Post by rhort on May 3, 2013 3:31:56 GMT -5
The brief, but entertaining opening scene starts us off in the Blue Door Club, where Reg is practicing his cocktail making skills at Gary’s insistence, and demonstrating that he’s actually very good at it, which the audience appreciates immensely. Phoebe then comes in, most excited to announce that she has asked Noël Coward to come and perform in the club, which should be something that will bring in a large number of customers.
Back at his and Yvonne’s flat, Gary finds that Yvonne too has something exciting to discuss with him, however, he’s far more interested in the football on the TV, but Yvonne shows her forceful side and tells him about her upcoming role as a judge for a book prize. As she tries to generate some enthusiasm from him, and also for herself it seems, Gary shows once again how underwhelmed he is when it comes to things that are important to his wife. Ron’s arrival then causes Yvonne to hide, leaving him to then assail Gary with his ramblings about the condition of his post-Flic life, as apparently he has not yet got over her. As the debate continues, Ron examines one of Yvonne’s books, and muses as to what sort of girl might be good for him, but Gary has other things on his mind as he becomes more and more engrossed in the book about Noël Coward, which brings him to a frightening discovery: A photograph of him and Noël, dated as March 1945. The picture is quite far into the book, however, if Yvonne should choose to read it, then it’s only a matter of time before she discovers it, and begins to ask questions, many of which Gary will be unwilling to answer. Ron’s suggestion that Gary should simply ‘lose’ the book is met with Gary’s typical dismissive attitude, and always, I felt, begged the question, why did he not just tear out the page? Surely if he was careful doing it, Yvonne would probably never have noticed.
All this, of course, is a classic sitcom set up, and when Yvonne returns, all she wants is the Noël Coward book. As she reads through it, Gary tries various distraction techniques, in an attempt to get her to slow down at least, none of which have the desired effect, however, when he seizes upon the opportunity to get her to put it down for a moment, he quickly ‘loses’ it out of the window, however, Yvonne sees him do it, and it’s while she’s questioning him about it that the doorbell rings and one of their neighbours enters, carrying the book which had hit him on the head whilst he was out walking his dog.
A quick visit to Ron’s version of the Mayfair flat finds Gary telling him about the extended series of attempts to get rid of the book, only to find it returning in a sequence of bizarre coincidences which leads Gary to wonder if the book is covered by some sort of supernatural phenomena causing it to be impossible to ‘lose’. Ron, on the other hand is far more interested in his efforts to find female companionship, even resorting to “computer chatrooms”, which dates this episode not only in technological terms, but also in the social acceptance of a man of his age engaging in such activities. I especially like this scene for the excellent “two supermodels” line.
A sudden switch to the 1940s west end flat is momentarily confusing, but seeing Phoebe talking to Noël about his act makes it obvious which time frame we’re in. The state of Noël’s relationship with Phoebe is highlighted here, particularly in the mildly sarcastic way he answers some of her questions, and her reaction shows the way in which the two of them have clearly become good friends. When Gary shows a dislike, bordering on fear, for Phoebe’s camera, Noël topic of conversation deflects things for him for a moment, until it seems that he’s planning to write a play about Gary and Phoebe, which Phoebe is most excited about, however, Gary is quick to start trying to put him off, suggesting a more diehard idea, which then causes him to upset Phoebe, at the suggestion that her life is too boring to be good subject matter for the play.
That evening, at the Blue Door Club, Phoebe is singing to the packed house, all of whom are eagerly awaiting Noël, and during a brief lull in the proceedings, Cecil Beaton appears and quickly takes Gary’s photo, which appears to be the one which is shown in Yvonne’s book. Unsurprisingly, this sends Gary scuttling off to find Ron and tell him what’s happened. Ron, however, as seems to be very much the theme for this episode, is still only really interested in sorting his love life out, and is dressed ready for the gym, of all things, whilst still going through other options for meeting girls in his head, even to the point of looking at going on a singles holiday.
Back to the Mayfair flat, and Phoebe and Noël arrive back from the club slightly drunk after what appears to have been a successful time for everyone except Rex Harrison. As they settle down on the sofa to decompress from the events of the evening, Phoebe once again bemoans the fact that Gary is away, and as Noël empathises with her, she becomes more and more flirty with him, which brings us to a wonderfully uncomfortable moment for him, as it’s his turn to be the one making excuses. Luckily, for Noël at least, the phone rings, and he’s able to get up and answer it, discovering that Gary has been arrested by the local police for attempting to steal a photograph from Cecil Beaton’s studio.
The plot hole of Gary not using his government documentation to get out of this raises another question here, however, we find that the young constable Cotterill is obviously very nervous in Gary’s presence, however the reasoning behind this isn’t explored. When Reg arrives, however, Cotterill suddenly appears more confident, and it seems that the two of them have something of a history, centring around a falling-out over lunch-related matters. As Cotterill tries to take Gary’s photo, he manages to move out of the way at the last second, meaning that the resultant picture is of Reg and Noël, and just happens to be the one that is then used in Yvonne’s book, meaning that Gary is off the hook, although not quite in the way he might have imagined.
Dropping Ron off at the bus station for his singles holiday, Gary finds that his friend is in high spirits, having found what he believes to be the ideal situation to provide him with maximum opportunities for female company, and also having paid a rock bottom price for it. However, true to form, things don’t go entirely according to plan, and Ron is last seen heading away for two weeks that will probably be very different from what he had envisaged.
To the final scene, in Gary and Yvonne’s flat, and after all his efforts, Gary finds that Yvonne stopped reading the Noël Coward book on the page before the one his photograph was on, however, anyone who thinks about it will have noticed that, if Gary’s picture had been on page 113, that would have been on the right hand side, and Yvonne stopped reading on page 112, which would have been on the left, meaning the double-page spread she was looking at would have had the photo right in front of her anyway (sorry, I know, I’m a geek! ). As the discussion continues, however, it seems that Yvonne is going out to see a previously unseen Noël Coward play called ‘Gary and Phoebe’, and as she exits, Gary rushes after her, no doubt, concocting excuses as he goes.
I’d give this episode an 80% rating. The main plot for this episode dominates it, leaving not many big laughs off the back of it.
Back at his and Yvonne’s flat, Gary finds that Yvonne too has something exciting to discuss with him, however, he’s far more interested in the football on the TV, but Yvonne shows her forceful side and tells him about her upcoming role as a judge for a book prize. As she tries to generate some enthusiasm from him, and also for herself it seems, Gary shows once again how underwhelmed he is when it comes to things that are important to his wife. Ron’s arrival then causes Yvonne to hide, leaving him to then assail Gary with his ramblings about the condition of his post-Flic life, as apparently he has not yet got over her. As the debate continues, Ron examines one of Yvonne’s books, and muses as to what sort of girl might be good for him, but Gary has other things on his mind as he becomes more and more engrossed in the book about Noël Coward, which brings him to a frightening discovery: A photograph of him and Noël, dated as March 1945. The picture is quite far into the book, however, if Yvonne should choose to read it, then it’s only a matter of time before she discovers it, and begins to ask questions, many of which Gary will be unwilling to answer. Ron’s suggestion that Gary should simply ‘lose’ the book is met with Gary’s typical dismissive attitude, and always, I felt, begged the question, why did he not just tear out the page? Surely if he was careful doing it, Yvonne would probably never have noticed.
All this, of course, is a classic sitcom set up, and when Yvonne returns, all she wants is the Noël Coward book. As she reads through it, Gary tries various distraction techniques, in an attempt to get her to slow down at least, none of which have the desired effect, however, when he seizes upon the opportunity to get her to put it down for a moment, he quickly ‘loses’ it out of the window, however, Yvonne sees him do it, and it’s while she’s questioning him about it that the doorbell rings and one of their neighbours enters, carrying the book which had hit him on the head whilst he was out walking his dog.
A quick visit to Ron’s version of the Mayfair flat finds Gary telling him about the extended series of attempts to get rid of the book, only to find it returning in a sequence of bizarre coincidences which leads Gary to wonder if the book is covered by some sort of supernatural phenomena causing it to be impossible to ‘lose’. Ron, on the other hand is far more interested in his efforts to find female companionship, even resorting to “computer chatrooms”, which dates this episode not only in technological terms, but also in the social acceptance of a man of his age engaging in such activities. I especially like this scene for the excellent “two supermodels” line.
A sudden switch to the 1940s west end flat is momentarily confusing, but seeing Phoebe talking to Noël about his act makes it obvious which time frame we’re in. The state of Noël’s relationship with Phoebe is highlighted here, particularly in the mildly sarcastic way he answers some of her questions, and her reaction shows the way in which the two of them have clearly become good friends. When Gary shows a dislike, bordering on fear, for Phoebe’s camera, Noël topic of conversation deflects things for him for a moment, until it seems that he’s planning to write a play about Gary and Phoebe, which Phoebe is most excited about, however, Gary is quick to start trying to put him off, suggesting a more diehard idea, which then causes him to upset Phoebe, at the suggestion that her life is too boring to be good subject matter for the play.
That evening, at the Blue Door Club, Phoebe is singing to the packed house, all of whom are eagerly awaiting Noël, and during a brief lull in the proceedings, Cecil Beaton appears and quickly takes Gary’s photo, which appears to be the one which is shown in Yvonne’s book. Unsurprisingly, this sends Gary scuttling off to find Ron and tell him what’s happened. Ron, however, as seems to be very much the theme for this episode, is still only really interested in sorting his love life out, and is dressed ready for the gym, of all things, whilst still going through other options for meeting girls in his head, even to the point of looking at going on a singles holiday.
Back to the Mayfair flat, and Phoebe and Noël arrive back from the club slightly drunk after what appears to have been a successful time for everyone except Rex Harrison. As they settle down on the sofa to decompress from the events of the evening, Phoebe once again bemoans the fact that Gary is away, and as Noël empathises with her, she becomes more and more flirty with him, which brings us to a wonderfully uncomfortable moment for him, as it’s his turn to be the one making excuses. Luckily, for Noël at least, the phone rings, and he’s able to get up and answer it, discovering that Gary has been arrested by the local police for attempting to steal a photograph from Cecil Beaton’s studio.
The plot hole of Gary not using his government documentation to get out of this raises another question here, however, we find that the young constable Cotterill is obviously very nervous in Gary’s presence, however the reasoning behind this isn’t explored. When Reg arrives, however, Cotterill suddenly appears more confident, and it seems that the two of them have something of a history, centring around a falling-out over lunch-related matters. As Cotterill tries to take Gary’s photo, he manages to move out of the way at the last second, meaning that the resultant picture is of Reg and Noël, and just happens to be the one that is then used in Yvonne’s book, meaning that Gary is off the hook, although not quite in the way he might have imagined.
Dropping Ron off at the bus station for his singles holiday, Gary finds that his friend is in high spirits, having found what he believes to be the ideal situation to provide him with maximum opportunities for female company, and also having paid a rock bottom price for it. However, true to form, things don’t go entirely according to plan, and Ron is last seen heading away for two weeks that will probably be very different from what he had envisaged.
To the final scene, in Gary and Yvonne’s flat, and after all his efforts, Gary finds that Yvonne stopped reading the Noël Coward book on the page before the one his photograph was on, however, anyone who thinks about it will have noticed that, if Gary’s picture had been on page 113, that would have been on the right hand side, and Yvonne stopped reading on page 112, which would have been on the left, meaning the double-page spread she was looking at would have had the photo right in front of her anyway (sorry, I know, I’m a geek! ). As the discussion continues, however, it seems that Yvonne is going out to see a previously unseen Noël Coward play called ‘Gary and Phoebe’, and as she exits, Gary rushes after her, no doubt, concocting excuses as he goes.
I’d give this episode an 80% rating. The main plot for this episode dominates it, leaving not many big laughs off the back of it.