I didn't see most of the last series. Anyone know why,of the Seatons,only Jessie and Billy appeared-both apparently in the Communist Party? Was said that Jack's friend Matt had been drowned at sea and Jessie sneered that her brother Tom was "a rich man now-a bourgeois.His son's at my husband's school."Was there any mention made of what had become of Bill and Bella?
shareIts a long time since I saw the last series, but I suppose that the actors weren't available and/or the writers wanted to drop them because they wanted to introduce new characters and a new way of life for Jack. IIRC he doesn't stay in Gallowshiels long but goes to London and gets invovled in business and politics there.
I dont remember Matt drowning, but he did die, before Jack returned.. I thought that he died of drink?
I dont remember Jessie saying that Tom was a rich bourgeois, but I think that at the beginning, Matt's wife or fiancee said that Bill and Bella were comfortably off and had moved out of Gallowshiels and that the "old man voted Tory now"...
I think that it would be appropriate for Jessie and Billy to have become Communists in the 1930s as many intellectuals moved "leftwards" because they had lost faith in the traditonal parties.
I have these series on dvd. In the fourth series, Jack returns from the US where he has been a bootlegger. He learns that Matt drowned at sea, but it was noted that Matt always hated the sea. In fact Matt had been having an affair with a secretary and had embezzled union funds to the tune of 100 pounds. Jack Ford's first act on returning to the north east was to replace these funds. Whether Matt committed suicide or was killed was an open question.
Tom Seaton was a wealthy market gardener and Bill and Bella had made a good living from their corner shops; Bill now voted tory, as the other poster on here pointed out.
It was disappointing that none of these characters re-appeared in the fourth season; obviously the writers wanted to go in a different direction and get Jack to Spain so that they could kill him off.
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Naughty Matt!! I dont remember that!!
shareThe girl was quite attractive but as thick as two short planks. She was trying to better herself by going to afternoon tea dances and by disguising her geordie accent by enunciating more clearly. She was dim.
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When ddid that happen then? from what I can remember, when Jack returns to Tyneside in the 30s, in thte last series, Matt was already dead? Can you remind me if he had married his girlfriend from the earlier series? I know that Jack lodged iwth her for a bit but can't remember if she was Matt's widow or just his fiancee....
shareMatt had been dead a few weeks when Jack returned from the US. He was married to Sarah (Headley), who found out about the affair and the embezzlement after he was dead. Jack made it his business to find out about the mistress, and, as I said, she was on the make and pretty thick. Jack repaid the £100-odd which had been embezzled so that the matter was closed. Jack and Sarah then went into business together with, first a market stall before branching out into wholesaling. The series then jumps a bit and we find Jack in London for a few episodes, during which time he meets his old aristocratic girlfriend, who is now married with various offspring. He meets her again back in the north-east where her husband is standing as a tory candidate and entertaining the local blackshirt. He has already met Jessie again, and her brother Billy, whotry to blackmail him over a dodgy deal, but he blackmails Jessie in return over a boyfriend who had had gay affairs at university. Do you remember it now?
Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear.
I think I remember the general outline of the series... I dont think it was ever repeated? Jack comes back to Tyneside and finds Matt is dead. He starts up a business with help from Sarah and prospers. Then he goes down South and meets Caroline Summers again, she is now remarried. I know he meets Jessie and Billy again, and IIRC she's estranged from her husband and having an affair with soem posh Red, who had gay affairs in his past.
THen IIRC Jack falls in love with some "posh bird" who has a mother who is a Labour MP. She is in love with him too and they want to marry but she has to get a divorce from her husband. Jack somehow ends up in Spain, and gets killed - IIRC Jessie and Billy are alos in Spain....
Thanks for your posts. Im looking forward to seeing the rest of the show. I hope they show the final series....
You are right in your outline. On the way he attends a toga party where he meets Jessie again, and she is having an affair having left her husband. Jack does fall for a posh bird, as you say. The posh bird has a mother who is a real aristocrat-red and collecting money for the war in Spain against Franco. The posh bird is played by Judy Loe and her mother by Phyllida Law, both of them famous as mothers in real life, oddly enough. Jack takes his posh bird on a cruise to the Med where they are to deliver arms to the socialist forces.
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Just started on Yesterday.Jack's rommmate a definite psycho-ex-teacher?I feel sorry for his ex-pupils.Suspect he'd lost his job for beating them too much.
share
He disappears early in the next episode and the series gets back on track. The first episode of the fourth series is the weakest episode of the lot by a long way.
Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear.
Midnite
I think that was understandable, sincne it had to set Jack up as back at the bottom of the ladder again, and it didn't convince really... though I think the teacher was horribly acted and written!
But the 3rd Ep a Medal for the Argentine seemed excellent to me......well written, showing Jacks' best qualities, well acted and with a good plot....
Well the two episodes with Ann Thornton (whoever she was) were excellent. She played a posh researcher who had a fling with Jack before going off with a toff. I found her gorgeous and found it difficult to concentrate on the rest of the programme episode while she was on screen. Anyway, as you say they were good episodes. I liked the fourth series as much as the other three. Have they met the German on the boat yet, with the umbrellas and the sewing machines?
Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear.