BBC Land Girls, series 3, episode 5

Well, the final episode of Land Girls certainly didn’t disappoint. The episode opened with Walter Storey’s funeral. Vernon Storey make a fake tribute to his son, saying how much he loved him etc etc and how Frank Tucker should be punished for his death. As Iris had seen Walter leaving the barn alive, she decided to investigate, to clear Frank’s name. She snuck into Vernon’s house and came across some bloodied shards of glass and put two and two together. Unluckily for her, Vernon caught her red-handed. They got in a struggle, and Vernon nearly strangled her. Thankfully, she managed to knock the phone off the table, meaning that the operator heard Vernon talking about killing Walter. Iris managed to break free and as she wielded a poker, Veron backed off but swore that he’d be “back to get her.” I sincerely hope that never happens.

Joyce’s husband decided to discharge himself from the hospital and report for duty at an RAF base. He asked Joyce to come with him, and she agreed. John was told that he was unfit for duty. But, on seeing a Lancaster bomber on the airfield, he finally remembered what happened on the night he crashed in France. He remembered trying to send a message to Joyce before the plane crashed and he said to her, “I remember loving you and I will wait for you as you waited for me.” Joyce wasn’t sure if they could make the relationship work, but at the end of the episode, she and John decided to make a clean start together – yay!

Connie’s angst continued in this episode. Danny was still resolved to run away, and was just biding his time for the right moment to leave. A man turned up at the farm looking for Connie, who seemed to have a score to settle with her and Danny. The man, with his henchmen, cornered them before they could do a runner, and a gunfight ensued. In the end, Danny was dragged off by the henchmen (serves him right) and Connie was rescued by the ever-faithful Henry. And they finally got married – yay x2! It seems that becoming Mrs. Jameson didn’t instantly make her more demure, as the first thing she wanted to do at the end of the service was her “marital duty”!

Lady Hoxley discovered that a man working at the hospital, Mr. Harper, was the one sending messages to the nazis, when she found him doing so in the stables at Hoxley Manor. As she had then ‘seen too much’, Harper made to slash her throat with a razor blade. However, before he could do so, he was shot in the back by Dr. Channing. It then seemed that the mystery had been solved and Lady Hoxley had her man. Or not. At the very end of the episode, Dr. Channing was approached by a man on a bicycle. Channing said to him, “we’ve lost Harper, from now on, talk to me.” So it turns out that Lady Hoxley’s fancy man was a nazi collaborator after all. Bugger. Well, at least it leaves a plotline open for another series…

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this series, it had lots of twist and turns in the plot and it was very well acted. My favourite character continues to be the feisty Connie, and I hope that, if there is another series next year, then Connie will still be in it. I think there is still a lot of scope for her character, it would be especially interesting to see how she fares as a vicar’s wife! Here’s hoping for a new series of Land Girls next autumn…

BBC Land Girls, series 3, episode 4

Well, Land Girls is nothing if not dramatic! Where to start?

To begin with, Danny threatened to hurt Henry if Connie didn’t go along with his plans. He told her that she had to end things with Henry and run away with him after assisting with the petrol lorry robbery. Reluctantly, Connie agreed and broke off her engagement to Henry who was left utterly flummoxed at her sudden change of heart. Connie’s parting blow was “I need a real man.” Ouch. To add salt to the wound, Connie kissed Danny in front of Henry and walked off with him. The robbery didn’t go to plan, and Danny slapped Connie, but still demanded that she came with him, along with Martin who showed up to ‘help’.

Secondly, Joyce took John out to ‘their tree’, claiming it was her birthday. She described her last birthday to him, telling him about the Tiger Moth and how they made plans for after the war. She then confessed that it wasn’t actually her birthday, but she had just hoped that by talking about it John would remember her last birthday. He didn’t and in fact had a confession of his own , which he decided to disclose after he and Joyce had had a bit of hanky panky: he had cheated on Joyce with the French girl who rescued him. His defence was “I didn’t know who I was” but Joyce distraught and later gave him back her wedding ring, saying that she couldn’t be with him anymore. Is everything over between them? We should get the answer in the final episode…

Frank Tucker and Walter Storey got into a fight in the barn, leaving Walter unconscious. When Walter stumbled home , he told his dad that he’d fought Frank to make him proud. Veron cruelly told his son that he could never make him proud. Walter retorted, “Well maybe the new baby will make you proud.” In a fit of anger (he’d just been told by Esther that she’d had an abortion), Vernon smashed a bottle over Walter’s head, killing him. He then decided to use Walter’s death to his advantage, by planting the body in the barn and accusing Frank of killing him. Near the end of the episode, we saw Frank walking through the village to the police station – was he about to turn himself in? I hope not, as it’s Vernon who needs to be punished. Maybe someone should kill him… any volunteers?!

Throughout the episode, Lady Hoxley was starting to become suspicious of Dr. Channing, who in her eyes, was acting strangely, with unexplained absences and aggressive questioning of John about France. Finally she decided to search his bedroom and, to her dismay, discovered a notebook containing a code. Dun dun DUN! So is the doctor a Nazi collaborator after all? Or has he possibly been framed? OR is there a simple explanation for his odd behaviour? We shall see…

 

BBC Land Girls, series 3, episode 3

A very dramatic and rather dark episode this time around. To begin with, Esther met with a local woman known  for performing abortions. Finch saw the woman leaving and told Esther that he knows about her pregnancy, saying, “what she does isn’t safe, it’s butchery.” He sweetly offered to act as the baby’s father and look after Esther. Esther refused, gently reminding Finch that she still has a husband (in a P.O.W camp) and saying that she couldn’t bear the shame of having the baby as she’s “not 17 anymore. I won’t be forgiven.” Sadly, she decided to go through with the abortion, but collapsed in the kitchen at the end of the episode, which suggests that there were complications with the abortion…

Joyce’s husband John claimed to be able to remember details about how he landed in France. With Dr. Channing questioning him, he revealed that he’d been rescued by a woman working with the French Resistance. Joyce was immediately jealous and asked: “was she pretty?” to which John replied, “No”. However a hazy memory of him passionately kissing said French girl shows that he lied. Poor Joyce! It looks as if her marriage is rapidly falling to bits.

Connie and Henry’s relationship also looked as if it were in trouble when Connie caught ex-boyfriend Danny stealing from a shop and covered for him. Henry was angry, thinking that she still cared about her “man from London” and later broke of the engagement as he couldn’t forgive the fact that she lied to him. Thankfully, the pair were reconciled by the end of the episode, as Henry admitted that he too wasn’t perfect and thus couldn’t expect perfection from her. However, I sense that this won’t be the end of Connie and Henry’s troubles as Danny asked Connie to do one last robbery with him (the two of them used to be involved with gangs), and didn’t look best pleased when she refused to help him. I really wish that Danny would just bog off and leave Connie and Henry in peace to get married! Of course, we need drama to drive the plot forward, but as long as they get married by the end of the series, I’ll be happy, although I’m guessing they won’t.

Poor Iris has managed to get herself well and truly caught up in the middle of the Tucker-Storey feud and in this episode her lamb, Penny was stolen. Iris was heartbroken and she sobbed, “she’s the only thing I’ve ever been responsible for, and now I’ve let her down.” Frank Tucker was, of course, willing to help her look for the lamb and later realised that Iris was being targeted by the spiteful Storeys. Thus, Frank paid Walter Storey, and an agreement was made: if the Storeys promised to leave the girls alone and end the feud, then Frank would go to the police and take the blame for beating up Vernon. Frank brought Iris back to the barn, expecting the lamb to have been returned as promised, and it was, but cruelly, it had been killed first. And so the feud continues.

The sexual tension between Lady Hoxley and Dr. Channing increased this week. On noticing that he look exhausted, Ellen suggested that they have a break and so they went for a country drive. However, it ended in a heated argument and they parted ways. Later on, Dr Channing came into Ellen’s bedroom, kissed her, and the pair ended up in bed together. The smile was soon wiped off Ellen’s face in a surprising plot twist, as a local policeman came to tell her that Dr. Channing was suspected of collaborating with the Germans, which would mean that Ellen was, quite literally, sleeping with the enemy. Ouch. If so, then Dr. Channing’s interrogation of John’s experience in France takes on a whole new light: instead of helping him, he may instead have been prying for important details to feed back to the Nazis. The plot thickens…

BBC Land Girls, series 3, episode 2

Another great episode of BBC1’s daytime drama, Land Girls, aired yesterday. So what happened?

The episode was centred around a village fête, with a local dignitary coming to give Joyce her stripes for two years of service in the Women’s Land Army. Joyce was allowed to bring John to the fête, and was overjoyed when he claimed to remember details, such as her favourite colour and the date of their wedding. However, Joyce’s happiness was short-lived as she discovered later that Connie had told him in advance what to say in order for Joyce to think that his memory was returning, but John shouted, “I don’t know who I am anymore!” I really feel sorry for Joyce – having spent the last two series being faithful to John and worrying about him, it must have come like a slap in the face to find that, despite being alive and safe, he had no recollection of her existence at all.

Meanwhile, poor Connie had to cope with her ex-boyfriend, Danny, showing up again. It turns out that Connie was previously engaged to him but ‘did a runner’. Connie told him that this time, with Henry, was ‘for real’, but Danny seemed less than convinced and I reckon he’ll be back to make trouble before long and that his stolen kiss from Connie won’t be the last…

At the beginning of the episode, Iris was injured whilst working on Vernon Storey’s farm, when part of the threshing machine collapsed and she fell. In protest at Storey’s careless attitude to his workers and machinery, Connie proposed a farmers vs. land girls ploughing contest at the fête. Iris was chosen to compete against Storey’s nasty son, Walter, and promptly ran away in fright. Frank Tucker found her in the barn with her pet lamb, and persuaded her to return, which she did. Inspired by Frank’s faith in her, Iris won the contest. Later, a drunk Walter Storey tried to kiss Iris, accusing her of saving herself for Frank. I’m not entirely sure what Frank’s intentions towards Iris are: is he just looking out for her as a friend or it something more?

Finally, Dr. Channing came into Lady Hoxley’s sitting room for a nightcap and they discussed that fact that years ago, Ellen chose Laurence over him. Dr. Channing kissed her, but then hastily left the room. Perhaps Ellen will get a second chance with him? I’d like to think so, as she and Laurence fell out with love with each other, and then she was cheated by the irritating American man in the last series, so it would be nice for her to find someone to love who would love her back.

As I said at the beginning, yesterday’s episode was very good and I shall be eagerly watching as the rest of the series unfolds…