Another fantastic, yet depressing episode. In this one, it explicits the dysfunction of an unbalanced social system. Exemplified by the banality and absurdity of positions like 'DoE investigators', who pray on people that are looking for honest work and the toll that it takes on their families, who are on the verge of financial colapse.
2 Reviews
Shop Thy Neighbour
Prismark103 August 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Chrissie Todd (Michael Angelis) and Angie Todd (Julie Walters) are married couple in despair.
They have young kids, no food, no money, in debt and the gas and electric would soon be cut off.
Their relationship is under pressure. They got married and had children while still teenagers.
Now Chrissie's dole has been cut off, he is under investigation for claiming while he was working. Angie thinks he is too passive while the world throws garbage at the them.
The only solace Chrissie has is to look after his little menagerie of animals in the backyard.
The chickens and geese never stood a chance, not when a shotgun was introduced.
It really was a distillation of relationship issues that countless couples faced in the early 1980s while suffering under a Thatcherite recession.
It was a dramatic breakthrough for Julie Walters. She would be Oscar nominated just over a year later for Educating Rita. Until then I knew more of her in comedy with Victoria Wood.
The episode was not all about Chrissie and Angie.
It opens with a Department of Employment enforcement manager Miss Sutcliffe (Jean Boht) trying to look after her aged mother, who in turn is playing cruel tricks on her daughter.
Miss Sutcliffe is a frustrated middle aged spinster. She has a lustful eye on Loggo. Maybe that is why she decides not to press charges on Loggo and Chrissie. Go after the big fish.
The DHSS officials are a mixture of people frustrated with their jobs as snoopers and those that relish it.
Donald Moss (David Ross) who has been sidelined and realises that he has no future in his job. Maybe he was just too nice following the likes of Chrissie all day.
The DHSS parts actually turned out to be the lighter side of the story. Balance out the relationship stuff which threatened to go dark.
They have young kids, no food, no money, in debt and the gas and electric would soon be cut off.
Their relationship is under pressure. They got married and had children while still teenagers.
Now Chrissie's dole has been cut off, he is under investigation for claiming while he was working. Angie thinks he is too passive while the world throws garbage at the them.
The only solace Chrissie has is to look after his little menagerie of animals in the backyard.
The chickens and geese never stood a chance, not when a shotgun was introduced.
It really was a distillation of relationship issues that countless couples faced in the early 1980s while suffering under a Thatcherite recession.
It was a dramatic breakthrough for Julie Walters. She would be Oscar nominated just over a year later for Educating Rita. Until then I knew more of her in comedy with Victoria Wood.
The episode was not all about Chrissie and Angie.
It opens with a Department of Employment enforcement manager Miss Sutcliffe (Jean Boht) trying to look after her aged mother, who in turn is playing cruel tricks on her daughter.
Miss Sutcliffe is a frustrated middle aged spinster. She has a lustful eye on Loggo. Maybe that is why she decides not to press charges on Loggo and Chrissie. Go after the big fish.
The DHSS officials are a mixture of people frustrated with their jobs as snoopers and those that relish it.
Donald Moss (David Ross) who has been sidelined and realises that he has no future in his job. Maybe he was just too nice following the likes of Chrissie all day.
The DHSS parts actually turned out to be the lighter side of the story. Balance out the relationship stuff which threatened to go dark.
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