Daran Little delivers, as he usually does, but the stars of this episode were the brilliant Ann Mitchell and the sometimes infuriating June Brown.
The Dot-and-Cora Show.
Boy, there were a lof of home truths flying about tonight, none moreso than between these two grandes dames of the Square.
I know a lot of people revere Dot as the institution she is, but as a character, I often find her frustrating and annoying. Everything Cora said to her tonight about her martyr complex rang true. Dot revels in overt suffering. In Dot's world of mediaeval Christianity, you really do suffer for your sins, and Dot's sins have been killing Nick (as she thinks she's done) and being the cause of Jim's death by ignoring him for the last few months of Nick's life.
As she said at the beginning of this episode, she doesn't deserve comfort, but that's in Dot's own mind. In another day and time and under another religion, Dot would wear a hair shirt next to her skin and have saints' knees from praying so much.
All credit to Dominic Treadwell-Collins for the utterly beautiful transformation of Cora from the shallow, Granny Goodwitch, alcoholic ASBO granny to the lonely woman who drinks to forget the memory of the husband she's lost and who's found love even later in life with another man who's died. From being a character I reviled, Cora's become one of my favourite characters, and I'll miss her when she goes.
Cora is being evicted, just to add to her sense of isolation and bereavement at Stan's death. In a New York minute, the family she had around her seems to have disintegrated. Tanya's in Devon, Ava's in Newcastle (Thank God for that) and Rainie is anyplace. Lauren's in New Zealand, and Dexter is best forgotten. Abi's spends more time with Ben than she does Cora, and when Cora invites her to come upstairs to her flat for a bit, Abi demurs as she's going to the prison with Saint Sonia to visit Dots.
(The downside of this episode was the presence of the current resident Wise Women of Walford, meting out words of wisdom, when they are two of the most pejorative characters on the show. I mean Saint Sonia and Jane the Queen ...)
Sonia enlists Abi on the mission to convince Dot to attend Jim's funeral, but Dot is adamant that she isn't going. She doesn't deserve to see Jim, not even to say good-bye. I found Sonia's attitude nothing short of patronising toward Dot, implying that Dot's behaviour has everything to do with the shock of Jim's death.
Dot soon puts Sonia's arse straight. Line of the night to Dot:-
I'm not in shock, I'm in prison, where I belong.
Sonia may be in shock about Jim, but Dot was a regular witness to his decline - three times a week, week after week (under Newman, she was visiting every day) for four years. She saw him falter, and she didn't need a funeral service in order to say goodbye. Poignantly, she relates that every time she took leave of Jim at the care home, the thought crossed her mind that it would be the last time they saw each other, and he thought the same. As a means of goodbye, they would silently hold hands for a moment before Dot would leave.
Dot was the bone of contention regarding Jim's funeral tonight, and Cora was the ignored part of Stan's funeral, as well as having a link with Dot. As the episode progressed, Cora felt more and more isolated - railing at Abi for choosing Dot over her blood kin, being pointedly ignored by all the Carters in their grief, listening to Shirley and Carol banter in the Minute Mart about doing a two-for-one funeral with Stan and Jim.
One in and one out.
She's even put in her place by that evil old scrote Babe, making sure that Cora knows that there's only room for six in the funeral limo, and Cora isn't counted amongst the six.
She's galvanised into visiting Dot, herself, when Sonia and Abi are adamant about attending the funeral, over Max's doubt, for "Grandma Dot." The worst part of that confrontation, as everyonne, including Dot, kept reminding Cora that she'd only known Stan for a few months, as opposed to Dot and Jim, who'd been married for thirteen years.
That was a bit unfair, I felt. When Stan met Cora, he knew that he was dying. He also sussed that Cora was afraid of confronting anyone else's mortality, and he chose to end his life with Cora as his lady. It's not the quantity of time, it's the quality of time spent with each other, and one of the first things Dot did, after Jim's stroke, was consign him to a care home, not once but twice.
Without a doubt, the extended confrontation between Dot and Cora was the highlight of the episode. Home truths abounded. Cora was spot on when she described Dot as putting on the frail old lady martyr act, which ignites everyone's concern immediately and has everyone running to do her bidding.
Here's a memory of the last time we saw Jim:-
The stage is set between the two prima donnas as basic jealousy between two grandmothers. Cora's jealous that Abi seems to be overly fond of Dot, and Dot almost preens when she remarks that perhaps that was because Dot was the only grandmother around when Abi was a small child.
Cora's assessment of Dot is pretty damned apt:-
A selfish, stubborn, hypocrite playing the frail, old biddy card.
(No one does precise dialogue like Daran Little).
The ensuing sniping is beautiful to behold - Cora accusing Dot of manipulating everyone from within the prison just to make them overly concerned about her, Dot not even knowing who Stan was at first, and then being totally unaware of the fact that he and Cora were engaged. (Why would she? She's in prison). Then Dot realises that Cora's not going to Stan's funeral and why: Is it because Stan's family don't want her there?
Dot parries ... Cora can't begin to compare what she had with Stan, whom she'd only known five minutes. She and Jim were together for thirteen years, Jim badgered her for months before she accepted him.
Cora thrusts ... She knows the reason Dot is refusing to attend Jim's funeral. Self-immolation. Dot's punishing herself.
'Cause that's what this is all about isn't it? Carrying that wooden cross up that hill.
Ever since Cora's known Dot, Dot's been carrying herself to the nursing home, acting the martyr, and it's Cora who voices the truest truth of all - that Dot doesn't care that Jim is dead, because he's been dead to Dot for years.
Wow. Such powerful dialogue and a lot of truth within Cora's words. And even more to come. Dot reverts to her trademark self-pity - she doesn't need any judge to condemn her, she knows what he's done. Cora hits it - whatever Dot's "done", she's making her family suffer. Then suddenly Cora relents. She knows Dot loved Jim; but Cora loved Stan, and his family were shutting her out, not even treating her as if she were significant to the piece.
Dot tells Cora to go to Stan's funeral and let his family see how much she loved him, then they might accept her as part of their family; but Cora doesn't want a new family. She has three daughters, which elicits further self-pity from Dot, who moans that she was a mother, then a wife and now she's nothing. (What? No grandmother? No great-grandmother?) Both women declare a stalemate and are determined not to roll over to their fate.
Cora returns to the Vic and informs Mick and Co that she's attending the funeral in the lead car with them. She also informs them that Dean's returned to the Square.
Dot's about to go to the funeral.
Daddy Dearest: The Brannings.
The Brannings' circuitous route to Jim's funeral continued. Absent members got a mention tonight. We learned about April and "her lot" so it appears that somewhere in the past twenty years, April drummed up a husband and a couple of kids. Then there was Suzy and her lot. Of course, neither of them are coming, no reason given. Robbie's too far away in India, and Bianca's on holiday. No mention of Jack, but Carol's got food for the five thousand - Walford will be spoiled for choice - the Carter clinch or the Branning bash, for which Ian has provided the wine, at cost.
But the Brannings, Carol and Max, are going round and round in circles over Jim. Max doesn't want to go. He's actually glad that his old man is dead. He didn't like him when he was alive, why should he grieve now that he's dead?
In fact, why should he even go to the funeral if Dot can't be bothered? Then, we're treated to Abi's rant about Jim always being nice to her and how she'd miss him and they should all be there for Dot. In fact, Abi's found Jim's old flat cap to put on the coffin.
Out of this mire, we ascertained that Max is having some cashflow problems, and Phil seems to be relishing it.
Daddy Dearest: The Carters.
Babe is gross. Simply gross and cruel. Fine, to see the corpse for a final goodbye, but Babe kissed his lips.
Fifty years I've waited to kiss that man and when I finally get to kiss his lips, they're cold with death.
Not being funny, but this is the sort of stuff - kissing the corpse - that's done in very rural communities in the very deep South of the United States. Stan hated Babe, yet she's milking his passing for all that it's worth. Trifle at a wake?
It was his famourite. She sniffs.
The Carters are all on edge, Linda more than most because of Dean not being charged, but once again, she's the adult in the room and puts everything aside for Stan. I wish they'd stop regressing Nancy emotionally. She's twenty-one and has never been to a funeral. That may be plausible, but her asking about what happens and Babe's pithy "you sing a couple of hymns and then the coffin goes behind a curtain" and Nancy being under the assumption that you actually watched the coffin go in the fire reminded me of that awful episode where Heather was planning George's christening and thought the christening was a party at the church.
Downer of the night went to Shirley. I can't believe, after Linda's effort at reconciling her and Mick on Friday, that she was callous enough to inform Linda, quite coldly and matter-of-factly, that she was collecting Dean, bringing him back to the Square, booting and suiting him and taking him to the funeral. Not enough evidence by the CPS, for Shirley, means Linda was lying. (It doesn't mean Dean is innocent; it simply means that there isn't enough evidence to prosecute him).
Linda can't bring herself to tell Mick and runs to Sharon for reassurance.
That was a brief scene, but it was packed with nuance, even if Jane the Queen stank it up. Loads of layers there - Sharon's wearing Angie's earrings. (I took exception to Sharon clarifying that those earrings were her "mum's" then correcting herself to refer to her mother as "Angie, not my birth mum.") At least Daran Little got the term right, but there should have been no need for clarification. Angie was Sharon's mother; Carol Stretton Hanley gave birth to her. That was followed by Sharon's sotto vocesoliloquy about funerals, which - from the look on Jane the Queen's face - hit squarely home with her: Funerals make you think about all the people you've lost, and those you didn't know (a foreshadowing of Gavin Sullivan looming on the horizon?)
Linda enters the fray with news of Dean's release, and Daran Little captured her predicament perfectly. This makes her seem like a liar, as if what she said happened, didn't happen. She struggles to understand why they didn't press charges, and now Dean will be back to taunt her and Mick. It's as if she didn't matter. (Well, to many of us, it seems as if she doesn't matter to DTC; it's all about Shirley, Mick and Dean).
From the demeanor of Shirley and Buster Bloodvessel ...
... it's obvious that they believe in Dean's innocence, which means they believe that Linda's a liar - a thought perversely echoed by Ian Beale, who reckons nothing of the sort of a rape happened, and when Sharon shuts his mouth, he whines that that's what everyone's thinking. Is it? Does everyone think Linda is lying about Dean?
Well, Linda isn't lying, which is why she's come to Patrick's house to confront him.
Dean seriously needs to go. Along with his putrid parents.
Good episode.
The Dot-and-Cora Show.
Boy, there were a lof of home truths flying about tonight, none moreso than between these two grandes dames of the Square.
I know a lot of people revere Dot as the institution she is, but as a character, I often find her frustrating and annoying. Everything Cora said to her tonight about her martyr complex rang true. Dot revels in overt suffering. In Dot's world of mediaeval Christianity, you really do suffer for your sins, and Dot's sins have been killing Nick (as she thinks she's done) and being the cause of Jim's death by ignoring him for the last few months of Nick's life.
As she said at the beginning of this episode, she doesn't deserve comfort, but that's in Dot's own mind. In another day and time and under another religion, Dot would wear a hair shirt next to her skin and have saints' knees from praying so much.
All credit to Dominic Treadwell-Collins for the utterly beautiful transformation of Cora from the shallow, Granny Goodwitch, alcoholic ASBO granny to the lonely woman who drinks to forget the memory of the husband she's lost and who's found love even later in life with another man who's died. From being a character I reviled, Cora's become one of my favourite characters, and I'll miss her when she goes.
Cora is being evicted, just to add to her sense of isolation and bereavement at Stan's death. In a New York minute, the family she had around her seems to have disintegrated. Tanya's in Devon, Ava's in Newcastle (Thank God for that) and Rainie is anyplace. Lauren's in New Zealand, and Dexter is best forgotten. Abi's spends more time with Ben than she does Cora, and when Cora invites her to come upstairs to her flat for a bit, Abi demurs as she's going to the prison with Saint Sonia to visit Dots.
(The downside of this episode was the presence of the current resident Wise Women of Walford, meting out words of wisdom, when they are two of the most pejorative characters on the show. I mean Saint Sonia and Jane the Queen ...)
Sonia enlists Abi on the mission to convince Dot to attend Jim's funeral, but Dot is adamant that she isn't going. She doesn't deserve to see Jim, not even to say good-bye. I found Sonia's attitude nothing short of patronising toward Dot, implying that Dot's behaviour has everything to do with the shock of Jim's death.
Dot soon puts Sonia's arse straight. Line of the night to Dot:-
I'm not in shock, I'm in prison, where I belong.
Sonia may be in shock about Jim, but Dot was a regular witness to his decline - three times a week, week after week (under Newman, she was visiting every day) for four years. She saw him falter, and she didn't need a funeral service in order to say goodbye. Poignantly, she relates that every time she took leave of Jim at the care home, the thought crossed her mind that it would be the last time they saw each other, and he thought the same. As a means of goodbye, they would silently hold hands for a moment before Dot would leave.
Dot was the bone of contention regarding Jim's funeral tonight, and Cora was the ignored part of Stan's funeral, as well as having a link with Dot. As the episode progressed, Cora felt more and more isolated - railing at Abi for choosing Dot over her blood kin, being pointedly ignored by all the Carters in their grief, listening to Shirley and Carol banter in the Minute Mart about doing a two-for-one funeral with Stan and Jim.
One in and one out.
She's even put in her place by that evil old scrote Babe, making sure that Cora knows that there's only room for six in the funeral limo, and Cora isn't counted amongst the six.
She's galvanised into visiting Dot, herself, when Sonia and Abi are adamant about attending the funeral, over Max's doubt, for "Grandma Dot." The worst part of that confrontation, as everyonne, including Dot, kept reminding Cora that she'd only known Stan for a few months, as opposed to Dot and Jim, who'd been married for thirteen years.
That was a bit unfair, I felt. When Stan met Cora, he knew that he was dying. He also sussed that Cora was afraid of confronting anyone else's mortality, and he chose to end his life with Cora as his lady. It's not the quantity of time, it's the quality of time spent with each other, and one of the first things Dot did, after Jim's stroke, was consign him to a care home, not once but twice.
Without a doubt, the extended confrontation between Dot and Cora was the highlight of the episode. Home truths abounded. Cora was spot on when she described Dot as putting on the frail old lady martyr act, which ignites everyone's concern immediately and has everyone running to do her bidding.
Here's a memory of the last time we saw Jim:-
The stage is set between the two prima donnas as basic jealousy between two grandmothers. Cora's jealous that Abi seems to be overly fond of Dot, and Dot almost preens when she remarks that perhaps that was because Dot was the only grandmother around when Abi was a small child.
Cora's assessment of Dot is pretty damned apt:-
A selfish, stubborn, hypocrite playing the frail, old biddy card.
(No one does precise dialogue like Daran Little).
The ensuing sniping is beautiful to behold - Cora accusing Dot of manipulating everyone from within the prison just to make them overly concerned about her, Dot not even knowing who Stan was at first, and then being totally unaware of the fact that he and Cora were engaged. (Why would she? She's in prison). Then Dot realises that Cora's not going to Stan's funeral and why: Is it because Stan's family don't want her there?
Dot parries ... Cora can't begin to compare what she had with Stan, whom she'd only known five minutes. She and Jim were together for thirteen years, Jim badgered her for months before she accepted him.
Cora thrusts ... She knows the reason Dot is refusing to attend Jim's funeral. Self-immolation. Dot's punishing herself.
'Cause that's what this is all about isn't it? Carrying that wooden cross up that hill.
Ever since Cora's known Dot, Dot's been carrying herself to the nursing home, acting the martyr, and it's Cora who voices the truest truth of all - that Dot doesn't care that Jim is dead, because he's been dead to Dot for years.
Wow. Such powerful dialogue and a lot of truth within Cora's words. And even more to come. Dot reverts to her trademark self-pity - she doesn't need any judge to condemn her, she knows what he's done. Cora hits it - whatever Dot's "done", she's making her family suffer. Then suddenly Cora relents. She knows Dot loved Jim; but Cora loved Stan, and his family were shutting her out, not even treating her as if she were significant to the piece.
Dot tells Cora to go to Stan's funeral and let his family see how much she loved him, then they might accept her as part of their family; but Cora doesn't want a new family. She has three daughters, which elicits further self-pity from Dot, who moans that she was a mother, then a wife and now she's nothing. (What? No grandmother? No great-grandmother?) Both women declare a stalemate and are determined not to roll over to their fate.
Cora returns to the Vic and informs Mick and Co that she's attending the funeral in the lead car with them. She also informs them that Dean's returned to the Square.
Dot's about to go to the funeral.
Daddy Dearest: The Brannings.
The Brannings' circuitous route to Jim's funeral continued. Absent members got a mention tonight. We learned about April and "her lot" so it appears that somewhere in the past twenty years, April drummed up a husband and a couple of kids. Then there was Suzy and her lot. Of course, neither of them are coming, no reason given. Robbie's too far away in India, and Bianca's on holiday. No mention of Jack, but Carol's got food for the five thousand - Walford will be spoiled for choice - the Carter clinch or the Branning bash, for which Ian has provided the wine, at cost.
But the Brannings, Carol and Max, are going round and round in circles over Jim. Max doesn't want to go. He's actually glad that his old man is dead. He didn't like him when he was alive, why should he grieve now that he's dead?
In fact, why should he even go to the funeral if Dot can't be bothered? Then, we're treated to Abi's rant about Jim always being nice to her and how she'd miss him and they should all be there for Dot. In fact, Abi's found Jim's old flat cap to put on the coffin.
Out of this mire, we ascertained that Max is having some cashflow problems, and Phil seems to be relishing it.
Daddy Dearest: The Carters.
Babe is gross. Simply gross and cruel. Fine, to see the corpse for a final goodbye, but Babe kissed his lips.
Fifty years I've waited to kiss that man and when I finally get to kiss his lips, they're cold with death.
Not being funny, but this is the sort of stuff - kissing the corpse - that's done in very rural communities in the very deep South of the United States. Stan hated Babe, yet she's milking his passing for all that it's worth. Trifle at a wake?
It was his famourite. She sniffs.
The Carters are all on edge, Linda more than most because of Dean not being charged, but once again, she's the adult in the room and puts everything aside for Stan. I wish they'd stop regressing Nancy emotionally. She's twenty-one and has never been to a funeral. That may be plausible, but her asking about what happens and Babe's pithy "you sing a couple of hymns and then the coffin goes behind a curtain" and Nancy being under the assumption that you actually watched the coffin go in the fire reminded me of that awful episode where Heather was planning George's christening and thought the christening was a party at the church.
Downer of the night went to Shirley. I can't believe, after Linda's effort at reconciling her and Mick on Friday, that she was callous enough to inform Linda, quite coldly and matter-of-factly, that she was collecting Dean, bringing him back to the Square, booting and suiting him and taking him to the funeral. Not enough evidence by the CPS, for Shirley, means Linda was lying. (It doesn't mean Dean is innocent; it simply means that there isn't enough evidence to prosecute him).
Linda can't bring herself to tell Mick and runs to Sharon for reassurance.
That was a brief scene, but it was packed with nuance, even if Jane the Queen stank it up. Loads of layers there - Sharon's wearing Angie's earrings. (I took exception to Sharon clarifying that those earrings were her "mum's" then correcting herself to refer to her mother as "Angie, not my birth mum.") At least Daran Little got the term right, but there should have been no need for clarification. Angie was Sharon's mother; Carol Stretton Hanley gave birth to her. That was followed by Sharon's sotto vocesoliloquy about funerals, which - from the look on Jane the Queen's face - hit squarely home with her: Funerals make you think about all the people you've lost, and those you didn't know (a foreshadowing of Gavin Sullivan looming on the horizon?)
Linda enters the fray with news of Dean's release, and Daran Little captured her predicament perfectly. This makes her seem like a liar, as if what she said happened, didn't happen. She struggles to understand why they didn't press charges, and now Dean will be back to taunt her and Mick. It's as if she didn't matter. (Well, to many of us, it seems as if she doesn't matter to DTC; it's all about Shirley, Mick and Dean).
From the demeanor of Shirley and Buster Bloodvessel ...
... it's obvious that they believe in Dean's innocence, which means they believe that Linda's a liar - a thought perversely echoed by Ian Beale, who reckons nothing of the sort of a rape happened, and when Sharon shuts his mouth, he whines that that's what everyone's thinking. Is it? Does everyone think Linda is lying about Dean?
Well, Linda isn't lying, which is why she's come to Patrick's house to confront him.
Dean seriously needs to go. Along with his putrid parents.
Good episode.
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