‘A BOWL IN THE HAND’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This ‘Oh Doctor Beeching!’ episode sees our characters going off to compete in a bowls tournament. It’s a shame though that the episode doesn’t focus on the bowls tournament itself. It’s more on Mr. Parkin getting Jack to stay behind at Hatley station to be on duty whilst he has some time with May.
But Richard Spendlove as Mr. Orkindale comes along and gets Jack to go to the bowls tournament instead and asks Parkin to stay behind. Now I like that Parkin’s plan backfires on him especially when he tries to flirt with May, but I think it’s also a bit mean of Mr. Orkindale to make Parkin stay behind.
But as luck would have it, for Parkin anyway, May misses the train when she goes back to fetch her soup ladle. Parkin is overjoyed when he sees May missing the train, believing that it was ‘fate’ that brought them together. May, upset with this, ‘sloshes’ her soup ladle onto Parkin ruining his uniform.
Unfortunately, Vera was a witness to see May sloshing Parkin with the soup ladle when she looked through the window. In fact, Vera has often found May and Parkin together in a suspicious situation together. Can May or Parkin convince Vera that this was all totally innocent and a misunderstanding.
Well, May and Parkin have other worries to think about when they wonder what will happen when Jack finds out them being together back at Hatley station. Ethel inadvertently blurts out to Jack on May’s whereabouts and Jack, in fury, deliberately finishes off that bowls match we never get to see.
I found it funny when Ethel was serving soup aboard the train on the way back to Hatley and kept spilling it. She even spills a bowl of soup onto Harry and his trousers in what seemed like an almost successful attempt. In his rage, Jack gets the train to go faster when he keeps piling on more coal on.
But do May and Parkin have an excuse to convince Jack that nothing happened? Well apparently, yes. May tells Jack that she thought he was staying behind at Hatley and wanted to get off the train to stay with him. You know, May could’ve told the truth in that she missed the train to get her ladle.
‘A Bowl In The Hand’ rating – 7/10
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