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Picking up from where we left off, we saw the aftermath of a cruel and murderous rampage. No, not the Ballinger siege, I mean in Daphne's cell, where Bertie the Begonia and friends lay strewn horribly all over the floor. The women decided to look for the missing "Daffy" (as May seemed to call her). Nora instructed Lexie to "look near solitary". I was amazed (ok, only slightly surprised, this is Prisoner) that inmates would be able to get anywhere near the pound - the isolation being part of the point of it - especially after three or four men in Action Man costumes were able to literally walk in and hold the inmates and staff hostage. Meanwhile, we found Daphne on the roof, swaying in the gale force winds, on the edge of the main building. (I was hoping she wasn't going to metamorphosise into sandbags and fall rather unconvincingly to the floor, a la Leanne Burke). Apparently the women had been looking for Daphne "for hours", so presumably Daphne had been perched on the parapet contemplating whether to jump or not, for all those hours too. But if she had any doubts about whether to do it or not, the awful "Jaws" type music that came on during her next scene would have given most people that little shove they needed.
"How can we explain sending another prisoner up there instead of a trained officer?" grumbled Inspector Grace, bulging out of his straining red polo shirt and looking surprisingly like a professional darts player. I would have expected them to be more worried about explaining how an inmate got up there in the first place.
So Nora talked gently to Daphne on the roof, as strange angelic-sounding music played, with harmonies of "aaaaaaaahs". I couldn't help wondering if the scene was a (slightly unsubtle) mechanism for demonstrating Nora is 'caring' about the other women - you know, like the good Top Dogs are. Whereas last episode, we got to see her suddenly spring to life and shoot one of the baddies, demonstrating how she is 'tough' - just like Top Dogs usually are (apart from Minnie Donovan, of course, but I've given up even trying to work that one out). Has she done "fair" yet?
Meanwhile, Daphne was quietly trying to express her thoughts. "Maybe they forgot what it's like to be a kid," she said, talking about when she'd got into trouble as a child. I thought that was a very interesting line, as Daphne clearly hadn't forgotten - in fact she’d never really stopped being one. Her comments about being sexually abused as a child, told in the way a child might express it, were very moving I thought, and I felt the scene was nicely done.
Mervin was back to being irritating, I noticed, but I couldn't help but laugh at his scene with Meg and Dennis in the staff room..
Mervin: "I want to talk to you both alone. You see, Joyce and I have finally decided to do it."
Meg: "Do what?"
Mervin: "Mind you, I wouldn't ask just anyone. Some people don't think it's right before you're married."
What an unpleasant thought.. almost as unsavoury as the image of someone "buttering up a screw" that was mentioned somewhere in the episode.
Nice little reference to "Marlene Delaney" (nee Warren) I thought, when she was mentioned (along with Geoff) for phoning the prison.
Meg picked up some monstrosity on the coffee table, which Dennis informed her was "an old school trophy. I won it for amateur acting." Something it seems he'd managed to keep going since then. Did Aunty May knit that awful beige cardie he'd taken to wearing? It's tasteless enough, though I don't think beige is really her style, and it seems far too fuddy-duddy even for her. To go with his dreary knitted cardie (and no doubt slippers - and we've seen him wearing that dreadful flat cap thing), he decided to lull Meg into romantic bliss by playing a record of dull muzak-like piano music with some kind of whiny instrument all over it. Surprisingly she managed to stay awake long enough for him to impress her with his ring. (No, not another slap & tickle scene.)
So Frank Burke had escaped, and mentioned once that he was going to "get" Dennis..? Ooo-er, sounds very exciting. Is the Yawn-shire Pud finally going to get a storyline that's memorable for more than his wife's bizarre accent..? Can't wait.
Lots of new extras in the background I noticed this episode. The return of the Lizzie-lookalike (where was she during the siege? On holiday, perhaps?), and a new Chinese-looking one. Strangely, other non-white characters have always seemed to get a lot of racist abuse (Yemil Bakarta, and later Sarah West) but presumably Lou and co hadn't noticed this one among the inmates.
Alice (Lurch) was back, and after the build-up about how p*ssed off she would be at Lou, with having to "take the rap" for her (which we found out was a hefty 10 years!) I was surprised to see her talking to Ms Kelly and looking little more than a bit miffed. Oh well, she looks as though she's going to get more involved in this Council thing, so hopefully that will let the actress develop the character a bit, at last.
Amazing interview scene with Jenny Hartley, who appeared to be being interviewed by none other than Sir Robin Cook. Obviously a more important political figure than I'd imagined. Except of course, Sir Robin doesn't sound to me as though he's reading his lines from an autocue. Loved the way he leaned forward, and in the middle of a sentence, his stick-on visitor badge pinged off!
Joan was recovering at home, and I was disturbed to see she still had the biege sack-of-potatoes pyjama/polo shirt thing, last seen during the Shane era. What was worse was the perfectely matching beige sheets, which made her almost camouflaged when she laid on them. All that black smoke billowing up from under the bedroom door - I thought the safety commercials on local radio were always telling us that most people became unconscious after inhaling smoke fumes, and died that way, rather than waking up. (Hence the "get yourself a fire alarm" message.) Lucky Joan has an ultra-sensitive sense of smell or something.
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