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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 364767" data-attributes="member: 23">Episodes 19 - 24 04 - 19 January 1983The Collins children are proving more watchable than I’d expected.Lucy most definitely has a mind of her own, a stubborn will and a resentment about the situation she now finds herself in both at home and school. Her rebelliousness is really kicking in now, with her dating a Hooray Henry from her old stomping ground, and it’s great fun to watch. I particularly loved the scene where Annabelle appeared to have persuaded Paul to simply leave Lucy alone to reap what she’s sowing. Seconds later, he overhears the tail end of a conversation between Lucy and Gordon, misunderstands and goes charging from the kitchen to the living room to confront her. Anything that gets Paul’s blood pressure up is a winner with me. Lucy’s far more spiky and forthright than I remembered, and there’s something of a young Rosalyn Landor to Katrin Cartlidge. It’s made me interested to see more of her work, and I see there are some Mike Leigh films among them which has intrigued me all the more.Gordon speaks very little but says an awful lot with just a look. Something about him feels rather Australian to me. He has the softly spoken voice of the original Scott Robinson, while the red-headed, introverted younger son and his interest in computers makes him an amalgam of the two O’Brien kids (though mercifully without the whining, shrieking or mumbling). I find his geeky side completely endearing, and it’s interesting to have a school-aged kid who isn’t causing trouble or rebelling but simply going about his business. Damon, Ducksie and Gizzmo flicking food at him and laughing during the New Year’s Eve party while Gordon simply took it spoke volumes. While I remember the recast (and arguably retconned) mid-to-late-Eighties Gordon better, I find myself more interested to see what OG Gordon’s stint in the series brings him.The Grants just get better and better. Latest developments have seen Sheila confront a colleague and friend who is pilfering from the till to survive, and her fury at Damon for saying he doesn’t want to go to morning service anymore (pipping poor Karen to the post since she’s been working up to this for ages). Most fun was Sheila’s retaliation for Damon returning the anorak he had as his sole Christmas present and exchanging it for records: she and Karen chose him an even uglier yellow anorak from the market and his penance is to wear it. Possibly forever. It’s delightfully executed, and I know I’ll give a little smile a whenever I see him wear it.The Huntingtons’ concern over Gavin’s gaudy workshop wonderfully demonstrated the lack of community spirit present in its ITV counterparts. As well as increasing the friction between the next-door neighbours, the Huntingtons’ attempts to drum up trade by knocking doors with a self-created petition fell on deaf ears. At the Collinses, only Lucy was present and she said she liked the ugly shed, which was characteristically perverse. At the Grants, Sheila was even blunter saying it’s none of her family’s business because they can’t see it, before closing the door in their faces.What I particularly loved about this sequence was the way the episode was structured so that we can understand why those in the households are none too receptive to Heather and Roger’s concerns. Lucy’s brooding over her choice not to visit her grandmother in the Lake District (since it’s Annabelle’s mother I assume this is Mona who would later feature more), while the Grants have the usual chaos going on. Meanwhile, Gavin was even less approachable than usual during the Huntington's initial visit to try and air their concerns because he was processing the news about his low sperm count and was pretty much under doctor’s orders to have sex that evening because Petra was ovulating. This added further meaning to his bitter quip that Roger “doesn’t like my erection”.</blockquote>

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