suspicion of actual bodily harm against Louise Michaelis. .
There were some scenes involving George and Todd both pining for Eileen and Theo respectively. I think they were supposed to be comedic but sad people do not always make for strong comedy. As ever the Platt family en famille were highly entertaining and long may that continue.
Kosmo
.jpg)
