Tuesday 4 December 2012

Hunted, Secret State Claridges Royal Variety Show

The series Hunted has come to an end with Melissa George in the lead role. It was originally to be start of a longer term series but the BBC decided against further support quite rightly in view of complicated story line which lacked credibility although the programme makers hope to find a new channel for a reconstituted series.

I had expected much from the same creative team that  has Spooks to its credit along with having worked on the X Files and other class productions. As with similar series where the arching story is not resolved until the final; year series Hunted posed such a longer term story, but instead of having episodes with a beginning and end in terms of a separate stories with resolutions, had a single series story that was complex with too many tentacles which lacked credibility. 

First the several years story concerned Sam Hunter who has witness the torture and killing of her mother as child and who understandably had blacked out event details. Year later as an adult she is working for a criminal security firm  as a field operative, prepared to kill, use physical violence and break laws such as breaking entering, stealing, bugging and all forms of illegal surveillance on behalf of those with the money regardless of their motives or country allegiance. What we learn is that the head of this organisation wants Sam dead, as appears a second mysterious character, although paradoxically he wants to keep her alive, we presume until she is able to remember what her organizational boss has been ordered to kill her for. The organization, Byzantium,  boss moreover is part of an international conspiracy to rule the World (another form of Spectre no less). One of the leading members of M16 possibility its head is killed because he has been investigating this international conspiracy called Hourglass for sometime



 The series commenced with Sam sent to Algiers to rescue someone kidnapped only to hand him over for someone else to kill, although she does not know this and where she was  supposed to have been killed after completing the mission. She goes into  hiding for a year to recover from her wounds and to have a child by one of her colleagues in the organisation, She is then nearly killed by being drugged and drowned and during this time she remembers what happened in childhood although we are not disclosed what she remembers. She is then set up to be taken and killed but has a fake death instead organised by her fieldwork boss and carried out by the unit leader. We see her with her secret child at the home of her mother or at least brought to her by her mother in the wilds of Scotland where she had disappeared for the year after the first attempt on her life. This was meant to herald  the next phase of the story until the BBC pulled the plug so we were and may be are, left in mid air. Do we care? If we did should we? 

Sam tells the father of her baby that she lost the child and has him top the list of suspects behind the attempt on her life with all her other colleagues also listed.  He was supposed to have been her back up in Tangier. In fact he is either a Member of British intelligence or the link person with British intelligence who understandably what to keep tabs on such a criminal organisation.The main issue of the first series is enabling the customer ( the Chinese?) to win a multi million contract and preventing this being  won by a former small crime boss turned big time  international investor, Hedge fund controller and business man called Turner. He has built his success by rigging the market for his product by causing a  series of disasters which do not  normally cause  a loss of life, although  in the latest which  raises £30 million to win the tender, a passer by does. 

However Turner uses a local crime boss who runs a  snooker hall and who in turn employs a psychopathic younger man to carry out the work, who in fact is the illegitimate son of Turner  and who is responsible for several killings in the process. A member of the organisation  is sent to become a friend and work for the local crime boss to try and retrieve a case which seems to be important and this man is subsequently set up to take the fall for an assassination related to the tendering process. This leads to the killing of the local crime boss by the illegitimate son of Turner and who in turn is killed after he has also killed a police  detective in the pay of Turner. 

Sam  participates in a  fake kidnap attempt on the grand son of Turner in order to get the job as nanny/companion to the boy whose mother is suppose to have committed suicide while balance of mind was disturbed but in fact had been slowly drugged and then drowned by Turner and his henchman because she was threatening to leave the home with her husband and son. Turner’s son  is a pathetic individual who does not stand up to his murdering father and with whom she has sex after gaining he confidence of the  boy who begins to look upon her as a substitute mother. She walks away without regard to the impact of her involvement ion their lives

 Turner has contempt for his son  and tolerates him as long as he has overall control of the grandson. When they find they are being  kept under surveillance by a member of the organisation  they kidnap and torture the man in a secret lower basement to the family property and Sam is instructed to kill her colleague before he gives her up and her purpose

 The Unit leader begins to have misgivings about his work and consults the local priest but still is involved in the killing of two innocent people in order to also protect the position of Sam, He is eventually offered to take over from  the Fieldwork head who is dying of cancer and uses a high class whore from time to time and who appears to have no other function than to add some sex to the series, the whore that is although the same can be said for the fieldwork boss. Is everything clear

 The Minister in charge of the British Secret service is hinted at being part of  the International conspiracy or in the pay of  the organisation

 I mention this aspect because by comparison an excellent short series on Channel Four called The Secret State  also involved secret relationships between government and International Corporations and Banks and which has the excellent Gina Mckee as an investigative Journalist


 The British Prime Minister visits the Head of an American Company where an explosion at a factory based in a Northern Town has killed people and devastated several streets. The British want appropriate compensation. The company plane on which the Prime Minister flies home blows up killing everyone on board and the Black Box is not immediately found. In fact the explosion on the plane was caused by the same rocket fuel being developed at the factory which caused the explosion. However a  conspiracy between the firm, a bank and several leading politicians at Cabinet level aided by a fascist General at the  heart of Government make it look as if the Prime Minister was killed by someone on behalf of the Iranians as  means of getting the government egged on by the media and populous to attack Iran.


Against the odds but with the apparent support of the Chief Whip played by Charles Dance, the existing deputy Prime Minister (and who is offered the same position or another of his choosing by the two leading candidates to replace the Prime Minister) is elected by his colleagues and soon after taking up the position is faced with demands to take out a terrorist with a smart rocket, fuelled by the international company, as he man attempts to reach the Iran border and safety. The new Prime Minister hangs fire but eventually gives the order only to find that the death occurs on or at the border with Iran understandably calling the event an act of war


  He then finds himself under pressure from the media  egged on by those in the Cabinet who want to replace him for a strike on Iran, supported the majority of his backbenchers and the official opposition. In an heroic stand at the Despatch Box in the last episode he stands up to elements in the secret services engaged in killing opponents to their view of things, including the illegal holding of  McKee, and arrest of an Government employee anxious to spill the beans to the Prime Minister

 The head of the International company is also ousted by the board as the public sacrifice and replaced by the plotting government Minister supported by a  bank under fire from the Prime Minister in order to force the company to pay appropriate compensation. Under fire the Bank gets behind strikes and the Company announced a move to Poland. However armed with some information provided by the former head of the company who has gone to McKee the Prime denounces his own in the confrontation in the House of Commons as well as attacking the war mongering opposition. It is all splendid stuff inspired by the Chris Mullin’s A Very British Coup




 There is just time to emntion the excellent 100th Royal Variety Performance opened with Girls Aloud looking amazingly  slim as well as gorgeous followed by the Comedian Bill Bailey who was amusing rather than funny. The excellent Kylie Monogue also looked gorgeous and whose standing in my eyes went in leaps and bounds after her amazing show at the O2 arena which I saw in 3D and which still is used by the channel from time to time. Bruce Forsythe had his moment with a sitting step dance before performing with the host David Wallians.  One Direction the latest Boy Band creation via the X Factor were pleasant enough. Amanda Holden introduced Britain’s Got Talent  latest winners and star performers who included Diversity. Then someone called Rod Gilbert who I have not heard but whom provides the wittiest sketch of the evening on why he could not by a single jacket potato. Ata   supermarket, Ronnie Corbet was less successful with David Wallians and some word plays before Katherine Jenkins performed with Placido Domingo in a light and boring duet. I just do not appreciate her voice


 Robbie Williams achieved the loudest applause of the night to that point and sung This Time I will be different I promise you followed by the boring Mr Bojangles, an odd selection. After this three 9 to 11 year olds are interviewed called Matilda in the RSC show of the same name and which has no appeal apart from enabling children to perform. Just as lacking in entertainment value Alan  Carr pretended to be  Ashleigh and Wallians the winning Britain’s Got Talent Dog singing the Flintstones number before the real Duo were excellent performing against a background of James Bond Music theme music

 The  singer Heather Headley performed the famous song, I will Always Love you  from the film the Bodyguard which is now  a stage show in London, She is OK but no Witney Houston. Andrea Botchelli sand La Dona  e mobile. Jimmy Tarbuck looked back at great comedy performers . Alicia keys played piano while singing

 Rod Stewart sang when you wish upon a star and has a Christmas Album out. Wallians appears as a aerial star after he has finished his number A new dancing group Ballet revolution performed and then the Violinist Nicola Bedetti reminded of previous stars at the show now departed  with Peter Sellers The Gibb brothers, Norman Wisdom, Frank , Dusty Springfield’s, Arthur Askey Harry Secombe, Gracie Fields, Danny la Rue, Leslie Crowther, Marti Caine,  Roy Castle, Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, Tony Hancock, Ronnie Barker  John Inman Bob Monkhouse, Eric Sykes, Max Bygraves and Larry Hagman were photos I spotted

 Neil Diamond closed the show after Placido Domingo returns  to introduce  the Three Tenors, from China, quirky but good


 The best top ten tunes voted buy the British public were played on ITV again on Sunday with Bohemian Rhapsody and Queen heading t he list. I was not surprised  but disappointed that Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean was  two  but  pleased that Adele’s Someone Like you was 3 Hey Jude 5 Imagine, Abba’s Dancing Queen and Houston’s I  Will always love you. Kylie, Spears and Oasis were also there.

Last word must go to the couple now in the Eighties where he made a pile selling out his software company and she bought into Google early on, have spend each Christmas at Claridges in a  suite costing over £5000 a  night for at least thee past four decades, Sadly the wife passed away after the film was made. The couple only left the hotel twice in their two week stay


A party of a Royal princess/wife from the middle east and an entourage of 25 booked  a whole floor where the doorways had to be sealed so that men could not look in and the staff all had to be female. Three suites were cleared for shopping bags. Amazing stuff for the few.



Tuesday 13 November 2012

New Dallas season 1 ends and other TV

In terms of TV productions I did watch the penultimate and final episodes Dallas against my earlier negative reaction to the new series. There was a Dallas of old great series of twists as it appeared all had become sweetness and light in the great Dallas household where they once all lived at Southfork with their mum and dad and grand parents.
The new series cantered on the decision of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) because of ill health to sell the estate and the machinations of his older brother JR (Larry Hagman) together with his sometimes estranged grown up son John Ross to gain control of the family ranch and drill for the oil beneath but where Patrick had sworn to his mummy this was something which would never be done with the land remaining for cattle.  The two JR’s had used each other and gone to a Venezuelan crime family for a loan on the promise of delivering a quantity of oil per month as soon as the ownership was achieved. Bobby’s adopted son Christopher had entered a quick marriage with a relative stranger who was to bear him twins but he was still in love with the daughter of the family cook who had grown up with him and JR brought up by Bobby more than JR. The young Mexican woman in question was also coveted by John Ross. Missing out all the toing and froing this is how the series appeared to end.
First Bobby discovers an old document which separates the mineral extraction from the land sale after JR secures Southfork and John Ross moves in reminding Bobby that that he remains there with his wife and son on a grace and favour basis.  Bobby is then struck down near to death which brings back JR from a trip where he was set on taking his old enemy Cliff Barnes in a large gambling game. JR is so affected that he gives back the ownership of the estate to Bobby although this is only the first step because of the involvement of the Venezuelan.
In order to thwart the immediate taking of oil from the ranch, Bobby’s third wife had gone to her former husband who runs a major trucking company to withdraw from the contract to transport the product and annoyed at the delay the crime boss had framed John Ross for the murder of an unstable young woman confidence trickster who he had used to front the purchase of the estate behind the back of Bobby. His mother the great Sue Ellen now running for state governor blackmails the County Pathologist to fixing the evidence so that John Ross is freed from jail where he was already beaten up by people on behalf of the crime boss. This was unnecessary because Christopher had devised a way of getting the crime boss of their backs by offering them a piece of his technical invention which will revolutionise the energy and oil business. Eventually with JR and John Ross admitting their dark dealings they are able to gain the evidence for the arrest of the crime boss for the murder of the young woman and other offences. Between them Sue Ellen and Mrs Bobby Ewing fix the machinations of the former husband and which enables Sue Ellen to continue to stand for the governorship.
John Ross offers marriage to the daughter of the Cook as they set up house together while Christopher decides to make a go of it again with his wife after getting rid of her brother who has been involved with various scams to get hold of Ewing money. He then discovers that his wife and sworn she has revealed everything about her past and his dealings, that the man is not her brother. The man who may have been a former lover continues to have a hold over her to the extent that she gets old of a weapon in defence and a struggle kills him. Christopher then realises that he still loves the daughter of the Cook and the two decided to make a new life for themselves.
Christopher and John Ross had grown up friends and then become great enemies over the way John Ross had gained control of Southfork for his father but with the near death experience of Bobby the two had come together and formed a new Ewing oil company taking up the former offices of the company when it was once a force in Texas. Now with Christopher getting back with the girl friend, John Ross is incensed and asks his father not just to teach him all about the oil business but how to fight so they can get back Southfork after all.
Cliff Barnes has appeared from time to time needling JR but now the extent of his Machiavellian dealings is revealed that Christopher’s legal wife is in fact the daughter of Cliff who flies in order to get rid of his body of the man his daughter has killed. She admits she has messed up on the great plan but will now do what is necessary to help her father get his revenge on all the Ewings thus setting the agenda for the second new season.
I must comment that Merlin appears to have reached the end of credibility with yet another situation where Arthur’s wife gets into the hands of Morgana and is only rescued at the expense of the life of her brother.  It is time that Morgana is dealt with and Merlin stops his pretence of being a simple servant. These series should be dropped unless a new story focus can be determined. I must take a proper look at the UK X Factor where a lad from  the Boro appears to making progress, I have been half watching Strictly Come Dancing and usually manage the last  ten minutes of Bargain Hunt at lunch time where this week two couples in one show made over £200 profit.
This brings met the last of the Montalbano TV productions of the year which I will leave until Wednesday together with a film about the remarkable daughter of the first President of Independent Burma called The Lady and also a mention of the historical fantasy The Immortals.






Saturday 10 November 2012

Romanzo Criminale ends

The question of the power of state and the behaviour of the powerful and the linking between the state and criminal organisations and other organisations is one aspect of the engaging 22 episode Romanzo Criminale which came to an end in a double episode this week.



The series has been shown on the Arts Channel this year and is loosely based on the actual gang of young men who came to power through the trafficking of Drugs in Rome after they had kidnapped a senior man who was killed by those paid to look after him and after the ransom had been paid and collected. The kidnap saw the coming together of the two gangs who then used the ransom money to invest in drugs which they distributed through networks on the basis of equal shares and being consulted although the effective Leader became the Libanese the previous head of one gang, with Freddo the head of the other is closest associate and Dandi the third always on his own and looking out for himself before the others.



The gang members had grown up together and in both series there are flashbacks to their past relationship. The series begins with the only surviving members of the gangs with the nickname Bufalo, now an old man being abused by the new generation of gangsters showing him no respect and the series ends with his opening fire on his abusers and the dying in a shoot out with the police.



The series is designed to show that the gang destroyed itself over time but were helped by outside criminal forces that were in league with the Italian Secret Services, politicians and even Papacy through the bank it used and the Secret Society in Italy known as P2, a Masonic type of body. Just as in World War 2 when the USA government and military had done deals with Mafia bosses for help in retaking of Italy from the Fascists, elements in the Catholic Church joined forces with all those opposed to Communism.



The first series ended with the death of Libanese shot by two individuals on a motorbike and much of the second series is concerned with who shot the leader and why, as well as the succession between Freddo, who had until that point decided to leave the gang and crime and go elsewhere with his live in girl friend of two years Roberta who had been the girl friend of his younger brother, both of whom had no idea about his criminal activities before they were disclosed. Freddo is torn with guilt that his decision was a factor leading to the assassination of il Libanese



With the death of Libanese Freddo decides not only to stay but his relationship with Roberta ends because he could only see imprisonment and or a violent fate for himself. In the first series Dandi had grown apart from the rest of the gang because of his attempted cultured lifestyle and his relationship with Patricia, a high class whore who he wants for himself and opens a brothel for her to manage so she is able to keep up the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed without needing clients.

Dandi is also approached by the Mafia who see him as a better front man than Libanese and with their aim of managing the drug trade and other organised crime in Rome at arm’s length. They are instrumental in advising on the need for legitimate businesses which individual members of the gang take up as well as in investing their surplus income through an agent. The gang operate a casino at which they squander a proportion of their huge profits. On character under pressure from his wife and father in law over stretches with the purchasing of a supermarket and other enterprises and ends up losing almost everything after a failed insurance fraud after burning down the store and having to borrow from Dandi to pay off bank loans.,



The group are supplied drugs by the Comorra, the Mafia like organisation based on Naples and the surrounding area. They also had to deal with a group, The Sardinians, led by Sardo(!) who had distributed drugs to a sector of Rome and wanted to take over the rest of Rome controlled by the gang. There was bad blood from the outset and during the first series the gang confronted Sardo, humiliated him and drove him into exile. . The group also had their own Mr Fixit lawyer and a special secure place for the their armoury of weapons which was in the basement of a government building controlled by a security guard who they paid.



Separately in relation to the Montalbano books and TV series I have attempted to understand the complex multi layered police system in Italy where one particular feature is the ability to hold people for long periods in custody without bring them to trial. Individually and collectively the gang are arrested, held in prison but then released as the authorities fail to make charges stick, or because of the corruption and high level political influences



In this series there is one Inspector of similar standing to Montalbano, Commissario Sculoja, and a faithful assistant rather like Fazio. who early on connect the new gang to the kidnapping and to the development of the distribution of drugs throughout Rome without being able to gain the evidence or when the evidence is gained able to make it stick.



The Inspector has two weaknesses in terms of carrying out his job effectively, he has a revolutionary communist inclined sister who he protects and eventually get her out of the country and new life to save her from long term imprisonment. He is therefore branded a Communist lover by his colleagues and viewed with suspicion by those prepared to do anything to prevent a communist led government in Italy.



He also becomes sexually passionate about Patrizia and she sensing his desires uses it for her protection without giving him the kind of information which would destroy Dandi and the rest of the gang.



At one point the Inspector decides to put pressure on Il Freddo by arresting his brother who has turned to hard drugs and eventually persuades the young man to wear a wire to trap his brother rather than return to jail where there has been evidence that his life is under threat. When Freddo discovers this treachery he refuses to have any further contact with his younger brother.



The secret authorities decided that it would be helpful to put the blame for the death of Libanese on two brothers (Gemito) and Freddo knifes one to death but the other initially escapes in a shoot out which also involves the police. Dandi who is responsible for the getaway car funks it and drives away on his own create a bitter enemy from one of the two others who manages to escape. Eventually he confronts Dandi after Freddo refused to intervene but Dandi gains the upper hand and the man is also captured and put on trial. One of the criminals avoided long sentences was to plead insanity which gets them to a hospital from which they are cured and released after a couple of years. Freddo buys a helpful psychiatrist for his man but he is murdered on the orders of the Mafia before he can give the necessary testimony so both members of the gang are sentenced to a score of years for the attempted murder and wounding of police officers. The surviving brother is also assassinated when the authorities do not want the truth of the killings to come to the attention of the gang.



Commissario Sculoja decides that progress can be made through a raid and the arrests of Patrizia for her brothel. The raid uncovers the secret service filming a politician for blackmail. Unfortunately the politician is able to get the girl involved to change her story and say that she arranged the film at the request of the client which meant it remains his property and cannot used in evidence. This leaves Patrizia in the frame and when the Mafia advise Dandi to drop her and get an appropriate women he does not visit her in jail.



The death of il Libanese and the decision of il Freddo to leave the gang creates a situation of uncertainty among the remaining members who begin to look to their own interests as well as others as well as provoking take over interest from others. Sardo the leader of the Sardinians returns determined to settle his score with Dandi and il Freddo and take control of the whole of Rome and not just their sector. He creates a situation where Dandi is captured and persuaded that the solution is to kill Freddo who he persuades to attend a meeting. He devises a plan with the help of the rest of the gang that results in the death of Sardo and his men and Freddo is indebted to him.



Freddo is then captured by the Comorra who supplied Sardo and the Roman group with Cocaine, doubling their take. They want to know who killed Sardo and give Dandi a timed ultimatum. He again save Il Freddo by offering instead the man who actually killed Libanese, arranged by the Mafia as part of their helping Dandi to become the King of Rome. They say they will leave to him how he deals with Freddo. Dandi does not disclose to the rest of the gang that the knows the Gemito brothers did not kill Libanese. However the information comes to the Inspector after Patrizia is incensed at being abandoned in prison by Dandi and faces charges of brothels keeping. The Inspector decides this will serves no useful purpose and frees her. She rewards him by taking him to her bed and revealing the gun store.



Unfortunately the security guard who initially identifies the gang members is leaned on and withdraws his evidence. The gang appear to escape again however one of the weapons is identified as being that used in an assassination elsewhere and in the death of Libanese, The police therefore know that the weapon could not have been put back by the brothers blamed for the death and was the responsibility of someone else with access to the store. This is the man who is sacrificed by Dandi to free Il Freddo.



Freddo then finds that his rejected brother had been sold a bad doze of drugs and is in hospital in a coma so he wants to know who is responsible and then finds out the drugs were not those sold by the gang which reveals that someone is selling additional drugs from another source. He makes the mistake of going for someone who is the weakest of a trio led by one of the Buffoni brothers who he kills which is accepted by Dandy but not by the other brother.



The man who was beaten gives up the gang to the authorities and there is a great trial with much behind the scene fixing by Dandi with his Mafia connections and buying of judges



Freddo who is defended by his former girl friend in relation to the murder of the first Gemito brother is nevertheless convicted but arranges to be given a serious illness which gets him to hospital and from which he is able to escape when he recovers and goes abroad but without the girl friend who elects to stay. He has discovered that Dandi knew that the Gemito brothers had not killed Libanese and appreciates that the man has become the new king of Rome.



Dandi also walks free via the Mafia and bribing of judges and those working within the prison. He announces he can bring one of the others out with him and leaves this for them to settle, However although one wins a lottery it is another who is found not guilty and released. Dandi also does a deal with the already convicted gang member in relation to the Gemito attempted killing and wounding of police officers and who threatened to kill him for abandoning them at the scene of the crime. Dandi fixes for this man to move to a psychiatric hospital from which he is discharged a couple of years later.



The third man of the trio double crossing the rest of the gang turns out to be their investment manager but he survives promising to make Dandi even richer and returning all the additional profit which he had obtained



Dandi was upset that Patrizia had left Rome and tracks her down via her gay friend and assistant to running a small flower shop. At first is looks as she resists a return but then decides she wants the life that he and provide and returns. They get married without inviting the gang although Dandi invites the police inspector and then presents him with a piece of their wedding cake. The Inspector is shattered by the development and attempts to kill Dandi who decides the man will live but had him beaten up to the extent that he is disabled for life. He loses his position and is moved to job in customs immigration.



There is a passage of time of at least a decade and Dandi has become a very wealthy man to an extent he is paying for the restoration of a church but when the priest refuses to allow him to build a tomb within the church he arranges for the priest to be moved to Africa as a missionary. When he married Patrizia he insisted that her gay friend gets out of her life and it is the inspector who lets her know that the man is dying in hospital, not stated but appears to be from Aids. Patrizia arrives too late to say goodbye and in retaliation she destroys Dandi’s new purchase of collection of Ming vases worth more than the cost of his large well furnished home. He hits her and then orders the maid to pack up the pieces and return them to the seller claiming they were broken in transit and demanding the money back.



The Buffoni brother is released from prison and assisted by one of him others they go for Dandi and seek revenge on Freddo by killing his young brother. They are killed in turn.



Freddo determines to return to Rome but before he does so he is visited by the Police Inspector who has been alerted and tries to strike a deal in which Freddo can return without having to serve the remainder of his sentence on the basis he gives up Dandi. He declines set on revenge on his own terms.



This is the point to introduce someone I think with the name of Donetella orso something similar although I have been unable to find a record of her as a charcater despite the fact that she appears throughout the second series. She starts as a minor drug dealer within gang but for services rendered she is rewarded and made up to controlling the district previously operated by Libanese alienating the rest of the gang, in part because she is a woman and not of part of the original group but mainly because under the original agreement they feel they should all share in from Lebanese’s former territory. The price of using the gang to take out Sardo and gain his territory is that Freddo has to drop the girl and although he offers her the management of his territory she departs in a huff



When the gun store is discovered and the gang are all arrested on the witness statement of the security guard Dandi uses Donnetella to put the frightners on him through his young son so that the man withdraws his evidence. She is now recognised by Dandi and reinstated within the gang and is given as a present to Freddo when he is rescued from the Comorra. It is Donnetella who arranges for Freddo to be given the illness which gets him into hospital and out of the country and it is the young woman who advises him of the death of his younger brother and for his return to Rome. They have had a torrid sexual relationship and there is also the possibility she had is also used by Dandi who appears to control what she does.



It is now that she and Patrizia join forces with the help of the dwindling group’s financial man. They have all their grievances against Dandi. First Dand is assassinated during a visit to antique and fine art shops in the capital. Freddo had discovered that his former girl friend is happy with a child, presumably also happily married and he does not make contact after observing her in the park with her child. He makes contact with the Inspector after dealing with the killer of his brother. However he is also assassinated before he can meet with the former Inspector. It is Donnetella and Patrizia who are part of the new order of power and with everyone else killed in one situation or another it leaves only Bufalo, and as stated he dies in a shoot out with the police.



There is one other twist. The conclusion occurs at the time of the coming down of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism in the former Iron Curtain countries in Europe. The consequence us that those in the Secret Services, the Justice system and in politics need to shift their focus. The man who thwarted the inspector at every turn now approaches him with the offer of preparing him as his successor, someone with principles and in tune with the times. At first the Inspector is horrified but with the deaths of Dandi and Freddo and the elimination of the gang with the exception at that point of Bufalo he accept the invitation. We the audience are left to speculate about the possible relationship with the widow Patrizia and what that will mean for his ethical and principled approaching to policing.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 5 November 2012

The third season of Downton Abbey came to end with pleasantries all round so I am not sure where to begin.
The former kitchen housemaid who became pregnant by a visiting officer recuperating and who walked away and who then gave up her child to the paternal grandparents after prostituting herself to survive agreed to look at the replies to the adverts placed without her knowing by the Dowager via one of her daughters who is supporting the decision for the young woman to write a regular column. The maid likes one of the replies which is too close to where the grand parents live. I forget who went to visit the grandparents but the grand mothers arrives to say she had her husband have no objection tot he move which will enable her to keep in contact with her son posing as his former nanny and where the decision to tell the truth will come later after he has settled and put her past life behind her.
His lordship is still hostile to the pace and nature of the change proposed by the official heir Matthew and the Catholic son in law now widower who has become the land steward or manager for Matthew. The man shows his basic common sense when he tells his Lordship that they need his skills and experience with the tenants and the tradition which they lack and this bring his Lordship round when the young man agrees to play in the cricket match after taking some lessons from Matthew. He also makes her ladyship happy when declaring that he would like to remain in the household so that his son can be brought up in the environment and he can participate in his growing up.
The family are asked to look after an eighteen year relative who manages to get back to London when the unmarried daughter goes to see the editor accompanied by Mathew on a visit in relation to the future of the estate. The girl is found out to be having an affair with a married man and Mathew agrees not to disclose the visit to her parents if she agrees to return quietly to the estate. She is subsequently sent off to Scotland although I anticipate we shall see more of her in a future series.
 
The would be journalist has written an article about the plight of the returning soldiers and I suspect the next series storyline will see her involved with the Suffragette movement. The editor pays compliments and asks her to dinner where fortunately she is already committed to a family meal at the London House, She arranges for a background check only to find that he is married and therefore she cannot write for him further. He explains that is wife has been committed to an asylum and according to current law he is unable to obtain a divorce which also raises possible future storyline.

Mathew and his wife are concerned about her failure to become pregnant He thinks it is him but she reveals she had has a small operation in secret which should solve the problem so all is well on that front.

The main story is however what to do about Thomas now that Bates has returned and he has been caught approaching the latest footman who unintentionally appeared encourage him to make advances. He wants to let the matter drop when Thomas is allowed to leave quietly with references but the dreadful lady’s maid to her ladyship and once in cahoots with him persuades the new man to insist that Thomas leaves without references or he will tell the police. It is Bates who persuades Thomas to reveal something on the woman which will enable him to force her to persuade the course of action to be dropped. He invites her to tea, makes the demand and whispers to her “her ladyship’s soap” something which Bates and his wife do not understand but the audience of the first series do. However when this works it is the other footman who calls in the police because it Thomas who has been dropping him in it from time to time. His Lordship has to persuade the young man to say he was mistaken when the police call at the cricket match to take Thomas off. Technically the new job places Thomas over Bates in the Understairs pecking order which Bates and his wife realises are something of a disaster and storing up trouble for the future series and also perhaps the Christmas special. What is interesting is the Housekeeper and his Lordship are sanguine about Thomas being a homosexual with his Lordship commenting about life at Eton Only the Butler is horrified by all that he is learning



 

 

 

 

 

Monday 29 October 2012

Downton, Merlin and many more to write about

Sunday late, I am finishing catch up on TV shows while I watch what became the penultimate episode of Winds of War by Herman Woulk

I have watched the first four episodes of Haunted on the BBC a series which has disappointed because it is created by the same team responsible for Spooks. I will write more when the series is completed.

I watched a little of Strictly Come Dancing results show after Surprise Surprise which was a sickly sweet and then the Antiques Roadshow followed by Downton Abbey where I missed part last weekend but have seen all the other episodes.

I was not impressed with the opening episodes of the new series but this changed with the third and subsequent episodes and has become essential Sunday evening viewing despite some well trodden story lines.

The key developments so far have been the death of one of the daughters when giving birth because of the blinkered view of the Consultant who ignored the advice of the family doctor. The father of the child who had to come to Downton for sanctuary from the Irish Independence cause and is former Chauffer to the household is determined to bring up his son as a catholic. Her ladyship appears to have forgiven her husband for his backing of the Consultant against the GP, letting him back into her bedroom.

Bates the former Valet to his Lordship, falsely imprisoned because of the machinations of his former wife who made her death appear murder instead of suicide has a hard time in jail because of the machinations of a prison warder and another prisoner. His wife becomes worried when she receives no letters for several months as does he but this is put right and evidence comes to light which leads to his release from jail and return to the Downton Community,

His Lordship nearly loses the estate because of bad investment judgement and family are forced to consider downsizing. They are saved when his son in law and who will inherit the estate with the death of his Lordship, also inherits money from the family of his former fiancée. He feels he cannot accept until learning that it was the fiancée‘s wish when evidence of a letter comes to light. The Ladyship’s mother comes to visit from the USA played by Hollywood Legend Shirley MacLaine and is feted for her financial help until it is understood her wealth is also tied and she cannot bail the family out.

Having rescued the family Mathew is determined to put the estate on a sound financial footing with new investment equipment and reorganisation and is resisted by the agent and his Lordship. With the land agent resigning after 40 years change becomes a reality and a solution to what to do with the young widower is to make him the land agent for the estate under the supervision of Mathew. The son is christened in the Catholic Church and the Grandparents attend with his Lordship photographed with the Catholic Priest and the Father and his child.

The other daughter is jilted at the altar because of the age difference between her and the suitor and she has written a feminist letter which has been published and the editor wants her to write a regular column much to her father’s opposition. She meets the editor in London who takes a shine and she agrees to become a journalist.

The former maid with illegitimate son gives him up to the grandparents. She has managed an income through prostitution which creates problems with the household and the villagers when she is taken on by Mathew’s mother.
The Housekeeper was thought to have cancer for a time but the tests come back negative. The rogue former Footman and former homosexual lover of a Lord, also war time racketeer thinks as the valet to his Lordship with the incarceration of Bates that he is safe to continue his wicked ways and take a shine to the new footman at the expense of another house staff member who he drops in the proverbials from time to time. However when he misunderstands the interest is reported to the Butler, things now look grim for him much to the delight of her Ladyship’s personal maid who herself has much to answer having been directly responsible for her Ladyship’s miscarriage.

I have watched the episodes of (Young) Merlin, series nine in which Arthur is now King and married to Guinevere the former Lady’s maid to his half sister Morgana who spends all her time plotting to kill Arthur and take the Kingdom. In the two part opening episode Arthur’s Bane he sets off with Merlin to try and find out what happened to his men sent on a surprise attack to rescue other men held from a previous expedition to find out what was going on. They had been betrayed by the daughter of a Druid who was in the service of Guinevere. Morgana was using the men with others as slaves try and find what she thought was an artefact with great powers to foresee the future. What she does not know that the power is a creature who first rescues one of Arthur’s key men and then Merlin himself who the being recognises for his true self. Morgana has a young dragon presumable that from the egg which Merlin had given to the ancient Dragon played by john hurt that previously freed. However as Lord over the Dragons is able to prevent the young dragon doing damage. Merlin is concerned from having a vision in which a young druid who Arthur previously saved will be responsible for the death of the King in a battle. He is a relative of Morgana. When he comes across Merlin and Arthur captured he treats them as prisoners. They manage to escape but are recaptured by Morgana but the young man intervenes stabbing her which allows Arthur and Merlin to survive with the rest of his men. Arthur rewards by making the man a knight but Merlin remains concerned.

In the third episode Arthur’s father returns as a ghost having been unintentionally let out from the spirit world by Arthur’s in search of saying a proper goodbye to his father and seeking the man’s approval. The spirit is opposed to Arthur’s marriage and the way he is running the kingdom and seeks to destroy his son and his son’s wife. With help of Guis, the court Physician Merlin and Arthur are able to send the King back to the spirit world. I watched the fourth episode on Monday on the I player part of the Wii purchase a couple of episodes behind which I will watch on the I player and which followed a familiar pattern with Arthur well motivated but taking irresponsible risks for himself and his men and Merlin still playing the fool of personal assistant, knowing something is wrong which the village idiot would have recognised and allowing Arthur into yet another trap set by the evil Morgana. On one hand the failure to deal with the woman is gross negligence but if they did there would no continuing series.

I am also a couple of episodes possible three behind on Atlantic City the third series which seems more violent, more sexual and without any redeeming features from what I have seen to date. I hope to comment further when I catch up.

I have failed to catch up on the past eight episodes of the final season of the Soprano’s. I did watch the greater part of the Godfather part one recently and was struck was a great film it is compared to most of what has appeared on screens since about the Mafia in the USA,

On Saturday I watched almost all of five episodes of the Mini series of Herman Wouk’s Winds of War with Robert Mitcham and Ali McGraw and Topol have a part as does Ralph Bellamy as President Roosevelt. I was so tired that I recorded what I thought was the final episode only to discover it was the penultimate. Fortunately when I checked the final episode was showing although I missed the greater part but at least saw the conclusion going to bed at 1.30 The six episodes was shown back to back over 12 hours but which long periods of repetitive adverts. The Story is of the Second World War told through the eyes of the character portrayed by Mitcham as a naval officer who is appointed as attaché to Berlin and encounters the Nazi high ups including Hitler. His wife is a political and social embarrassment and serves as a vehicle to illustrative the seductive aspects of the regime. One of his sons baulks the naval tradition and become enamoured with a Jewess, and older woman McGraw who is McGraw torn between the young man and a Diplomat based in Poland. The two meet up through working for an uncle based in Italy and then when she visits Poland to see the diplomat and other family members (Topol) who live close to the German border just before the invasion. They escape with difficulty she to Norway and home to the USA and he to his father in Berlin before also returning to the USA. Mitcham forecasts that Hitler will do a deal with Stalin from his contacts in the Reich which impresses the President who had previously encountered decades before and gets Mitcham to send him private briefings. The series ends with Mitcham going back to sea in command after saying one married son, a naval officer and with the other son in submarine, believed to have been sunk at Pearl Harbour but which turns out to be a mistake. It is not clear if he and Ali have tied the knot or if she has married the Diplomat. His other daughter goes into TV production in New York. His wife seeks a divorce but then changes her mind. The original book has 1000 pages and was followed by War and Remembrance covering the rest. I have purchased both books from Amazon for a total of £12.

I have watched two of the six episodes to be broadcast of Hebburn, which I am finding very funny in part because I know the area well and its people. The series has Vic Reeves as the father and Gina McKee as his wife and is shot on location

There is no time now to write about the Newsroom a brilliant series in style of the West Wing and created by the same team. I will return to this series as I will tot he Sopranos when I move significantly into the new phase in my work and life.

I have come across another film The Thing, A prequel to the 1982 film of the same name. In 1982 an extra terrestrial vehicle is discovered below Antarctic ice by a Norwegian research team. They then discover what appears to be the dead remains of someone from the machine and remove the body into camp only to discover that it is not dead but has the capacity to hide in the bodies of selected human beings in such a way that most people will not detect the transfer.

The object of the creature is to escape from the area and multiply among the general population. Stopping the creature is led by Palaeontologist Kate Lloyd with the detection method to look at his teeth of other unit members as the creature cannot cope with metal fillings and a mouth will reveal this except for those who other forms of fillings, or the absence of any metal implants in their body. At the end of the film when it looks she and other members of team who survive are successful, a dog runs off, implying that he Thing has become the creature. I understand this is how the first film opened. Clever as it will make a number of viewer go to the original film. Not I thought.

Friday 26 October 2012

New Tricks Series 9 four episodes


On October 25th I caught up on Monday night’s edition of New Tricks after making notes on the episode the week before and just about recovering from the loss of James Bolam from the series and not too sure about his replacement Steve McAndrew played by Dennis Lawson. The episode last night was scheduled for next week and the BBC decided to pull the planned episode because irony of ironies it covered under age sex in a children’s home in Glasgow and would have been shown half an hour before the Panorama special on Jimmy Saville.

I was uncertain about the continuation of the series until two strong stories in two weeks has made a significant difference to my original view following the departure of one of my favourite TV actors and character actors of all time, particularly because of his performance in the Beiderbecke tapes.

Two weeks ago I was fully engaged with the Blue Flower. Papers were found in a lock up which related to a man whose killing by a knife would was unsolved five years before. The man was an East German who had come to the UK as soon as the Berlin Wall was removed and was still looking for his daughter some 15 years later.

He and his wife had attempted to enter the West a couple of years before wall came down and they were caught at the wire fence, although with only a sufficient hole to pass their baby through to the waiting helpers, and organisation called the Blue Flower whose members attempted to infiltrate government organisations in East Germany, including the secret police, in order to undermine the regime. While the Wall divided Berlin the boundary between East Germany and West Germany in general was fortified but not as by a wall.

The papers found in the lock up garage suggested he had access to personal documents and his work had been at a local refuse centre as a picker someone who checked the contents of bins on a conveyer belt in order to remove any documents such as bills which were then shredded. While this line of inquiry had outcomes it did not prove central to the main story. When the team visit the Refuse centre they are met with hostility by the manager and by the person in charge of the conveyor belt system. Jerry takes the opportunity while the new man engages the head to check out the office of the man controlling those on the conveyor belt and discoverers a store of personal data confirming the involvement with Data theft. However the team are warned off because a special squad are investigating an international Identity theft operation which the Refuse centre is providing with info. They have a man working on the team. Nevertheless two of the team members attend a club having found a note of a meeting that evening. This proves to be an arrest sting by the special squad who are no amused at the continuing interest of the UCOS, who are helpful apprehending the Manager when he attempts to evade capture. It is therefore evident that the death of the East German is not related to his work at the Refuse centre.

The East German man had spent a couple of hours every day close to the centre of Shepherds Bush, near the Market at the busiest time, before going on to work hoping to catch sight of his daughter. although how he obtained a current photo was never explained. She had been adopted but comes to the UK and had got into trouble. It is through this, that her DNA and her location are traced, although it is not clear how such a link was possible. What I question is that given the skills of the father as a former member of the State Secret Police that he was unable to find or that his talents were not taken up by a private security or detective agency because as it transpires he was one of the good guys.
In fact at first UCOS had no inkling about why the man was standing on a street corner for 2 hours and the background to his activity until they went to the scene at the same time he did and encountered the mother of a boy who had played chicken with a friend and been knocked down and killed by a passing taxi cab whose driver had no opportunity to stop. The mother had visited the site of his death every day then as she had continued to do, delivering flowers from the nearby florist where she worked as manager and despite her tragic story she became my number one suspect,

Examination of the records concerning the death of the son confirmed that the driver was no responsible, a verdict which the mother continued not to accept. Contact with the driver reveals him to be good man haunted by what happened. What emerges is that in fact the East German man had not been after the Taxi driver as a friend of the mother but he had had become concerned that she was set on revenge while her balance of mind was understandably disturbed.

Too late the team appreciate that their investigation has rekindled the mother’s inability to accept that the boy’s death was self inflicted. They find she had stabbed the Taxi driver who remains fighting for his life at the end of the programme. She has taken an overdose but insufficient for her to be taken in to police custody for the assault and the death of the East German man who she admits was stabbed accidentally by her as he attempted to take the knife from her that she intended to use on the Taxi driver.

The team have located the daughter but she runs away having become hostile to all authority figures. The find a memory stick which reveals that she is responsible for a Blog on the activities of the Blue Flower the organisation which enabled her to be brought up in the West.

All the available evidence to the Team and to the daughter indicate that her father had been responsible for the arrest of his wife as she attempted to escape with the child to west as the girl urgently needed medication not readily available in East Germany at the time. As a consequence of his action as a member of the secret police his mother, who had become a member for the Blue Flower organisation had died in custody.

The florist who had killed him does inform the UCOS team that as he died he had uttered a phase in German which translated means the Blue Flower. The team had examined his former residence in a hostel type block which is now empty awaiting demolition. Nothing had been found at the time or since. They make a separate visit and work out that the dimensions of the room suggest not just a hidden compartment but a significant storage area, reached by pressing a flower on the wallpaper behind a wardrobe which has been coloured Blue. That he was able to construct the room and has amassed a vast quantity of material is not questioned by the team but from photos on display and from the journal they learn the truth. Both had been members of the Blue Flower organisation but having only been able to ensure the child was rescued it was the mother who had the idea that the husband should arrest her and therefore protect his position and be able to escape, find his daughter and tell her the truth of what happened.

The team are therefore able to show the daughter the room and his work as well as the photos so she can reappraise her views and feelings about the man. Despite some of the flaws in the storyline the episode had the feel of authenticity, because it was so sad, with the man dying before completing his mission. He had been able to trace the girl to Shepherds Bush and had stood close to the Market entrance for an hour or more before undertaking his work shift in the hope of seeing the daughter presumably having gained a recent photo, although this was also not made clear. He had done this for year upon year in all weathers. At the end she has the new understanding to comfort her but as with many such stories in real life there was no happy ending

The latest episode Part of a Whole ticked many boxes of interest and in terms of storyline about the machinations of the Secret Service and their engagement with criminals for political purposes.

Stephen Fisher an urbane and apparently cold heated senior figure in the British Security Services has from time to time intervened in the activities of UCOS and until now appeared to have some kind of hold over the Deputy Assistant Metropolitan Commissioner, DACC Strickland, one of whose functions is to supervise the activities of the UCOS team under the Unit Leader played by Amanda Redman and to set their priorities and work programme.

As the episode begins Fisher returns to his bachelor flat and senses and spots something is wrong to exit quickly before it is blown up leaving the assassins to conclude he has died, something which the media accept was a gas explosion death. Strickland summons the full team to meet him at an out of town shopping centre car park to explain that their involvement while concerned with the death of a Journalist several decades before not only directly involves Fisher but himself as they had been part of a team assembled to undertake an illegal break in for their country to find out what the Journalist had known. The contents of the files had been photographed in relation to his work uncovering something related to Terrorist organisation in Northern Island and a well known crime boss in London although at the time they had known very little about what they were doing except it was in the national interest.

The Journalist had been killed in a hit and run in the presence of his then nine year old daughter who had never accepted that the death was accidental. When recently preparing to put a home on the market the daughter had come across a set of papers from those days, spreadsheets full of figures with one page missing. When older she had gone to a fellow journalist friend of her father about her concerns and he had promised to investigate but had never come back to her. She had more recently gone back to the police an somehow, I cannot remember how, the information had come to the attention of Stephen Fisher who understandably had commenced to make inquiries of his own and this had ignited the touch paper for the past to intrude on the present in such a dramatic way..

When interviewed the journalist first pretends ignorance and substantiates the original story but when interviewed more formally he confesses that he was aware more of the investigation that had been undertaken at the time but had become scared on learning that the principal target had been a major London Criminal of his day.

Meanwhile Strickland has set about contacting the other members of the unit that broke into the home of Journalist for the government. He finds that one has already died in an alleged accident and the second appears to have died from a heart attack. At this address he finds Fisher there, The find that a another colleague was at a Security Service safe house having received the warning message from the man who had alerted Fisher and Strickland to meet her with Fisher going in and Strickland waiting outside in the car,

Meanwhile Jerry and the new man have leaned on a snout who admits that it was the Crime boss who hired the hit men that placed the bomb in the flat of Fisher and who would appear to be responsible for the other deaths. The criminal is also identified from the papers provided by the daughter and he is visited by the team and shows contempt for their interest revealing that he remains a Secret Service Asset. This explains why suspicion since the death of the Journalist that the Criminal was involved in Drugs Prostitution and people trafficking and various other criminal activities but was never charged.

Jerry and he new man have been keeping an eye on one of the men of the Crime boss at a cafe and manages to learn by subterfuge that two men on a motor bike are going to an address which they follow and which happens to be the road where the safe house is located. As luck and good scripting would have it the killers arrive as Fisher is leaving the house and he is shot twice in the chest but not mortally. One of the two men is hit and injured by the vehicle of Jerry and the new man. The other escapes. The injured is chased down to a car park where he is about kill Jerry but fortunately one of the other original unit members who has also been trailing UCOS team members is on hand to kill the assassin before he can shoot Jerry. The team then pull a stunt which gets the phone off the man who had received the tip off call that led the assassin to the safe house indicating that the tip had come from within the service.

Strickland had visited one of the original unit members and his wife. It was a challenge for him to make the visit because he had a serious affair with the wife although it was not clear of this was before or after they had married. Since leaving the service the man had become a successful investment banker and very wealth and well connected. It then transpires that the phone call came not from the man but his wife who had been in the security services since recruited direct from Oxford.

The reason why Strickland was sure this couple were involved in the break in, in seeing the missing secret document, in the death of the journalist and in subsequent and more recent attacks and deaths comes from Brian working out that the missing papers of the inquiry team into the death of the had been hidden in another file. When this file was looked at it appeared to reveal nothing as the witnesses were unable to identify anything about the car however what they did say prompted the team to revisit the daughter and she recounted how she had been pulled back from the car by a woman who had sat on a park bench said she would return but never did. Although it happened decades before she might remember the woman from her eyes and who had spoken she remembered the woman talking to another man on the scene. Other witnesses had seen the woman before that day one at a cafe where the father had taken the daughter for some food. It all suggested that the woman had been following.

The story that unfolded also had a ring of potential authenticity as had the Blue Flower. The criminal had been used as an informant on the terrorist group in Northern Ireland through selling those drugs and whose information had contributed to the eventual peace process. He had therefore been protected since despite his continuing criminal operations. The husband had seen the missing document which provided him information which tied the payments being processed for the trafficking involved. The journalist had been taken out by the criminal without the approval of the Secret Service but the couple had been protecting him since. And provided the information when Fisher started to ask awkward questions which led to the attempts on his life and those of the other members of the team.

Strickland was able to blackmail the couple into upping sticks and departing these shores with their ill gotten gains and at the price of the criminal and the other assassin and crime gang’s members being “give” to the police for prosecution.

This still left UCOS with a sour taste although Fisher was intent on doing some of his own sorting when he returned after recovering from the bullet wounds.

The other two earlier programmes proved less interesting. One concerned a poet whose body had been found burned and where a loan shark who was imprisoned always claimed he was not guilty. Jerry was hostile to poetry until he discovered it could be effective as a means of engaging young women in conversation and turning their heads. Woman are throwing themselves at the best friend of the dead poet who had since become a nationally and internally known name and wealthy. A kind of John Betjeman of his day!

The crux of this case was that the poet in question did not die but was secreted away for decades and which solved one of the mysteries of someone who went missing at the same time and who could not be found. His accomplice was someone who was viewed as a suspect, commercially successful contemporary poet whose work had suddenly taken off with the death of his friend and where the finger was pointed out by someone who recognised some of her former boyfriend’s personal experience in the latest published volume which the author could not known have about. The reality was that because he was officially dead the poet had passed his continuing work to his friend to be published as his so they were both able to make a good living, one in comparative seclusion although it amazes me how people are supposed to be able survive in such ways without needing a doctor, dentist, bank accounts and other services where accurate personal information and proof are required in the first instance of registering.
The other story was about tennis and the suicide of a brilliant young tennis player shortly after she had lost an important game to her rival. There were suspects galore in this, a separate/divorced addict of a father with gambling debts who had asked the girl to lose to stop him being beaten up. The girl’s agent because she had said she was going to leave, also her main rival and the rival’s mother. The culprit was the girl’s own mother in terms of a manslaughter charge after her daughter had lost the match upset with news that her younger sister had gained a scholarship position with the tennis coach who had abused her and groomed others and where the mother knew but did not want to jeopardise the financial success which would have come from both talented daughters. The girl had lost the crucial game and confronted her mother after learning her young sister had been given a scholarship to work with the coach and the mother had then visited the daughter to prevent her going to the police leading to the girl toppling from the roof garden of her flat. The rival to the girl had been in the flat in the toilet at the same time and knew somebody had been present and told her mother who had persuaded her not to say anything. Although the two girls had been rivals on the court they had been friends of it contrary to popular understanding which causes UCOS to commence on the wrong track. The episodes could have been called Mothers or Some Mothers more accurately.

In both programmes a number of individuals could be expected to be sent to prison as part of justice system involvement.