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Despite the fact that "Daphne" on the roof looked strangely thinner - with longer wig-like hair, and suspiciously male, when she wiggled and waved on the roof as she lost her balance - in terms of effects, the whole poised-to-jump sequence was quite effective, I thought. Scenes of a figure standing up high on the roof were cut with scenes of Daphne looking down onto the garden below, and scenes of Daphne standing on a red wall, and Daphne and Nora on the roof with Daphne probably standing on a box (if she were really standing on the roof edge, the cameraman would have been six feet away in mid air). I presume this sequence was a whole batch of different takes edited together, and I thought it was all done very smoothly.
Poor Joan, barely conscious and choking in thick smoke, as Terri arrived to find a peculiar black mushroom cloud emerging from what seemed like the yard somewhere away from the back of the house. Best bit of that scene had to be the caring neighbour, who arrived with an enormous pickaxe - ironically coming to see if there was anything in the house he could save from damage.
Joan was whisked back to Terri's strangely echoey flat for coffee. She was convinced the fire was part of a contract on her life, by Fellowes/Ballinger. Of course, nobody would take it seriously, and another attempt took place with one of the usual poor shot marksmen, who pulled the trigger after Joan had walked out of range, and managed to injure nothing more than the barbecue.
Fellowes was back in his purple palace, and bearing in mind his refusal to accept Joan's offer of 'inside' help from Wentworth, I was suspicious that he had found secret assistance from someone else. (That lime-green phone looked strangely familiar.) He was obviously well prepared in case of a police bust - presumably a click of a button somewhere, and those unfeasibly large shirt collars would open out, allowing him to glide away from his office window.
The henchman reported that Joan was staying with a friend "Terri Malone". Apparently he knew this (and her name) because he followed her there. Cor, the things you can learn just by walking up to someone's front gate.
After going to great lengths to show her "caring" side, and her "tough" side, Nora played another well-used Top Dog card. "It'll keep," she glared at Lou, using what must be a standard Top Dog catchphrase.
Joyce and Mervin were getting stuck into domestic bliss ("Who's for the last potato cake..?") and other pleasures of living together ("Mervin, you're putting grease all over my blouse.."). That was, until the squabbles began over whose kitchen utensils should grace the back room. I noticed Joyce referred to Mervin (in front of the women) as "Mr Pringle", which reminded me how he shares a name with a potato snack.
As ever, Joyce was still able to wander around, and walk into a room with a dangerous man with a big gun (Frank Burke) without noticing him. Plus ca change.
Frank Burke was out to get Dennis. "He's got a hit list," someone said. I remember his previous hit list - a comedy shopping list of about 5 names in big writing. I can just see his new one. When he got a lift with the pretty farm girl, he commented on her not being afraid to pick him up. "Oh well, you don't look too dangerous," she said happily. Presumably, leering, shifty weasle-like men with big guns are two-a-penny in their part of the country.
As for tracking down Dennis' home address, he was able to simply look him up in a phone book. Er, having a high-risk job working with dangerous criminals, who have contacts on the outside, and who eventually get out.. would you not want to be listed ex-directory? Anyway, it didn't matter much, because despite the fact that a dangerous escaped criminal was on his way to kill an officer, he simply phoned up the prison and Pat Slattery gave him all the details he wanted. Blimey, almost as hard as taking over the prison in a siege.
Daphne continues to be developed, with Sister Hall and Ann deciding she needed Super-Psychiatrist Dr Weissmann to come along and figure out the mystery of why she got tense once a month. Sister Hall wondered if it could be PMS - well, there's something I’d never have seen coming. Apparently her old doctor didn't believe there was any such thing, and it was all an excuse for making trouble, said Sister Hall, appearing surprising more tetchy and annoyed than usual.
Actually, Daphne had quite a nice scene with – of all people - Jenny Hartley. I liked the piano sequence - with the two of them making friends while playing chopsticks on the piano. It was almost moving to see the characters looking genuinely happy for once, and I thought it was a nice touch.
Dennis' flat seemed to have very strange electrics, from what I noticed. There appeared to be two electric sockets on the wall, with (black) electric plugs in them, whose wires disappeared into the wall about an inch below the sockets. Very odd.
Jenny had a visit from Mrs Overall - unfortunately with no GASP!s to over-do this time - with interesting revelations by "George the Gardener", which Jenny relayed to Ann later.
Ann: "No-one would be happier than me to see you cleared." Oh yes they would, I thought. Me.
The final scene saw Dennis coming home all sugary and revolting, kissing a startled-looking and silent Meg, as Frank appeared with a gun behind her. I thought this was quite a good scene with a nice shock attached. And to be fair, Meg's performance was very good here - she looked quite convincingly scared. Interesting stuff.
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