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gervase_fenPart two picks up moments after part one, so we're back in the poky board room. "We've a lot to get through", insists Edward, whose personal agenda is to buy out each of his fellow directors and take sole control. In theory youngest brother David should be the most likely to sell up - and Brian already has a job as an accountant. But David now thinks he has found a purpose in life, and Brian (seen here specs on, engrossed in the balance sheet) is getting professional satisfaction as more than an auditor for hire.
Meanwhile Brian's wife Ann is contemplating lifestyle changes that more money would bring...
....and visits her mother-in-law to try to persuade her to exert some pressure, before turning up at the office in person. Brian has however fallen too far the rabbit hole of the company accounts to want to come out.Elsewhere Barbara is dealing with her status change from orphan to lovechild, Jean wants to challenge the will, and Jennifer slaps down Edward quite magnificently -
"Just a minute - I know Mr Hammond wasn't happy about this."
"I thought it was your job to keep him happy." "Does that make you feel any better?"
Edward ends the episode brooding into the darkness, having got nobody to sell up to him.
Part Three, "Confrontation", builds to a showdown between Jean and Jennifer, the former summoning the latter ostensibly to discuss the conditions of the will but primarily to vent her sense of grievance at Jennifer and Jennifer's daughter. All the performers rise to the occasion, Barbara disarming Jean at the end by saying that she doesn't want any money from her inheritance - she just wants to know what her father was really like, which forces Jean to admit that she clearly didn't know him all that well!
Elsewhere Ann has invited Brian's old boss round for dinner and is using all her feminine wiles on the hapless Peter Copley , deploying vol au vents, brandy, perfume and decolletage :
... no doubt prepared to take draconian measures to secure an order from her (sorry).
Elsewhere Ann has invited Brian's old boss round for dinner and is using all her feminine wiles on the hapless Peter Copley , deploying vol au vents, brandy, perfume and decolletage :
...with the result that he agrees to hold Brian's position open for the next six months in case things don't work out. But in Part Four, "Decisions", Brian has made up his mind. Ann flounces out the house she says she despises and just happens to visit her brother-in-law ("I went to the pub but I left in such a hurry I didn't have any money on me"). If for nothing else I'm enjoying this series because of Hilary Tindall's full throttle commitment to the role of Ann, ruthless, selfish, charming, and determined to get what she wants (although this time David does the decent thing and turns her down.)
Elsewhere, a familiar looking sales rep for office supplies has secured a future lunch date with Jennifer :
Elsewhere, a familiar looking sales rep for office supplies has secured a future lunch date with Jennifer :
... no doubt prepared to take draconian measures to secure an order from her (sorry).
