Harry (Jeremy Piven) opens the Beauty Event at the store with balloons being released from the rooftop garden, which have beauty vouchers attached to them. Kitty (Amy Beth Hayes) is in charge of the entire event and department and organizes beauty classes to show off the new products like cream rouge, how to enhance eyebrows and eyelashes, as well as the new range of lipstick, which most of the ladies at the event had anyway, not to mention pencil thin eyebrows too. The women workers at the store are laid off and given a month's pay, but that's no good for some of them since there aren't any jobs and that goes doubly so for the women.
Crabb (Ron Cook) is worried about Harry and how Harry's not said anything about the shareholder meeting, but Grove insists that he did the right thing in speaking up. Grove asks Miss Mardle (Amanda Abbington) if it's okay for Doris (Lauren Crace) to come in and pick out a dress for her birthday, though I don't know why he has to ask her, as they say, it's a free store and anyone can come in, or almost anyone.
The soldiers back from the war still hang around the corner, near the store, selling a cigarettes and think that they'd be better off begging like the men who returned without limbs. Of course they're just there to make trouble, as first Connie (Sacha Parkinson) is attacked verbally by them, who have nothing to say but derogatory remarks against women, telling them should be at home having babies and lying on their backs, that line was used a bit too much!
It was all happening in this week's ep, with Harry bidding on the land after getting a personal loan from the bank, with an unusually high rate of interest at 15%. But it was no surprise that no sooner had Harry said he was limiting his bid to £15,000, that who should rock up, but none other than Loxley (Aidan McCardle) and just to bid against him with no real intention of wanting the land. He of course knew from Serge (Leon Ockenden) that Harry would be bidding and that's why he revelled in bumping up the price, leaving Harry to pay double for the land. Though at one point he should've just let Loxley have it, instead of going to £30,000, but he was determined for the project to go ahead but also cos Rose would've wanted it. He tells Loxley to stay away from him, but he's not having any of that and he'll pursue Harry until the end for revenge.
Harry arrives home at dinnertime ad has words with Serge and loses his temper at him, as he rightly should, when asking him if he told Loxley about the land he was going to buy and he should stay away from him, which he already told him to do, but Serge has tickets on himself as they say in Australia and tells Harry that Loxley is planning to invest in his passenger plane. Harry tells him Loxley has no interest in Serge and is using him to get back at him and his family. Serge says he doesn't really care cos Harry should've helped him out, which Harry abhors since he's married to Rosalie (Kara Tointon) and living under his roof and rightly so. Family loyalty is what comes first and especially since they're nothing but a bunch of freeloaders as I already said. With the Princess (Zoe Wanamaker) trying to be so prim and proper wanting to speak with Serge, as if she's not as bad as him and Rosalie running off in tears. Violette (Hannah Tointon) tells Gordon (Greg Austin) dinnertimes should always be like this as they're more fun.
Fraser (Malcolm Rennie) the butler tells Mrs Lois Selfridge (Kika Markham) that the Princess doesn't live at the flat and there are no renovations being done. She left the flat without paying her bills and this leads Lois to go the Information Bureau at the store and ask Miss Blekinsop (Deborah Cornelius) for everything she can find on the Princess and her creditors, still keeping the news from Harry about the hotel bill she's raking up.
Agnes (Aisling Loftus) is worried about Henri (Gregory Fitoussi) as he doesn't come home and the next day she finds him working at the store, he's trying to capture the magic of the good old days and see if he can still do it. He doesn't want her help and he doesn't want to tell her about what happened to him in the war. She leaves him to it and the next day she finds that he's finished the window for the beauty event and finds him asleep at home. She asks Victor (Trystan Gravelle) if he's said anything to him about what happened over there and he hasn't, but Victor tells her about Verdun and how a soldier said it was bad over there. They were being bombed, gased, killed and starved since a supply line was cut off. She can't imagine what it was like and tells Victor she doesn't know who else she can ask. Then asks what happened to him, but he doesn't reply and says he's got a business to run.
Kitty brings in the powders for the event which arrived, late but Henri isn't around to display them, so she does it herself, by hanging them off the branches of the trees in the display. Henri sees her and loses the plot, telling her it's his work and she's changing everything. She tells him she doesn't know him anymore, that she lies beside him, he has nightmares and holds onto her, but in the morning he doesn't talk to her and rejects her. He doesn't want to tell her anything and the crowds gathered outside for this spectacle. Crabb sees what's happening and Henri knocks over some of the tables and storms off when Harry arrives. Harry goes after him and Henri imagines seeing his soldiers and being back in the trenches. He can't do anything for them and he won't let Harry help him either as he walks off. Harry could have gone after him. Later Grove mentions how they can't let Henri take leave since sometimes it's the worse thing for them, so Harry thinks he needs to find a place for Henri where he can work with him and keep an eye on him.
Frank (Samuel West) wants Connie out of the house cos he can't work and concentrate on his book and Connie says she could keep house for them, but Kitty wants her to find work. She even asks Harry if she could get a job, mentioning how Gordon works here now and the store is all about family. Gordon being a chip off the old block. Harry telling her she's the only one who could get away with that remark. Harry relenting saying that Miss Mardle could do with the help in the fashion department. Harry introduces Nancy (Kelly Adams) to the family and the Princess is too interested in taking Rosalie to he beauty event, whilst Violette says she doesn't do anything except shopping. She later turns up at the club and Victor asks if her Frenchman isn't with her. He's not hers and they both remark how neither one knows anything about the other.
Frank brings the two troublemaker soldiers to the bar so he can interview them for his book and he plys them with alcohol after paying Elsa (Naomi Ryan) to let him in. Well he'll be in for shock when he finds out what they do to Kitty who is attacked on her way home after being asked for money and being called a 'bitch.' She tells them she's been working fourteen hours and all they can do is be vile towards her, that a woman's just good for one thing, lying on her back and Silas (Mike Noble) attacks her. Luckily Harry is there to save her whilst on his way to the theatre. Agnes thinks it's Henri who's returned home, but it's George (Calum Callaghan) who tells her she can't look for him at 3am. She has to wait for him to come home and to get better, since there's nothing else she can do for him. The next night she tells Miss Mardle how she doesn't know him anymore and she doesn't know what to do, as Henri returns home and hears her talking.
Well it's downhill all the way for Henri as he reaches his lowest point and can see no way out of it. The same can be said for Harry, but he's not really despairing yet as he's seen Nancy in anew light whilst wanting her to be manager of the project. As well as drowning out her words when she's talking, seems he only has eyes for her now, or is it cos she reminds him of Rose in her charitable endeavours? Funny part was Violette and Nancy talking about Gloria Swanson and how regal she looks, but the Princess saying she looks like a horse! Was about to say the same thing about the Princess then, and what they both thought of her! Ha. Lots of lift scenes galore in this.
So what's going on between Grove and Doris, looks like there could be trouble in paradise there, what after having five children, as he seemed tense when he asked if it was okay for Doris to come in, and when Doris leaves the store a man comes in harassing her, she tells him to go and tells Miss Mardle it's nothing. Could he be someone Doris met when Grove was away fighting in the war?
No comments:
Post a Comment