Post by rhort on Mar 22, 2013 4:01:45 GMT -5
Beginning in the Royal Oak, and Gary’s been away for a while, returning to find that things are different. Right from the start, he’s getting himself into trouble, grabbing hold of the new landlady from behind being the first of his problems, and her husband turning up to find them together being the second. As the argument ensues, it emerges that the brewery has reassigned the pub to new licensees following the end of Phoebe’s lease, which brings us briefly back to the issue of the area manager, George Harrison, who is mentioned, but not seen on this occasion. As the argument intensifies, for all concerned, a fight starts, however, Reg’s timely arrival leads to his intervention, as he delivers a bash on the head to Fred (and not Charlie).
As Gary and Phoebe discuss the issues arising from the brewery’s decision to replace the licensees, Gary is at first committed to looking at this as an opportunity to move on, but it seems that Phoebe has some concerns about this, given that she has strong emotional and social ties to the East End, which causes Gary to quickly change tack and talk about appealing the ruling from the brewery. Moving on to discuss the issue of Reg’s retirement from the police force then provides a moment of distraction, giving Phoebe the opportunity to think things through, and subsequently decide that she’d like to make a complete break, and move to California, bringing the scene to a comical climax with the list of Gary’s American friends.
Making his way to the Mayfair flat, Gary arrives to find Flic ‘stuck’ in a dress, and helps her to get it on. Ron’s arrival at the back of the shot whilst this is happened signals what might be anticipated as a typical sit-com misunderstanding, however, it seems that Ron has seen everything, and knows what actually happened, leaving Gary not needing to make any excuses for once. As Gary sets off headlong into a fairly detailed explanation of his problems, Ron doesn’t seem to be paying much attention, concerned as he is with the impending arrival of a features team from one of the lifestyle magazines, who are coming to do an article on him and Flic. As Gary continues, Ron takes the time to contemplate the issues, and eventually points out that Gary will still have an excuse not to move until at least VE day, which helps to calm Gary down somewhat.
Gary then nips home, only to find that Yvonne is also thinking of moving, and her intended destination is also California. The problems that this creates for Gary are soon eclipsed by the issue of her modelling for an exhibit in The Millennium Dome, which will consist of an artistic sculpture of her naked body, coupled together with a similar male form, in order to allow people to take an educational journey through them. Gary’s main concern, however, centres around the nude photos that she’s had taken in preparation for the creation of the full size work.
Back at the West End flat, and Ron has fallen asleep at the table, after the magazine team spent seven hours there taking notes and photographs. When Flic wakes him, he bemoans the fact that he had to do that, but Flic soon points out the reasons behind needing to do it, which don’t seem to strike much of a chord with Ron, until she tells him how she feels when she’s been shopping, and that being featured in celebrity lifestyle magazines guarantees her a sizeable discount when doing so. As she leaves, Gary arrives, and proceeds to tell Ron about Yvonne also wanting to go to California, which at first seems to Ron to make perfect sense, in terms of a solution, however, Gary goes on to explain the details of how he’d then need to return to London to travel through the portal each time he went between Yvonne and Phoebe, thus making things prohibitively time-consuming.
Gary then engages his plan to put Phoebe off wanting to go to California by taking her to look at a club they might lease, in order to make up for their loss of the Oak, and as they look around, Phoebe decides to find out what it would be like to sing, which takes things in exactly the direction Gary was hoping for, as it’s then her who suggests this would be a reason to stay, meaning that he can basically pretend that it’s not him giving her a reason to do so. Shooting off briefly to attend Reg’s party, where sadly nobody has turned up, Gary does his best to get into the spirit of things, having something to eat, bringing Reg a nice drink, listening to his speech, and then having a dance with him, which seems to bring Reg on board as if it wasn’t a wasted evening.
Having done what he needs to with Phoebe, Gary heads back to the 90s and home to Yvonne to continue working on her. When he enters the flat, he doesn’t notice Yvonne, who is on the kitchen floor looking for an earring she’s just dropped, however, he does notice the suitcases, and begins to talk to himself, giving voice to his internal narrative detailing all the issues he has with Yvonne. When Yvonne hears this, she stands up and confronts him on each of these issues, leading Gary to his usual babbling excuse mode, any one of which might have sounded plausible on its own, however, when presented together like this, simply sound more and more unbelievable, but even in view of this, Yvonne seems placated, for the time being at least.
Having impressed upon her just how much he wants to stay in England, Yvonne tells him that her plans at this point only stretch as far as heading to California for a weekend in order for her to be able to get an idea of the lay of the land, so to speak, however, as the conversation changes direction, back to the sculpture of Yvonne that’s planned for The Dome, in the heat of the moment, Gary’s disparaging remarks go just that little bit too far.
Once again in open retreat, Gary heads for the 40s, and Mayfair, where he apparently doesn’t notice that there’s been a change in the reception hall, where a new commissionaire has been installed. Reg greets Gary as he arrives and proceeds to give him all the intimate details of his new job and how he came to have it. As this is discussed between the two of them, Reg, as part of his duties, passes a message to Gary, identified as “Mr Number 27” from Phoebe, identified as “Mrs Number 27”, however, as mentioned earlier (in S5E09 – the one where the 90s doorman tells Gary the man who owned his flat was killed by a bus right in front of the building), Gary and Phoebe own flat number 15; and that’s not the end of this issue, as we’ll see in a later episode.
After briefly trying once more to persuade Yvonne not to go to California, Gary returns to the Blue Door Club, where he comes in to find Phoebe has already taken up the mantle of club singer. As he looks about the place, he finds that Reg is working here too, and he takes a moment to enjoy the fact that since leaving the police force, he’s become something of a jack-of-all-trades. Phoebe is clearly enjoying things up west too, notably the prices that people are prepared to pay for drinks; at two shillings and sixpence each (30 old pence), compared to the tuppence-farthing (two-and-a-quarter old pence) for the drinks in the Oak, there’s quite a difference. The scene ends with Phoebe singing a song especially for Gary, which turns out to be ‘California Dreaming’.
I’d give this episode a 60% rating. Not my favourite episode by a long way; on the surface, it seems like it might be an essential part of the storyline, however, doesn’t really seem to go anywhere, and not many big laughs.
As Gary and Phoebe discuss the issues arising from the brewery’s decision to replace the licensees, Gary is at first committed to looking at this as an opportunity to move on, but it seems that Phoebe has some concerns about this, given that she has strong emotional and social ties to the East End, which causes Gary to quickly change tack and talk about appealing the ruling from the brewery. Moving on to discuss the issue of Reg’s retirement from the police force then provides a moment of distraction, giving Phoebe the opportunity to think things through, and subsequently decide that she’d like to make a complete break, and move to California, bringing the scene to a comical climax with the list of Gary’s American friends.
Making his way to the Mayfair flat, Gary arrives to find Flic ‘stuck’ in a dress, and helps her to get it on. Ron’s arrival at the back of the shot whilst this is happened signals what might be anticipated as a typical sit-com misunderstanding, however, it seems that Ron has seen everything, and knows what actually happened, leaving Gary not needing to make any excuses for once. As Gary sets off headlong into a fairly detailed explanation of his problems, Ron doesn’t seem to be paying much attention, concerned as he is with the impending arrival of a features team from one of the lifestyle magazines, who are coming to do an article on him and Flic. As Gary continues, Ron takes the time to contemplate the issues, and eventually points out that Gary will still have an excuse not to move until at least VE day, which helps to calm Gary down somewhat.
Gary then nips home, only to find that Yvonne is also thinking of moving, and her intended destination is also California. The problems that this creates for Gary are soon eclipsed by the issue of her modelling for an exhibit in The Millennium Dome, which will consist of an artistic sculpture of her naked body, coupled together with a similar male form, in order to allow people to take an educational journey through them. Gary’s main concern, however, centres around the nude photos that she’s had taken in preparation for the creation of the full size work.
Back at the West End flat, and Ron has fallen asleep at the table, after the magazine team spent seven hours there taking notes and photographs. When Flic wakes him, he bemoans the fact that he had to do that, but Flic soon points out the reasons behind needing to do it, which don’t seem to strike much of a chord with Ron, until she tells him how she feels when she’s been shopping, and that being featured in celebrity lifestyle magazines guarantees her a sizeable discount when doing so. As she leaves, Gary arrives, and proceeds to tell Ron about Yvonne also wanting to go to California, which at first seems to Ron to make perfect sense, in terms of a solution, however, Gary goes on to explain the details of how he’d then need to return to London to travel through the portal each time he went between Yvonne and Phoebe, thus making things prohibitively time-consuming.
Gary then engages his plan to put Phoebe off wanting to go to California by taking her to look at a club they might lease, in order to make up for their loss of the Oak, and as they look around, Phoebe decides to find out what it would be like to sing, which takes things in exactly the direction Gary was hoping for, as it’s then her who suggests this would be a reason to stay, meaning that he can basically pretend that it’s not him giving her a reason to do so. Shooting off briefly to attend Reg’s party, where sadly nobody has turned up, Gary does his best to get into the spirit of things, having something to eat, bringing Reg a nice drink, listening to his speech, and then having a dance with him, which seems to bring Reg on board as if it wasn’t a wasted evening.
Having done what he needs to with Phoebe, Gary heads back to the 90s and home to Yvonne to continue working on her. When he enters the flat, he doesn’t notice Yvonne, who is on the kitchen floor looking for an earring she’s just dropped, however, he does notice the suitcases, and begins to talk to himself, giving voice to his internal narrative detailing all the issues he has with Yvonne. When Yvonne hears this, she stands up and confronts him on each of these issues, leading Gary to his usual babbling excuse mode, any one of which might have sounded plausible on its own, however, when presented together like this, simply sound more and more unbelievable, but even in view of this, Yvonne seems placated, for the time being at least.
Having impressed upon her just how much he wants to stay in England, Yvonne tells him that her plans at this point only stretch as far as heading to California for a weekend in order for her to be able to get an idea of the lay of the land, so to speak, however, as the conversation changes direction, back to the sculpture of Yvonne that’s planned for The Dome, in the heat of the moment, Gary’s disparaging remarks go just that little bit too far.
Once again in open retreat, Gary heads for the 40s, and Mayfair, where he apparently doesn’t notice that there’s been a change in the reception hall, where a new commissionaire has been installed. Reg greets Gary as he arrives and proceeds to give him all the intimate details of his new job and how he came to have it. As this is discussed between the two of them, Reg, as part of his duties, passes a message to Gary, identified as “Mr Number 27” from Phoebe, identified as “Mrs Number 27”, however, as mentioned earlier (in S5E09 – the one where the 90s doorman tells Gary the man who owned his flat was killed by a bus right in front of the building), Gary and Phoebe own flat number 15; and that’s not the end of this issue, as we’ll see in a later episode.
After briefly trying once more to persuade Yvonne not to go to California, Gary returns to the Blue Door Club, where he comes in to find Phoebe has already taken up the mantle of club singer. As he looks about the place, he finds that Reg is working here too, and he takes a moment to enjoy the fact that since leaving the police force, he’s become something of a jack-of-all-trades. Phoebe is clearly enjoying things up west too, notably the prices that people are prepared to pay for drinks; at two shillings and sixpence each (30 old pence), compared to the tuppence-farthing (two-and-a-quarter old pence) for the drinks in the Oak, there’s quite a difference. The scene ends with Phoebe singing a song especially for Gary, which turns out to be ‘California Dreaming’.
I’d give this episode a 60% rating. Not my favourite episode by a long way; on the surface, it seems like it might be an essential part of the storyline, however, doesn’t really seem to go anywhere, and not many big laughs.