There's a brilliant discussion going on at the moment on Digital Spy about whether or not Shirley should have grassed Phil in order to get justice for Heather. Most of the contributors make valid and articulate points. On the other hand, there were two contributors who keep making ... well, pretty inane points, really.
It's a really great thread, and it got me thinking about Shirley. Almost the entire ethos of her existence since March has been an undying quest for Heather's killer and anyone involved in her murder to be brought to justice. But even Shirley has admitted that part of this quest is out of an inate sense of guilt she feels at having repeatedly let Heather down on her side of the friendship. In fact, she let Heather down as late as 24 hours before what was supposed to be her wedding.
Shirley let a lot of people down.
catsmeow, troll and Ignorati of the Week, refuses to judge Shirley (whilst sitting in judgement on Sharon) because she claims not to know or want to know Shirley's history. Not only is that stupid, it's sheer bullshit.
Shirley's history reflects what she is today. Shirley and Heather were friends, but - as Heather referenced many times - whenever Shirley caught a guy's eye, Heather became a nuisance. Shirley was the sort of best friend who dropped all the girlfriends when a guy came along and expected to be welcomed back into the girlfriend fold when the guy dumped her. Shirley dumped Heather when she got involved with Kevin; and Shirley dumped Kevin and the kids when being a wife and mother became too much of a bore for her.
In point of fact, Shirley's abandonment of her children and of Kevin was never explored sufficiently. Dean was a baby when she left, and James was disabled. Was she suffering from PND? When she returned some eighteen years later, it was obvious she was still in love with Kevin, who'd shouldered all the hard work in raising the kids. She didn't even know James had died. Yet she expected Dean and Carly to welcome Mummy with opened arms, and she was bereft when Kevin died in her arms, thinking only of Denise.
Yet Shirley left her husband and children in the 1980s in order to take up with Heather again as a couple of ageing party girls. And that's how they lived - Heather, the eternal child, doing her mummy Queenie's bidding, when she wasn't doing Shirl's. And from time to time, Shirl abandoned Heather for whatever man happened to take her fancy.
It's often been referenced, grudgingly by Shirley, that she "looked after" Heather. In fact, on the last day of Heather's life, she snarled at her that she "wasn't looking after her anymore." Heather was a surrogate child; she actually devoted more love, care and attention to Heather than she did her own children. And when those children showed up, Heather was quick to display jealousy, as she did when Dean would frequent their flat.
Then, there was the infamous time when Shirley left Heather and infant George homeless on a park bench in order to look after a drug-addled Phil Mitchell - not to mention the bullying efforts Shirley undertook to get Heather to abort her child. In fact, I seem to recall her bitter words to homeless Heather as she led Phil away being that Shirley was neither Heather's nor George's mum.
Of course, we all know that Shirley was hopelessly in love with Phil, that she lived with him even knowing that he didn't love her. She was there in that household by grace and favour of Ben's approval. Phil gave her a roof over her head and status and she gave him sex in the desperate hope that he would one day really love her. She did this, knowing that he could never promise fidelity and knowing that he still carried a candle for Sharon. In fact, her worst dream was Sharon reappearing in Walford - and that occurred at the worst time: when she discovered that Ben had murdered Heather and that Phil had helped him cover up his guilt.
So now, Shirley's anger at wanting justice for Heather is inextricably mixed up with jealous rage toward Sharon and even more anger at herself for having let Heather down.
catsmeow tries to justify Shirley being owed something by Phil for the years she stayed with him, cooking, cleaning etc. Again, that's bullshit. Shirley profited from being Phil's squeeze. It was a power and an ego trip for her. She went from being an ageing slapper to being First Lady of Walford, the so-called natural successor to Peggy Mitchell, without the surname. She connived with Phil to steal the last amount of cash Roxy had and flaunted a fur coat to show for it. She conned another large sum of money from Roxy in order to buy the Arches back from Pat for Phil. But work?
Please.
Shirley and housework mixed like chalk and cheese. When Heather was almost suffocated by fumes in her flat, Shirley offered her accommodation at the Mitchells' as long as Heather cooked and cleaned for them. Shirley sat on sweet Fanny Adams all day long. Her culinary inabilities were infamous. Ben and even Phil cooked better than Shirley. She made a pigs' ear of the cafe.
When Shirley was with Phil, she was Lady Muck.
What's eating Shirley now is not as much the fact that Ben killed Heather, not even as much that Phil covered up for Ben for five months. What's eating Shirley now is that she loves Phil too much to let go of him, and that's a betrayal of Heather's friendship. Again.
After finding the murder weapon, she even hid it at the last minute, after a plea from Jay - who isn't entirely the innocent in all of this either. Yes, witnessing a murder preyed upon his conscience, but rather than break the "family code" of a family of which he wasn't really a part, he kept quiet; and he begged Shirley to keep schtum too. Even after surrendering the frame, she went along with Phil's request and didn't reveal his part in the cover-up to the police.
She remained in the Mitchell house for days after this and didn't leave until Denise and Andrew remarked to her how it looked as if she were in on the Mitchell cover-up as well - or at least approved of it.
Even now as she staggers around Walford, drunk and sleeping rough, her concern seems more to be anger at the fact that Sharon is in Walford and she's walked in a couple of times on private conversations between Sharon and Phil than any justice for Heather. When the Moons brought her into the Vic off the street, gave her some food and a good bath, Alfie offered her something she needed badly - a job: a focus on something other than Phil, a means of earning money and becoming less financially dependent on him. A chance to start over.
But Kat, who's nothing more than a Shirley-in-training convinced her that she should be getting money from Phil, that Phil owed her. So what does Shirley do? Blackmail Phil. Demand money in return for keeping quiet about what she deemed to be Phil's "little secret."
I don't get this. Ben's killed Heather and finally put his hand up. Jay's admitted his guilt in perverting the course of justice too. Yet Shirley knows Phil controlled this entire deception, and rather than screaming his guilt to the police, she blackmails him. More than that, she grieves the loss of her "family."
Shirley lost her family the day she walked out the door of her suburban home and left Kevin with three small kids - one disabled and two who weren't even his. She eventually cobbled together a family from Phil Mitchell's skagends of which Heather was only a peripheral part. On the day Heather was killed, Shirley taunted her by telling her that Ben and the rest of them laughed at her.
Shirley is in the mother of all rages at the moment, but her rage is less about justice for Heather and more about how she is incapable of letting go of Phil Mitchell and even more about her jealousy at the fact that the woman he really loves is now back on the scene.
And please, disabuse yourself of any notion that Phil loves Shirley and thinks love will conquer all by getting her to move back in with him. This is no more proof that he loves her than it is that he doesn't love Sharon, whom he does. It's all about his own self-preservation. At the moment, Shirley is more important to him solely because she holds the figurative keys to his freedom. He either needs her as close to him as possible or as far away as possible. Once he's certain that she doesn't intend to grass him up (and he will realise this very shortly), then his next manouevre is to get her to leave and live with her daughter.
Shirley should, rightly, be ashamed of herself. She's let Heather down yet again. Heather deserved better in friendship.
It's a really great thread, and it got me thinking about Shirley. Almost the entire ethos of her existence since March has been an undying quest for Heather's killer and anyone involved in her murder to be brought to justice. But even Shirley has admitted that part of this quest is out of an inate sense of guilt she feels at having repeatedly let Heather down on her side of the friendship. In fact, she let Heather down as late as 24 hours before what was supposed to be her wedding.
Shirley let a lot of people down.
catsmeow, troll and Ignorati of the Week, refuses to judge Shirley (whilst sitting in judgement on Sharon) because she claims not to know or want to know Shirley's history. Not only is that stupid, it's sheer bullshit.
Shirley's history reflects what she is today. Shirley and Heather were friends, but - as Heather referenced many times - whenever Shirley caught a guy's eye, Heather became a nuisance. Shirley was the sort of best friend who dropped all the girlfriends when a guy came along and expected to be welcomed back into the girlfriend fold when the guy dumped her. Shirley dumped Heather when she got involved with Kevin; and Shirley dumped Kevin and the kids when being a wife and mother became too much of a bore for her.
In point of fact, Shirley's abandonment of her children and of Kevin was never explored sufficiently. Dean was a baby when she left, and James was disabled. Was she suffering from PND? When she returned some eighteen years later, it was obvious she was still in love with Kevin, who'd shouldered all the hard work in raising the kids. She didn't even know James had died. Yet she expected Dean and Carly to welcome Mummy with opened arms, and she was bereft when Kevin died in her arms, thinking only of Denise.
Yet Shirley left her husband and children in the 1980s in order to take up with Heather again as a couple of ageing party girls. And that's how they lived - Heather, the eternal child, doing her mummy Queenie's bidding, when she wasn't doing Shirl's. And from time to time, Shirl abandoned Heather for whatever man happened to take her fancy.
It's often been referenced, grudgingly by Shirley, that she "looked after" Heather. In fact, on the last day of Heather's life, she snarled at her that she "wasn't looking after her anymore." Heather was a surrogate child; she actually devoted more love, care and attention to Heather than she did her own children. And when those children showed up, Heather was quick to display jealousy, as she did when Dean would frequent their flat.
Then, there was the infamous time when Shirley left Heather and infant George homeless on a park bench in order to look after a drug-addled Phil Mitchell - not to mention the bullying efforts Shirley undertook to get Heather to abort her child. In fact, I seem to recall her bitter words to homeless Heather as she led Phil away being that Shirley was neither Heather's nor George's mum.
Of course, we all know that Shirley was hopelessly in love with Phil, that she lived with him even knowing that he didn't love her. She was there in that household by grace and favour of Ben's approval. Phil gave her a roof over her head and status and she gave him sex in the desperate hope that he would one day really love her. She did this, knowing that he could never promise fidelity and knowing that he still carried a candle for Sharon. In fact, her worst dream was Sharon reappearing in Walford - and that occurred at the worst time: when she discovered that Ben had murdered Heather and that Phil had helped him cover up his guilt.
So now, Shirley's anger at wanting justice for Heather is inextricably mixed up with jealous rage toward Sharon and even more anger at herself for having let Heather down.
catsmeow tries to justify Shirley being owed something by Phil for the years she stayed with him, cooking, cleaning etc. Again, that's bullshit. Shirley profited from being Phil's squeeze. It was a power and an ego trip for her. She went from being an ageing slapper to being First Lady of Walford, the so-called natural successor to Peggy Mitchell, without the surname. She connived with Phil to steal the last amount of cash Roxy had and flaunted a fur coat to show for it. She conned another large sum of money from Roxy in order to buy the Arches back from Pat for Phil. But work?
Please.
Shirley and housework mixed like chalk and cheese. When Heather was almost suffocated by fumes in her flat, Shirley offered her accommodation at the Mitchells' as long as Heather cooked and cleaned for them. Shirley sat on sweet Fanny Adams all day long. Her culinary inabilities were infamous. Ben and even Phil cooked better than Shirley. She made a pigs' ear of the cafe.
When Shirley was with Phil, she was Lady Muck.
What's eating Shirley now is not as much the fact that Ben killed Heather, not even as much that Phil covered up for Ben for five months. What's eating Shirley now is that she loves Phil too much to let go of him, and that's a betrayal of Heather's friendship. Again.
After finding the murder weapon, she even hid it at the last minute, after a plea from Jay - who isn't entirely the innocent in all of this either. Yes, witnessing a murder preyed upon his conscience, but rather than break the "family code" of a family of which he wasn't really a part, he kept quiet; and he begged Shirley to keep schtum too. Even after surrendering the frame, she went along with Phil's request and didn't reveal his part in the cover-up to the police.
She remained in the Mitchell house for days after this and didn't leave until Denise and Andrew remarked to her how it looked as if she were in on the Mitchell cover-up as well - or at least approved of it.
Even now as she staggers around Walford, drunk and sleeping rough, her concern seems more to be anger at the fact that Sharon is in Walford and she's walked in a couple of times on private conversations between Sharon and Phil than any justice for Heather. When the Moons brought her into the Vic off the street, gave her some food and a good bath, Alfie offered her something she needed badly - a job: a focus on something other than Phil, a means of earning money and becoming less financially dependent on him. A chance to start over.
But Kat, who's nothing more than a Shirley-in-training convinced her that she should be getting money from Phil, that Phil owed her. So what does Shirley do? Blackmail Phil. Demand money in return for keeping quiet about what she deemed to be Phil's "little secret."
I don't get this. Ben's killed Heather and finally put his hand up. Jay's admitted his guilt in perverting the course of justice too. Yet Shirley knows Phil controlled this entire deception, and rather than screaming his guilt to the police, she blackmails him. More than that, she grieves the loss of her "family."
Shirley lost her family the day she walked out the door of her suburban home and left Kevin with three small kids - one disabled and two who weren't even his. She eventually cobbled together a family from Phil Mitchell's skagends of which Heather was only a peripheral part. On the day Heather was killed, Shirley taunted her by telling her that Ben and the rest of them laughed at her.
Shirley is in the mother of all rages at the moment, but her rage is less about justice for Heather and more about how she is incapable of letting go of Phil Mitchell and even more about her jealousy at the fact that the woman he really loves is now back on the scene.
And please, disabuse yourself of any notion that Phil loves Shirley and thinks love will conquer all by getting her to move back in with him. This is no more proof that he loves her than it is that he doesn't love Sharon, whom he does. It's all about his own self-preservation. At the moment, Shirley is more important to him solely because she holds the figurative keys to his freedom. He either needs her as close to him as possible or as far away as possible. Once he's certain that she doesn't intend to grass him up (and he will realise this very shortly), then his next manouevre is to get her to leave and live with her daughter.
Shirley should, rightly, be ashamed of herself. She's let Heather down yet again. Heather deserved better in friendship.
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