The Apotheosis of Annie
Only a week behind now, so if I can fit in two next week I might catch up with Australia. So, the twelfth episode in the hindsight view of Life on Mars. [It's just dawned on me that it's the anniversary of this episode's first broadcast, so I'm only 366 days behind now.]
You Are Cordially Invited
This one... was OK. It was popular, understandably, because Gene goes to a swingers' party where he may or may not have sex. My own view is that he doesn't: I remain convinced that, when it comes to women, Gene is all talk but wouldn't dare do anything that might get back to his Missus, who has him firmly under her thumb, so Mrs Luckhurst's camel-and-needle act is something unexpectedly innocent which just happens to involve removing his shirt. He's able to rush out of the bedroom as quickly as Sam does when he thinks Annie is in danger.
And of course we get the Tony, Cherie and Gordon jokes. I will never be quite sure whether Sam hesitates over introducing Gene's companion because he can't remember the name of Gordon Brown's wife, or because Sarah Brown is the only one he can't bring himself to embarrass by bestowing her name on Sukie.
It's essentially an episode about women, even though Phyllis gets only two brief walk-ons and 56 words, one-eighth of them devoted to Sam's treacle sponge. And there's Gwen in the canteen, who brings Sam the treacle sponge but doesn't say anything. Someone should write Gwen fic. But I digress... I think.
The story begins with the discovery of a murdered woman. In the end, since Denise is rescued, there's only one murdered woman, but it seems like more of them because a red herring, or more strictly a red geranium, leads our heroes to wonder if it's a serial killer back at work, and a whole troop of Beauvoir Ladies parade before us to suggest they might be potential victims too. Meanwhile CID put on a spectacular display of sexism, partly at Annie's expense, and partly about Chris's date (which goes disastrously when he takes Ray's advice, and brilliantly when he takes Sam's, though come to think of it the girl must have been really keen on Chris to give him a second chance after being covered with vomit). And the final twist is that the killer isn't smarmy Roger Twilling, but his sad-eyed wife Carol.
We're led into the story by Sam's memory of his Auntie Heather, which never really goes anywhere. It just about works if we think that Sam-in-a-coma dreams up a story about Beauvoir Ladies because he's just been visited in hospital by his Beauvoir Lady aunt. But otherwise it seems peripheral, except as a reminder of his separation from the "people who love him"; in the only scene where she appears in person, she rejects him as a weirdo trying to chat her up, and has nothing to do with the plot. It doesn't even raise the stakes that much (as if Sam needs an extra incentive to solve the crime: it's not just women in danger! it's not just Annie! it's Auntie Heather!) because it isn't suggested that Heather attended the Twillings' parties. By the time we meet her it seems very unlikely she was in danger at all.
Most of all this is Annie's episode. It starts off with her humiliation, as a colleague explains: "We were arresting this suspect, he were only a little lad, but he were too strong for Cartwright. Felt her tits and legged it off down the streets." (Typically, Gene silences Ray's "I told you so" - he won't have his team undermined.) Annie's still frosty when Sam offers to walk her home, calling him "sir" and refusing his protection because he wouldn't give it to Chris or Ray (though if it is the serial killer it's unlikely he'd be after them).
Annie's soon back on course, however. She's able to comfort the murdered woman's husband in a way none of her male colleagues could (back in the morgue/Victoria Baths), and she proves she's capable of making arrests after all when she chases and grabs Denise (at the Toastrack! The Beauvoir Ladies operate out of the Toastrack!) And she's in her element from start to finish with the undercover roleplay. She enjoys teasing Sam as they work out their backstory ("We had a lovely honeymoon in Blackpool... I was so surprised you were still a virgin!") But that's just warming up for flirting with Twilling at the tennis club and the drinks party. And that builds up to her triumph at the wife-swapping party: her Diana Rigg moment when she whips Twilling. It's an awful pity she's interrupted, as it does sound as if she's getting information out of him, quite apart from having a wonderful time. But she does solve the case by planting a radio transmitter in the Twillings' car, enabling the team to overhear Carol driving Denise away and identify their destination; she also takes charge of restraining Carol after her arrest. Of course, it's Sam whom Denise thanks.
And at the end, after Gene's allowed her to buy him a whisky chaser as her reward, Annie reasserts her independence by declining Sam's offer to walk her home again, saying she's meeting a bunch of mates, though she does suggest he could join them. He clumsily covers up, pretending he's "hoping to see someone" too. Again she distances herself, with "Good for you, sir!" I do hope she thinks it's Gwen.
You Are Cordially Invited
This one... was OK. It was popular, understandably, because Gene goes to a swingers' party where he may or may not have sex. My own view is that he doesn't: I remain convinced that, when it comes to women, Gene is all talk but wouldn't dare do anything that might get back to his Missus, who has him firmly under her thumb, so Mrs Luckhurst's camel-and-needle act is something unexpectedly innocent which just happens to involve removing his shirt. He's able to rush out of the bedroom as quickly as Sam does when he thinks Annie is in danger.
And of course we get the Tony, Cherie and Gordon jokes. I will never be quite sure whether Sam hesitates over introducing Gene's companion because he can't remember the name of Gordon Brown's wife, or because Sarah Brown is the only one he can't bring himself to embarrass by bestowing her name on Sukie.
It's essentially an episode about women, even though Phyllis gets only two brief walk-ons and 56 words, one-eighth of them devoted to Sam's treacle sponge. And there's Gwen in the canteen, who brings Sam the treacle sponge but doesn't say anything. Someone should write Gwen fic. But I digress... I think.
The story begins with the discovery of a murdered woman. In the end, since Denise is rescued, there's only one murdered woman, but it seems like more of them because a red herring, or more strictly a red geranium, leads our heroes to wonder if it's a serial killer back at work, and a whole troop of Beauvoir Ladies parade before us to suggest they might be potential victims too. Meanwhile CID put on a spectacular display of sexism, partly at Annie's expense, and partly about Chris's date (which goes disastrously when he takes Ray's advice, and brilliantly when he takes Sam's, though come to think of it the girl must have been really keen on Chris to give him a second chance after being covered with vomit). And the final twist is that the killer isn't smarmy Roger Twilling, but his sad-eyed wife Carol.
We're led into the story by Sam's memory of his Auntie Heather, which never really goes anywhere. It just about works if we think that Sam-in-a-coma dreams up a story about Beauvoir Ladies because he's just been visited in hospital by his Beauvoir Lady aunt. But otherwise it seems peripheral, except as a reminder of his separation from the "people who love him"; in the only scene where she appears in person, she rejects him as a weirdo trying to chat her up, and has nothing to do with the plot. It doesn't even raise the stakes that much (as if Sam needs an extra incentive to solve the crime: it's not just women in danger! it's not just Annie! it's Auntie Heather!) because it isn't suggested that Heather attended the Twillings' parties. By the time we meet her it seems very unlikely she was in danger at all.
Most of all this is Annie's episode. It starts off with her humiliation, as a colleague explains: "We were arresting this suspect, he were only a little lad, but he were too strong for Cartwright. Felt her tits and legged it off down the streets." (Typically, Gene silences Ray's "I told you so" - he won't have his team undermined.) Annie's still frosty when Sam offers to walk her home, calling him "sir" and refusing his protection because he wouldn't give it to Chris or Ray (though if it is the serial killer it's unlikely he'd be after them).
Annie's soon back on course, however. She's able to comfort the murdered woman's husband in a way none of her male colleagues could (back in the morgue/Victoria Baths), and she proves she's capable of making arrests after all when she chases and grabs Denise (at the Toastrack! The Beauvoir Ladies operate out of the Toastrack!) And she's in her element from start to finish with the undercover roleplay. She enjoys teasing Sam as they work out their backstory ("We had a lovely honeymoon in Blackpool... I was so surprised you were still a virgin!") But that's just warming up for flirting with Twilling at the tennis club and the drinks party. And that builds up to her triumph at the wife-swapping party: her Diana Rigg moment when she whips Twilling. It's an awful pity she's interrupted, as it does sound as if she's getting information out of him, quite apart from having a wonderful time. But she does solve the case by planting a radio transmitter in the Twillings' car, enabling the team to overhear Carol driving Denise away and identify their destination; she also takes charge of restraining Carol after her arrest. Of course, it's Sam whom Denise thanks.
And at the end, after Gene's allowed her to buy him a whisky chaser as her reward, Annie reasserts her independence by declining Sam's offer to walk her home again, saying she's meeting a bunch of mates, though she does suggest he could join them. He clumsily covers up, pretending he's "hoping to see someone" too. Again she distances herself, with "Good for you, sir!" I do hope she thinks it's Gwen.