Post by rhort on Apr 5, 2013 3:33:19 GMT -5
Gary opens this episode as he opens the shop, with Ron close behind, and the two of them arguing about money, which is not in itself unusual, only on this occasion, it’s Ron who is asking for money from Gary, needing it, as he does, to fund the lavish lifestyle which has consumed him in his pursuit of Flic. As Gary tries to defend himself against having to give him the £500 he’s asking for, we are shown yet another insight into Gary’s treatment of Ron, and it always occurred to me that, by now, surely the two of them might have come to some sort of arrangement over the provision of cash, in each direction. I remember thinking back in the day that Gary should have secretly made Ron a partner in his business; even if only at 25%, he could have at least given him some regular cash to keep things ticking over for them.
A noise outside in the back yard leads Gary rushing out there to find out what it is, as he’s heard it before but never been able to track down its source. Once he and Ron are there, a smell of cigar smoke alerts Gary to the fact that someone must have been there at some point recently, and Ron’s subsequent find of a cigar butt further reinforces this. As the two men ponder the mystery, Yvonne provides a moment of distraction, as she arrives at the shop, apparently as part of her efforts to avoid press phone calls and begging letters in light of the fact that the media is awash with stories of her £15 million sale of Nature Boy Cosmetics. Ron’s announcement that he sent her a letter asking for money brings us to the moment where Yvonne gives him a cheque for ten times what he was just asking Gary for, leading to him hugging her, which is met with a certain amount of reluctance on both sides, and then brings about Ron’s departure, meaning Yvonne then has time to tell Gary about the upcoming events she wants him to attend, which leads to a certain amount of ambivalence for him.
Planning to only briefly stop at the Mayfair flat, Gary is met by Phoebe, who is in no mood for his excuses, as seems to be the trend recently, and she’s clearly annoyed with him that he’s late on this occasion too. As she runs off to the club, Reg arrives, and proceeds to fill Gary in with some of the details of his day, however, Gary only really has one thing on his mind; escape. To this end, he fakes a call to his office, and then uses this to persuade Reg to babysit, whilst he shoots off to the ‘Phil Collins’ gig.
Taking a taxi back to the East End, Gary finds himself at the ‘wrong’ end of Ducketts Passage, having failed to give the cabbie specific instructions, however, he heads down the path anyway, and walks into a real pea souper. Hearing music and merriment coming from the direction of the Royal Oak, it seems that Gary momentarily forgets his need to get back to the 90s, and instead takes a minute to look inside and see what’s going on. After a second or two of confusion, Gary suddenly realises that he’s time travelled the wrong way, and it seems that he’s back in Victorian London, complete with its own version of Constable Deadman.
Noticing his unusual attire, the host assumes that Gary is one of the acts scheduled to appear, and introduces him as ‘Harry Sparrow’, believing him to be the comedian they’d hired. Given his fish-out-of-water-out-of-water mystification, Gary attempts to win the crowd over by telling some jokes, however, after starting with a joke about how many women it takes to change a lightbulb, he quickly realises that he’s out of his depth, and decides to have a smoke, impressing the crowd immensely with his cigarette lighter. As he starts to try another joke, he’s stunned to see ‘Yvonne’ walk in.
Anyone who’s noticed a trend in my appreciation for Emma Amos in the role of Yvonne might not be surprised to hear that the original draught of this plot summary continued from here simply with the phrase ‘Hubba-hubba!’ repeated over about three pages
Trying desperately to regain his composure, as well as his control of the situation, Gary sets off again, going back to the lighter, however, it seems to have run out, and that is the final straw as far as the host is concerned, and so he pulls Gary off the stage and promises the audience that he won’t be booked again (which I’m sure must have annoyed the actual comic who was booked to appear), and instead, Yvonne’s doppelganger takes the stage to perform, much to the delight of the audience.
Briefly back to the Mayfair flat, and Phoebe comes home to find that Gary has gone and left Reg behind, who’s asleep on the sofa as she enters. When Reg tells her what happened, Phoebe’s anger is once again obvious, as she lists the issues that she has with Gary’s coming-and-goings, however, Reg falls asleep again as she’s talking, which isn’t entirely unappreciated by Phoebe.
When ‘Yvonne’ finishes her singing in the Royal Oak, and she leaves the stage, she ends up right in front of Gary, who is just about to talk to her when a scream is heard from outside, and a woman comes in to tell everyone that Jack The Ripper has struck again, and that the body is just outside. As the crowd spill out into the street, Gary quickly arranges to meet ‘Yvonne’ again the following evening before he is left alone with the Victorian Constable Deadman, who after only a short chat reveals that he’s nowhere near as nice as any of the Deadman descendants that Gary has encountered.
The following evening, Gary has dressed in more appropriate attire for an evening at the music hall, however, as he is getting ready to leave, Phoebe tells him that there was a burglary at Noël Coward’s flat the night before whilst Reg was babysitting instead of minding reception. Phoebe’s comments fall largely on deaf ears as Gary rushes off to his ‘Party at the Embassy’, leaving Phoebe wondering what she can do to help Reg out.
Taking a cab back to the ‘wrong end’ of Ducketts Passage, Gary makes his way quickly to the Royal Oak to find ‘Yvonne’ on stage singing. As soon as she finishes, she walks over to him, and drags him off into the back room, where they are soon all over each other.
Meanwhile, back in the 40s, Phoebe has reported to the police that the burglars entered the building through the balcony doors in her flat, taking the pressure off Reg, however, she’s unable to give the detective any specifics about things that were stolen, but he seems wholly unperturbed by this and he leaves, failing completely to notice that the glass on the window was broken from the inside (as any copper worth his salt would have spotted instantly).
In the back room of the 1880s Royal Oak, Gary and Yvonne’s Victorian counterpart as going at it full tilt, however, things are brought to an abrupt halt when another scream is heard, indicating that Jack The Ripper has struck yet again. As panic and paranoia sets in, accusations begin to fly, and pretty soon Gary himself is in the spotlight as a newcomer that nobody knows much about, meaning he needs to make a sharp exit through the window of the back room. As the crowd then chases Gary through the back streets, he gives them the slip by ducking into a yard, only to find that there’s someone else, also hiding here. Once the crowd has run past, Gary runs back out, and heads straight for the portal, with the other man in pursuit.
Taking a breather on the 90s side of the portal, Gary is astonished to see that the man following him comes through too, into the yard, and reveals that he is Jack The Ripper. Jack then goes on to force Gary at knifepoint into the shop, and then to open the front door, coincidentally just as Ron arrives. As Ron finds himself staring down the blade of Jack’s knife, he too moves aside, allowing Jack to escape into the street, however, his lack of knowledge of 90s life means that his new found freedom is short lived, as he is promptly knocked down by a bus. As Gary takes a moment to explain to Ron what just happened, Yvonne turns up in fancy dress, which makes her look exactly the same as her 1880s counterpart. The shock of all this on top of everything else simply causes Gary to faint as the credits roll.
I’d give this episode a 90% rating. Excellent episode, with a great twist on the time portal, and Emma Amos in ‘that dress’!
A noise outside in the back yard leads Gary rushing out there to find out what it is, as he’s heard it before but never been able to track down its source. Once he and Ron are there, a smell of cigar smoke alerts Gary to the fact that someone must have been there at some point recently, and Ron’s subsequent find of a cigar butt further reinforces this. As the two men ponder the mystery, Yvonne provides a moment of distraction, as she arrives at the shop, apparently as part of her efforts to avoid press phone calls and begging letters in light of the fact that the media is awash with stories of her £15 million sale of Nature Boy Cosmetics. Ron’s announcement that he sent her a letter asking for money brings us to the moment where Yvonne gives him a cheque for ten times what he was just asking Gary for, leading to him hugging her, which is met with a certain amount of reluctance on both sides, and then brings about Ron’s departure, meaning Yvonne then has time to tell Gary about the upcoming events she wants him to attend, which leads to a certain amount of ambivalence for him.
Planning to only briefly stop at the Mayfair flat, Gary is met by Phoebe, who is in no mood for his excuses, as seems to be the trend recently, and she’s clearly annoyed with him that he’s late on this occasion too. As she runs off to the club, Reg arrives, and proceeds to fill Gary in with some of the details of his day, however, Gary only really has one thing on his mind; escape. To this end, he fakes a call to his office, and then uses this to persuade Reg to babysit, whilst he shoots off to the ‘Phil Collins’ gig.
Taking a taxi back to the East End, Gary finds himself at the ‘wrong’ end of Ducketts Passage, having failed to give the cabbie specific instructions, however, he heads down the path anyway, and walks into a real pea souper. Hearing music and merriment coming from the direction of the Royal Oak, it seems that Gary momentarily forgets his need to get back to the 90s, and instead takes a minute to look inside and see what’s going on. After a second or two of confusion, Gary suddenly realises that he’s time travelled the wrong way, and it seems that he’s back in Victorian London, complete with its own version of Constable Deadman.
Noticing his unusual attire, the host assumes that Gary is one of the acts scheduled to appear, and introduces him as ‘Harry Sparrow’, believing him to be the comedian they’d hired. Given his fish-out-of-water-out-of-water mystification, Gary attempts to win the crowd over by telling some jokes, however, after starting with a joke about how many women it takes to change a lightbulb, he quickly realises that he’s out of his depth, and decides to have a smoke, impressing the crowd immensely with his cigarette lighter. As he starts to try another joke, he’s stunned to see ‘Yvonne’ walk in.
Anyone who’s noticed a trend in my appreciation for Emma Amos in the role of Yvonne might not be surprised to hear that the original draught of this plot summary continued from here simply with the phrase ‘Hubba-hubba!’ repeated over about three pages
Trying desperately to regain his composure, as well as his control of the situation, Gary sets off again, going back to the lighter, however, it seems to have run out, and that is the final straw as far as the host is concerned, and so he pulls Gary off the stage and promises the audience that he won’t be booked again (which I’m sure must have annoyed the actual comic who was booked to appear), and instead, Yvonne’s doppelganger takes the stage to perform, much to the delight of the audience.
Briefly back to the Mayfair flat, and Phoebe comes home to find that Gary has gone and left Reg behind, who’s asleep on the sofa as she enters. When Reg tells her what happened, Phoebe’s anger is once again obvious, as she lists the issues that she has with Gary’s coming-and-goings, however, Reg falls asleep again as she’s talking, which isn’t entirely unappreciated by Phoebe.
When ‘Yvonne’ finishes her singing in the Royal Oak, and she leaves the stage, she ends up right in front of Gary, who is just about to talk to her when a scream is heard from outside, and a woman comes in to tell everyone that Jack The Ripper has struck again, and that the body is just outside. As the crowd spill out into the street, Gary quickly arranges to meet ‘Yvonne’ again the following evening before he is left alone with the Victorian Constable Deadman, who after only a short chat reveals that he’s nowhere near as nice as any of the Deadman descendants that Gary has encountered.
The following evening, Gary has dressed in more appropriate attire for an evening at the music hall, however, as he is getting ready to leave, Phoebe tells him that there was a burglary at Noël Coward’s flat the night before whilst Reg was babysitting instead of minding reception. Phoebe’s comments fall largely on deaf ears as Gary rushes off to his ‘Party at the Embassy’, leaving Phoebe wondering what she can do to help Reg out.
Taking a cab back to the ‘wrong end’ of Ducketts Passage, Gary makes his way quickly to the Royal Oak to find ‘Yvonne’ on stage singing. As soon as she finishes, she walks over to him, and drags him off into the back room, where they are soon all over each other.
Meanwhile, back in the 40s, Phoebe has reported to the police that the burglars entered the building through the balcony doors in her flat, taking the pressure off Reg, however, she’s unable to give the detective any specifics about things that were stolen, but he seems wholly unperturbed by this and he leaves, failing completely to notice that the glass on the window was broken from the inside (as any copper worth his salt would have spotted instantly).
In the back room of the 1880s Royal Oak, Gary and Yvonne’s Victorian counterpart as going at it full tilt, however, things are brought to an abrupt halt when another scream is heard, indicating that Jack The Ripper has struck yet again. As panic and paranoia sets in, accusations begin to fly, and pretty soon Gary himself is in the spotlight as a newcomer that nobody knows much about, meaning he needs to make a sharp exit through the window of the back room. As the crowd then chases Gary through the back streets, he gives them the slip by ducking into a yard, only to find that there’s someone else, also hiding here. Once the crowd has run past, Gary runs back out, and heads straight for the portal, with the other man in pursuit.
Taking a breather on the 90s side of the portal, Gary is astonished to see that the man following him comes through too, into the yard, and reveals that he is Jack The Ripper. Jack then goes on to force Gary at knifepoint into the shop, and then to open the front door, coincidentally just as Ron arrives. As Ron finds himself staring down the blade of Jack’s knife, he too moves aside, allowing Jack to escape into the street, however, his lack of knowledge of 90s life means that his new found freedom is short lived, as he is promptly knocked down by a bus. As Gary takes a moment to explain to Ron what just happened, Yvonne turns up in fancy dress, which makes her look exactly the same as her 1880s counterpart. The shock of all this on top of everything else simply causes Gary to faint as the credits roll.
I’d give this episode a 90% rating. Excellent episode, with a great twist on the time portal, and Emma Amos in ‘that dress’!
