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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 362599" data-attributes="member: 23">20 October - 4 November 1981 3523 - 3530Be still my heart. I’ve arrived at one of the series’ most iconic and controversial moments. As I write, the motel is ablaze. Outside Jill is screaming for Meg, who was last seen inside having taken a sedative following her heartbreaking decision to bow out of the business. Hindsight and newspaper clippings and Russell T. Davies all tell me that this is the end of Xrds as I know it. Funny thing, though… in context it really doesn’t feel like it. This is End Of Days for Nolly, but the heightened drama isn’t just restricted to Meg. and there truly is a sense of event to these episodes. I suspect that The Powers That Be, led by the treacherous Jack Barton, were counting on the publicity over Noele’s departure bringing in viewers and raised their game in order to really showcase the series at its melodramatic best in the hope of retaining some of those viewers. The result feels like a precursor to those week-long “disaster” storylines that British soaps do so frequently today but which would have been a shocking rarity back then. Emotions and sparks are flying left, right and centre at the moment, with a number of key storylines coming to a head. There’s been a further furious blow-up between David and Barbara with him leaving her to spend time with Rosemary and Barbara retaliating by telling him about which felt very final. History, of course, tells that it isn’t final. But for viewers watching this back in 1980, the proclaimed end of David’s marriage possibly felt almost as important and enticing as Meg deciding whether or not to stay in the business. Likewise, grubby Iris’s pregnancy. Arthur and Kath weren’t initially pleased (though Kath volubly ordered her husband that they were to “make the best of it”). Then it all became about how they were going to break the news to Glenda for whom it is obviously a sensitive and upsetting subject. Kath, of course, went straight to subterfuge, claiming to be visiting some neighbour while she was sneaking out to visit Iris and make excited plans for her first grandchild. Glenda got wind of this when Kath’s alibi was blown (which, naturally, was poor Arthur’s fault in Kath’s eyes) and flew round to Mrs Overall’s boarding house to find out what was going on. This is where the series really played against my expectations. I awaited the inevitable scene where Iris stuck the emotional knife in by revelling in telling her cousin that she was to going to provide Glenda’s parents with what Glenda couldn’t. In other words, a Brummie precursor to Alexis Carrington’s patented “empty-armed Madonna” speech, with “poor barren Glenda” suffering wonderfully. Iris did give Glenda the news, and Glenda did indeed suffer wonderfully. Her heartbreak was almost tangible. But Iris, in fact, told Glenda with something resembling love and humility. She embraced Glenda and there was no behind-the-back smirk as she enjoyed the delicious taste of her cousin’s tears. We just had two cousins caring for one another, with Iris probably caring more and doing all she could to look after Glenda’s feelings in difficult circumstances. It’s another step towards Iris’s redemption (of which there have been several since her release from prison) and I applaud the writers for the turnaround. Iris is in danger of joining the likes of Terry Hansen, Dan Scott and Regina Standish as one of those exiled characters who’s done something (or things) so unforgivable you think the door to the hearts of characters or viewer is forever closed… until it opens in the most surprising way. Benny’s traveller friend Sam Hurst is a great character, which is mainly on the strength of casting. Brian Badcoe is extremely charismatic and likeable. He also felt as instantly familiar to me as Sam’s painting style was to Meg. I don’t seem to have watched him in anything but smaller roles here and there, so perhaps the familiarity comes from me initially wondering if it was Matty from Brookside with a Welsh accent (incidentally, is Xrds the English soap with the highest proportion of featured Welsh actors/characters. It feels as though the country has been extremely well-represented here over the years, with Marion Owen the most constant). Sadly, parts of Sam’s storyline have either been seen coming (gosh - what could be the reason behind his paintings looking so similar to those of an acclaimed artist), or have felt rushed (Meg apparently confronted him with the truth off-screen and relayed the conversation to someone else without any sense of what was actually said. Most disappointing). Compounding this, Sam’s exit was spoilt for me when I stupidly re-read something I thought was non-spoiler, forgetting it’s quite a different story when one knows who’s who. The overall tone of his scenes has been great, though, and I particularly enjoy his relationship with Benny. It’s fascinating to find a character who views Benny for his strengths and discovers his potential talents and appears to view him in many ways as an equal rather than someone who needs caretaking. One of Benny’s closest friends Diane has been particularly dismissive of or condescending towards him recently, perhaps to reinforce this very point. He kind of reminds me of James Hazeldine’s character from One Summer: the one who thought he’d got away from his past and himself until he forms a new relationship which threatens it. With the fire still raging and no sign of the QE2 docking just yet, it’s going to be an exciting Saturday night in the O’Drama household.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?