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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 343807" data-attributes="member: 23">After a bit of an enforced gap, normal service has been resumed and last night saw me watch the final two episodes of the penultimate series. They're episodes which mark a real turning point in the series... and quite possibly a divergence from the series on which it's based.Second Thoughts is, I suspect, a fairly straight translation of Who's The Boss?'s Allergic To Love. It's enjoyable enough but a fairly standard episode, albeit one with more saccharine moments then usual with the wedding talk.Then comes The Wedding. If I'm remembering correctly this is the first episode that's been longer than the standard 25 minutes. In fact it's double-length. Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter are credited as writers, so presumably it's a translation of a Who's The Boss? episode. Did Tony and Angela marry at series' end, I wonder?Naturally, this episode amps up the saccharine even more, but it's tempered by the wonderful cast of guest actors, many of whom specialise in the acerbic. Regular guests Anthony Newley and Lynda Baron are present and correct, both proving wonderful foils for Honor Blackman. Almost bizarrely, Kirsten "I shall say thees only weernce" Cooke returns from her small role as a friend of Caroline's back in Series One's First Kiss to play the same character who has a bigger role here as Caroline's dressmaker.Stealing the show with his disapproving looks and wonderful deadpanning is one of my favourite character actors Frank Thornton, here in between his final outing as Captain Peacock in Grace & Favour and his debut as Truly Of The Yard in Last Of The Summer Wine (a role he'd go on to play for a whopping 135 episodes). Playing his wife is Rosalind Knight, best known to me for her work in the early Carry Ons and other films from that team. Impressively, all of Frank's scenes as Reverend Hale are filmed on location and he's an absolute hero through what look to be very difficult filming conditions. His character's church is meant to have caught fire, so the wedding takes place outdoors with smoke blowing all round them.Furthermore, although it's a beautiful day (and it does look great), the heavens are meant to open mid-ceremony, which means the entire guest cast of esteemed and established actors gets bombarded with heavy barrages of water, presumably from cannons or hoses. The entire latter part of the episode serves as a testament to the professionalism of these experienced pros.It really is a novelty to witness Captain Peacock and Nurse Gladys Emmanuel interacting, made even more surreal by the presence of Michelle Of The Resistance and Pussy Galore.Oh - this reminds me... the episode also had a meta moment after Laura karate chopped Caroline's (recast) ex-husband Michael in the stomach, leading him to quip:I wonder if this line was in the original and simply not changed for the British version because it was just too perfect (like the "Marilyn Monroe" line in The Seven Year Itch)? Either way, it's a nice nod to an earlier character of Honor Blackman's that manages not to be too in-your-face thanks to the great distance between her playing these two very different characters.</blockquote>

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