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More instances of a person being mentioned in conversation, then almost instantly appearing as a character. Ann's daughter Pippa sashayed onto the screen shortly after Ann had finished telling Meg about her, with her enormous hair and flouncy black "designer" blouse, the turquoise and lime sash screaming across the otherwise strangely tasteful garment. Surprisingly Pippa seemed to be relatively unscathed, despite the mental cruelty she must have gone through, having a mother who couldn't seem to remember what she'd called her, since referring to her as Julie earlier in the series. No sooner had Ann and Pippa mentioned an old school friend Jenny Hartley, than who should appear - seeming to serve no immediate purpose in the plot, and I wonder where she'll end up..
Joan seemed to have been returned to her former glory a little, despite the new shorter hairdo, held in place by half a tub of Brylcreem. She was creepy and scary - her old 'interesting' self again, rather than appearing just to providing an excuse for endless "get rid of the Freak" storylines. Interesting to see new officer Terri Malone (looking suspiciously like Sharon Gilmore with a fake posh accent) getting along so well with Joan. "I owe you a favour," said the new officer, fluttering her eyelashes. And I wonder if she'll give her one.
For a while, it seemed everyone had forgotten about Judy five seconds after she'd gone out the gate (as had happened with Marlene, Sheila, Matt, Geoff and Frank). So I was impressed to see Myra paying homage to her former cell mate in the shower block, by dressing up in a big brown dressing gown, with a huge towel wrapped around her head, looking like a snow-topped mountain. Meanwhile, I couldn't help but notice Nora had a strange drawing of a hand above her bed. Very odd. Unless she was related to 'Thing' from the Addams Family, of course.
Ann was having more hassle with the police over Ruth Ballinger and her hilariously improbable demands for private phone line, bedroom furniture, colour television, etc. At least when Ann was talking to the two men, it was nice to see that George Roper (of "George & Mildred") seemed to have got himself a nice job with the police force. Ruth meanwhile was queening it up in her "glamorous" blue vertical-striped frock, somewhere between 'Dynasty' and a deckchair.
I see Meg was off to yet another trial, presumably about the attack she suffered ages ago. Blimey, hasn't that woman suffered enough..? I wish they'd put her out of her suffering and finally lay to rest that storyline that everyone else seems to have forgotten apart from the writers.
Poor Lou. After getting some very good material written for her character, and being given the chance to develop the role, she now seemed to have been reduced to pantomime villain, doing little more than making wisecracks (surprisingly without twirling a moustache), or intimidating other women by stepping on their geraniums.
Ettie was left to provide the intentional comedy relief, repeating that well-worn gag of former-inmate-trying-to-get-put-back-inside-and-failing. Unfortunately this had been done to death by the likes of Lizzie and Doreen, and may even have been funny the first few times we saw it. On this occasion the most amusing thing was the dark wig and glasses Ettie was wearing, which made her a dead ringer for the character Dick Emery used to portray in his TV programme who was always desperate to find a man.
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