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The episode where Marlene is transformed from red-haired Little Orphan Annie, to a towering Bride of Frankenstein. Starting off where the last episode finished, with Frank waving a chairleg at Myra and Geoff in the prison library (where the books are the only things that never seem to get stamped). Myra raised a chair and brought it down on Frank, when it instantly shattered into hundreds of tiny delicate pieces. Thank god she hadn't decided to sit on it instead. "Bit queer it being in the library though," mused Dennis, about the fight, afterwards. "I mean, that's where Joan got bashed." Along with Pixie I thought, and Matt, and probably several others too. Interesting also that he put "Joan" and "queer" in the same utterance. I hear she used to be a lesbian once. Perhaps she forgot.
"Get your things together," said the not-seen-for-a-while male officer, in perhaps his only line in the series. What a pity his big moment was overshadowed by Frank going berserk, lashing out and threatening to "kill the bloody lot of you". Lucky that Sister Hall had a handy syringe full of tranquilizer ready to hand. Might have been awful if they'd had to wait for her to find the key to the drugs cabinet, unlock it, get a syringe, fix a needle to it, fill it with a drug, then inject the raving Frank.
Strange little detail I noticed while Matt and Marlene were talking in the corridor. One of the "bricks" in the wall behind Matt had the word "Home" scrawled on it. Very strange piece of graffiti, if that's what it was.
Nice to see Bobbie making a guest appearance, even if it did look as though she'd got Marlene's wedding confused with a New Year party, and arrived in fancy dress Hilda Ogden curlers and headscarf. Strange to see her in the pink frilly bridesmaid dress later - it gave me a strong feeling of deja vu, from the time she broke into the house to rescue little sister Cheryl, wearing a frilly pink blouse that wasn't so far removed from this outfit. Other people had made an effort too, of course. Meg was presumably going as a children's entertainer, with her big clown-collar blouse. Ann was sporting a new hairdo specially for the event. And Matt seemed to be wearing a whole can of hairspray on his head, in the scene with Geoff in their cell. Thankfully it seemed to have disappeared by the next scene. Loved Matt's Mum's hair, too - like a huge ginger crows nest. While Marlene's Mum was doing what she does best - her fabulous Dame Edna impersonations ("Maw-liiine..").
I liked the reference to Pixie at the wedding, when one of her lucky horseshoe things was chosen as the "something blue". (Certainly more tasteful than one of Leigh Templar's videos, I guess.) A far more appropriate and moving tribute to the character than the plot-device song that had more to do with Judy and Sheila than Pixie herself, or the schmaltz-fest of old clips we were subjected to during this episode.
As for the wedding service itself, how strange to hear the wedding march played on the synthesizer that was probably the same one responsible for most of the weird noises and incidental music. Poor Matt was standing at the 'altar', while something frilly, 8 feet tall and heavy loomed up behind him, reminding me of an old B-movie horror film. How about that veil - was that not one of the funniest things to grace your television set in ages? I kept waiting for her to stand and say "weeeeed", while Matt and Geoff would respond with "flobbalobbalob".
Best line of the whole episode had to go to Marlene's worse-for-wear father, when he said in his speech: "And so when the time comes, my daughter will head for the country, so that young Matt can raise his nuts." (!)
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