Bookclub S2E06 - As you wave me goodbye

[rhort]

This episodes starts in an unusual manner, with Gary waking up in 1941. In many ways, I think that it helps to lift the mood of the episode right from the beginning, as we’re not subject to the normal Gary versus Yvonne scene playing on the ‘Aren’t Things Bad Between Them?’ motif. Classic example here of the ‘Fish Out Of Water’ effect for Gary, with his liberal 90s attitude (liberal in its perception from a 1940s standpoint) getting him and Phoebe into trouble with his nosey landlady.

Again, Gary is shown here letting events get to him now that he’s effectively part of them rather than a casual observer, and this is especially noticeable when Phoebe and Reg are reminiscing about events Gary has no knowledge of. Whether this is down to his general feelings of despondency about day-to-day life during the war, or being left out of the trip down memory lane, isn’t clear, but what is clear is Gary’s irritation, perhaps because, not for the first time, he’s not the centre of attention for the group.

The café scene with my favourite wordsmith Ron has some great dialogue. Ron points out the issues of living in the war rather than just visiting it with his usual aplomb, and this is a pivotal moment for the current story arc.

As the two of them move on to the house, we see a fairly typical reaction to them from Yvonne, who’s annoyance with both men is largely justified on this occasion. The best thing about this scene is Gary’s supporting statement for Ron, as we see him finally recognise his contributions, and more importantly, the level of friendship Ron shows to Gary. Yvonne’s apparent climb-down here shows a level of complexity to her character that some may find surprising, especially given the way it’s obvious she feels about Ron. Ron’s ‘crotch’ joke here is one of the big laughs of this episode for me. Ron is then shown to be on fairly typical form as he puts his foot in it with Wendy, to which Yvonne’s reaction is great.

Back to the 40s and the lead up to one of the most exciting scenes of the entire series, as Gary is given Fire Watching duty on the roof of a warehouse. Truly outstanding jokes (‘tin hat’ and ‘moon’) take the edge off this scene, and Gary is shown exhibiting some genuine courage (or foolhardiness depending on your perspective) as the scene develops. We do, however, see Gary giving Phoebe even more clues about his lack of experience in wartime happenings, as he doesn’t seem to have much of a clue what’s going on, and most of his instructions come from Phoebe.

As Gary then returns home, Yvonne’s excellent ‘tiles’ line rounds things off nicely, although we might wonder if Gary is ever going to want to go back to the war, as he is visibly shellshocked by his eventful evening.

I’d give this episode a 95% rating. The funniest episode so far, and the scene on the roof is easily the most exciting.

[malcolm]

This episode had a lot of meaning for myself. I wasn't in London for 1941 having been evacuated to the north. But I did experience the Blitz in 1940 and the buzzbombs of 1944 and a V2 rocket in 1945. I do very well remember Dad going back to work at night to do fire watching duty on the roof of the building where he worked - Acton Bolt. He was an electrician by day and the factory was in Acton a heavily industrialised area. Some people may know it better by Gypsy Corner. Actually it isn't all that far from Cricklewood, though that was not the scene for Gary and Phoebe's night out.

Dad used to tell how one night a bomb hit the factory next door which made or perhaps stored Butter, and it splattered the roof he was on making it so slippery he was afraid of sliding over the edge. However I now wonder if it was really caused by an incendiary as I have learned from the book, "The Longest Night" by Gavin Mortimer that incendiary's were dropped in a necklace. They were over 1.5 metres in length and weighed 113kgs. The casing held approximately 65 litres of oil, sometimes a mix of petrol and oil. These bombs didn't penetrate buildings but exploded on the roof, releasing a film of oil over an area 20 metres in diameter. As oil burns upwards they caused few serious problems for the firefighters, who used foam to douse the flames.

So maybe it was the Oil that Dad slipped over.

There is what I see as a costume error in this episode.

Yes, men did all wear the same type of typical Tommy's helmet we see in so many movies. Dad's helmet for firewatching was painted black.

However Mum had like so many other wives who were not in the forces do her bit. Each area of streets had its own Air Raid Warning Post which was also the local point for Fire Wardens. Mum had to go to our local fire post some nights and the helmets provided to women were not at all like the Men's Tommy Helmet. The side came down much lower a bit like the Russians helmets.

When the war ended, I was a 12 year old and we kids used the helmets - by now consigned to the shed in the garden - in our games. So I do remember them well.

The only other thing I can criticise with this episode from my own experience is the lack of noise. It was horrendous where we were in the suburbs, not just from the bombs but more so from the firing of our hopeless Ack Ack. It was continuous and nerve racking beyond human endurance. We were all issued with little ear plugs which had a piece of string through a hole at one end, but I don't remember wearing them very much. Too uncomfortable and you just couldn't cut out the horror of it all.

The worst night of the Blitz was the final one - night of 10th/11th May, 1941. That night the Luftwaffe sent over a total of 507 aircraft and dropped 711 tonnes of high explosives over London for six and a half hours. They were mostly 50kg's of which they dropped 1,492. We copped 77 parachute mines (the green silk from one dropped over Pinner where we lived was on display in the Library at the end of the War) - it was the blast from the land mines that was most devastating. Eight of them were 500kgs and the rest 1000kgs. They dropped 7 Satans that were packed with 1,800kg of high explosive. The number of incendiaries that night was 86,173.

Worst of it was that water ran out quickly, and it took some time to get hoses down to the Thames and pumped up into the big round tanks - we had one of them at Rayners Lane.

The scene on the roof had to be played down, otherwise there would have been no funny dialogue.

After the war the camaraderie was kept going. Everyone in our area was invited to join the 'Three-Seven' Association which ran a number of coach outings. I have a photo of one of them with everyone lined up beside the coach in Harrow.