Series 7 BG: Eps 7 - Xmas Special


A little spoiler space...............








I have been re-watching the Series 7 Xmas special and am wondering about the uniform that Joy is wearing. It looks to me like a US Conferate army uniform but I can't find anything exactly like it online. It is kind of similar to shell jackets for both Conferate and Union civil war uniforms. It's also similar to US civil war army musicians shell jackets.

Anyway it seems to me that Joy's faux US accent and reference to the vicar as "padre" makes a subtle linkage between Bush and Blair's alliance in which they share a support of a strong military plus Christianity. They also share the kind of tough on crime approach that Joy advocates. Gives her rle a wider significance.

Just also want to write down some points about Kevin Spiers while they're fresh in my mind. When talking about Fenner, penetration and his desire not to produce children on this MB, I noted that in series 1 Fenner had a reputation amongst the cons for preferring oral sex being performed on him. (see scenes with rachel & Shell & some comments by other inmates).

Well Spiers has a preference for heterosexual sodomy with a woman in bondage it seems. I think this also relates to non-reproductive sex in which the two participants are relatively lacking in emotional intimacy. In contrast in ep 12 Grayling & Bobby D plus Pat and Sheena have sex in a more face-to-face and caring kind of way. Also Spiers preferred sexual position kind of rubs up against his derogatory comments about shirtlifters and Fenner's comment about Spiers keeping his back to the wall.

Also I've pondered on the missing orgasm in BG - probably due to being a primetime mainstream show. But like in older Hollywood movies they do resort to some symbolic references to orgasmic activities (like the films used to use images of trains passing thru tunnels or just turn the camera away from a couple onto the wall).

It struck me that Natalie's choice of weapon to use on Spiers (the mace) had similarities with the act of a bloke "spilling his seed". She turns the tables on Spiers, on their date when Natalie was let out of prison, and takes the dominant and aggressive role when she spurts the mace into his eyes (a body oriface). Anyway later when they get back to the prison Natalie initiates a bit of post coital chat. She says she's sorry if she hurt Spiers. Spiers replies, "You couldn't if you tried. You took me for an arsehole which is even worse." Talk about Freudian connotations of fear of penetration - but it does kind of confirm the mace spurting as having symbolic sexual connotations.

Then in the Xmas special when they are caught about to engage in a further act of sodomy in the chapel. Natalie says it's bad luck for Spiers seeing as he'd spent so much time "licking arses."

On Pat & Sheena: while it's ffrustrating that we didn't get to see/experience more of the development of their attraction and relationship, they do kind of start off where Helen and Nikki left off. They almost revisit the infamous potting shed scene as part of a mutal awareness of their attraction. But in fact Pat rejects this and waits until they're in prison until the first kiss. It's an imprisoned relationship with all the problems that involves.

When they start snogging in earnest it's portrayed a little more like there's some tongue action rather than H & N's short nips. It's achieved by having their faces slightly in the dark and by some slurpy kind of sound effects.

Also, after they first have sex, Sheena says that she'd never experienced anything like it. Kind of echoes Helen and Nikki telling each other they were amazing in "Oh What a Night." And this suggests that it's Sheena's first time with a woman, tho they don't make a big deal of it. From there we get about the best portrayal of a lesbian relationship that is equal and happy that I can recall in BG. I really like the moments between them in the Xmas ep. Their discussion of Dillon's Xmas card: the little friction over Pat's anti-religion fixation; Pat sitting smiling while she watches Sheena sing carols etc.

Damn there seems to be no way to edit the topic line. I meant it to start with "Series 7".

Fixed. :ph43r:

Thanks! :D

You're welcome. :hug2

My impression was that she was dressing as 'Buttons' -- this is a character from the pantomime Cinderella.

From wikipedia:

The subject of Cinderella is very common for British and Australian pantomimes, although this is undoubtedly the number one pantomime, it is not the most popular to produce because of the cost involved. In the traditional pantomime the opening scene is always set in the forest with the hunt in sway and it is here that Prince Charming and Dandini meet Cinderella. Except that she thinks Dandini is the Prince and the Prince is Dandini (all very confusing and not at all politically correct, but then traditional pantomime isn't). Cinderella's father (Baron Hardup) is under the thumb of his two step-daughters the Ugly sisters who are jealous of Cinderella and cruel to her. There are also added characters such as Buttons (Baron Hardup's servant, and Cinderella's friend) and Dandini — the Prince's right-hand man, the character and even his name coming from Rossini's opera ("La Cenerentola"). Throughout the pantomime, the Baron is continually harassed by The Brokers Men (quite often they are named after politicians) for outstanding rent. The Fairy Godmother must magically create a coach (from a pumpkin), footmen (from mice) and a coach driver (from a frog), and a beautiful dress (from rags) for Cinderella in order for her to go to the ball. However, Cinderella must return by midnight as at that time the fairy godmother's magic spell ceases. As with all traditional pantomimes, all turns out well in the end as good triumps over evil.

Buttons traditionally dresses in a 'bell-boy' type outfit, very similar (if not identical) to the outfit Joy wore.

To be on the safe side while others are working through series 7 and not to give away any spoilers, there are a number of other themes worth picking out. It is interesting to consider Bodybag's 'we don't mention her' gay aunt that had to be covered up as in remarks like 'sahe hadn't got a man to help her' and the effect of that 'family embarrassment' had on her homophobia. Shed brought this in justs neatly as Bobby Darin's own family secret which a much earlier description of him 'living with a pal' entertained MB speculation.
It is also interesting to see a new Governing Governor clomp about the place with a set of inflexible dogma and being unable to see people as they really are. Contrasted is the liberal minded wing governor who knows the wing people first upon which the ideas are solidly, integrally constructed and who groans inwardly with despair at the antics of the new governor. In Series 4, the roles were Grayling and karen and at the end of Series 7, we have Joy Masterton and Grayling. What is fasdcinating is to now see Grayling's very long journey of exploration.
Coming to campgrrls very valid points, there is such a contrast in love and affection which is demonstrated certainly be3tween Sheena and Pat and Grayling and Bobby D and Kevin Spiewrs cold fastidious anti human approach. He is set up to be similar to Fenner but I suspect that Shed will show differences as opposed to similarities. It is interesting that Fenner sees right through him.

Thanks Filbetrfox. I clearly got the uniform thing totally wrong. I never actually saw a traditional Brit pantomime in my 18 years living in London. I did see some gay sweatshop Xmas shows that were loosley based on some pantomime traditions, but they didn't have the trad characters. However, if it's not a US military uniform then Joy's faux US accent doesn't make much sense - unless she's responding to the Padre uniform????

I see from the web that Buttons is in love with Cinderella. Hmmm... that ads an extra nuance to the ambiguous moment between Joy and Christie when Joy says she needs Christie.

Yes Bodybag's gay/lesbian relatives are quite a bit of fun in BG. It's interesting that her atitude towards lesbians seems to have shifted slightly when Shenne is checking out of the prison. BodyBag seems to realise Sheena has a female love interest and almost seems sympathetic in comparison with her homophobic responses in earlier seasons. It seems that BB's treatment by Dr No-No has softened her attitudes towards homosexuality??????

I just watched the Xmas Special (which I thought was absolutely brilliant, but more on that in a moment) and I was struck by the dynamic between Joy and Christie. (Her first name can't be an accident, can it, given that they're celebrating the birth of Christ....) Anyway, that opening scene between those two, where they are getting into their male drag, whoops, I mean, costumes, ;) was noteworthy because it used all the film conventions from the 1930s and 40s when films portrayed the "love that dare not speak its name," when lesbian identity and relationships were all coded, not shown explicitly. You've got an older masculine woman and a younger feminine woman. You've got them interacting in a very intimate way, both emotionally and physically. Even the mirror evokes the sort of narcisism with which lesbian relationships were portrayed in early Hollywood. The Garbo film Queen Christina (wait, could that also be echoed in the character Christie's name?) ritualizes the act of Garbo's character dressing up in male drag with the aid of her female servant, very similar to what we see in the Christmas episode between Joy and Christie.

Even the fact that Christie is cruelly murdered (ironically, for discovering the sexual indiscretions/deviance of a heterosexual couple!) plays into 1930s film conventions, where lesbians never had a happy ending, but usually at least one of the women committed suicide.

OK, I just spent ages trying to find a good screen shot of Queen Christina, but there are very few which show the "lesbian" scenes (ha, why am I surprised that lesbian images are erased/hidden in film history?) so here was the best I could do:



I also thought this Christmas episode was a stroke of brilliance. Just as the pantomime at the end used a specific genre to make a "serious" (ok, not serious, but accurate as hell) statement about drug abuse, the Xmas Special ghost story also used a specific genre to make a truthful statement about the ongoing trauma of the abuse and oppression of women. To play with genre, finding a grounded way to turn Bad Girls into a ghost story, at least temporarily, was the perfect way to finally get rid of Fenner. He had haunted the women at Larkhall for so long that it would have been wrong to have the character be killed and that's the end of it. Someone like Fenner is so corrupting, so deeply abusive, that in some ways he will haunt these women forever. Terrific dramatization of those deep psychological wounds. This episode didn't stray from all the themes and concerns of Bad Girls, but was able to take another angle by freeing itself from the traditional realism of Bad Girls.

I also think there is a lot to look at in terms of the role of costumes in the Xmas Special, in terms of gender, performativity (Arun, a transwoman, playing the Prince was the perfect touch) and power which comes from women dressing as men, women dressing in hyperfeminine outfits (Bodybag, deliciously contrasted with the butch Phyl, electrician extraordinaire, who fears no rat, no matter how large), Spiers as Santa Claus (oh, how ironic!). Its just so rich, but as its bedtime, I have to leave it at that for now.

Oh. yes I loved the Xmas ep. And as well as all the great points you mention about Fenner, it achieves what I said in earlier discussions about Fenner being integral to the prison system by being deeply associated with the prison building.

Ah yes all those early lesbian films & Joy. Wonderful stuff. And I heartily agree on Christie's name. It was a shock that she was killed tho. I expected something more to develop between her & Joy. And clearly Joy was totally distraught to hear she was dead.

The ghost story stuff was done brilliantly making some great intertextual references 9the psycho shower scene and other horror movies. I had a little quibble about whether Joy's character would have allowed the laxness that let the daughter of satan free to wreek havock.

I just edited my post above to put in a little more about lesbian films in the 1930s and why Christie had to die.

Oh, yeah, and the Psycho shower murder homage--totally brilliant!!!!

But this was key, because she had reamed Grayling for his mismanagement, and now her mistake has cost her the life of her lover. And Grayling was kind enough to point this out. I think its the first step in this character overcoming her hubris. G-Wing has taken down many a Governor, and I suspect Joy will be no exception.

Tho not in the Unis. I did a lecture a couple of years running at Auckland Uni about queer theory & film which included something about Garbo & Queen Christina. Though I agree that scene with the maid/servant often gets overlooked in the wider world.

Very good point to raise about Joy-Christie & lesbian movies of the past! It has set me thinking.... apart from the fact of being reminded of Garbo striding about in drag as in the image above!!!!.

I think the Joy-Christie relationship in the Xmas ep IS reminiscent of the closety portrayal of 30s films... and 40s a bit... was it Sylvia Scarlett that had Kathryn Hepburn in drag??? And it kind of fits with the ambiguity of the Joy-Christie relationship. I wasn't certain whether Joy was Out to herself, let alone in a sexual relationship with Christie.

But it also reminds me of some of the first films to deal with lesbian sexuality openly: especially Sister George which would have been more in Joy's time. Also George & Childie had a tendency to dress up as movie characters(Laurel & Hardie) as a way to express their sexuality at a time when they were channelled into strict butch-femme roles. This may also go some way to explaining Joy's attempt at a US accents - it looked to me like she was role playing a US movie of some sort.

The comment by Joy about how she didn't know what she would do without Christie is kind of reminiscent of George. But the twist is that Joy & Christie are more equal in their roles............. though as you point out with Christie being younger and more femmy. (I loved her retort to Natalie about sticking the bible up her muff!! Showed XChristie is definitely no puritan).

And for a young woman coming of age in the early-mid 60s, especially from a blue collar background, and maybe feeling she didn't quite fit in with expectations of her as a woman, the army could have been seen as having liberating possibilities. I think there's probably a few women with closety sensibility that went that route.

The Killing of Sister George! Definitely! Thanks for mentioning that one. I think if we started examining all these films, we'd see the Joy-Christie scenes were a composite of all of them. Oh, the Hepburn film is "Christopher Strong" if I am not mistaken. Although you're also right about "Sylvia Scarlett." She's androgynous in both films.

I think the significance of referencing these lesbian films of old is not just to place Joy's character in her generational old-fashionness, but also to include lesbian stories as part of the world of traditional narratives. The Christmas episode is chock full of allusions to all these traditional kinds of stories and storytelling. First, its Christmas, so you're inherently referring to the religious stories of Christ, as well as every other Christmas story (A Christmas Carol, etc). Then, you've got the fact that the whole episode is a ghost story (not just with Julie seeing Fenner, but with unexplained wind blowing windows open etc). Grayling's costume (as Sherlock Holmes) alludes to detective/crime stories. And the pantomine brings in fairy tales. I think you could also include the whole exorcism pagent as part of this as well, although I don't know a lot about Catholic narratives around this theme to know if its a traditional narrative or not. So it seems pretty significant that they also referenced this traditional style of lesbian narrative at the same time as alluding to all these other mainstream narratives. I think Shed is suggesting that although lesbians have a shorter history in narrative than Jesus does, its still one that merits attention and revisiting and exploration.

I've been thinking more about how the Xmas Special was constantly operating on two levels. The most apparent was the campy, overly dramatic level (the exorcism, the ghost stuff etc). But underlying that was the realism we're accustomed to on BG. For instance, if we look at the two examples I mentioned above, the exorcism and the ghost hauntings, we can see how they are grounded in reality (either literal or symbolically):

1. The Exorcism: Christie thinks that there needs to be an exorcism on the wing, and she stages one with all the conventions (a woman who thinks she's the daughter of the devil, blood being tossed about, crosses, creepy music etc). All very campy. However, Christie is literally correct in deducing that the wing needs an exorcism, because Fenner's abusive and corrupting influence is still being felt by everyone on the wing. Even more importantly, Christie is simultaneously engaged in a real exorcism: she has discovered the relationship between Spiers and Natalie, and intends to report it and most likely rid Larkhall of Spiers, the real devil who is still walking around. Of course, since BG is a show grounded in realism, when a human being confronts the devil, they are going to lose, and so Christie does--she's not strong enough to fight against the evil forces of Natalie and Spiers.

2. The Ghost Hauntings: Julie J sees Fenner haunting the wing. Everywhere she turns, he is there. No one else sees him, because, of course, he's dead. But like the exorcism example above, there is an emotional truth and a literal truth. The emotional truth is that Fenner IS haunting the wing. His corrupting and abusive influence harmed so many women, including many of those still at Larkhall, that even in death his presence is still strongly felt. And, then, of course, they give us the literal, realist explanation for why Julie J saw Fenner everywhere she turned: she had stopped taking her anti-psychotic meds.

Its really brilliant the way they managed to use all these surreal occurrences to explore emotional and thematic issues in a kind of operatic way (as in, emotionally exagerated, overly dramatic etc), while not losing the realist underpinings for any of it. That's a very challenging balance to achieve, especially given that they needed to persuade viewers to accept this HUGE shift in genre. It kind of reminds me of the musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (a show which frequently played with genre and was chock full of allusions), where there was a logical explanation of why all the characters were breaking into song, but more importantly, the use of musical theatre conventions enabled the writers to free the characters to communicate their feelings openly (because that's what characters in musicals DO!), which these characters would never have done otherwise.

Both Christopgher Strong & Sylvia Scarlett had Hepburn dress up in masculine kind of gear. But Sylvia Scarlett was the one in which Hepburn masqueraded as a boy and a woman was attracted to her and attempted to kiss her.

Oh, I agree totally on the integration of lesbian stories within the main fabric of BG. It's also there with Pat and Sheena's story being reflected in the pantomime. Of course the Brit pantomime traditon is one in which there's a whole lot of gender a sexual transgression anyway - kind of an outlet for traditionally rigid gender boundaries.

Interestingly Christie wasn't a Catholic - Anglican I think. It was questioned in the show whether a non-Catholic could do an exorcism. But this extends the religious issues to cover all Christian varieties. Christie was a vicar. She couldn't be a Catholic priest anyway.

Shows how little I know! I took that line about only Catholics being able to perform exorcisms and assumed that the tradition of the exorcism (and all the stories around it) originated in the Catholic Church and Catholic writing. That's why I made the comment about not knowing much about Catholicism (which I don't. As I have made blindingly obvious by this point. ;) ) in regards to exorcism stories.

Whoops: f**ked that up. Got it right 2nd time. Sorry for double posting.

I totally agree on the brilliance of the Xmas ep in successfully integrating "realism" and the ghost stories. There were so many things going on at several levels.

However I responded to the "haunting" and excorcism differently. To me there was a strong comment on religiosity & mass hysteria - kind of like The Devils. I think the exorcism is a major mistake on both Christie & Joy's part. Here I think Joy is totally out of her depth in not being able to cope with the vagaries of human emotions and psychological "hauntings".

It just took Julie J's total belief in "seeing" Fenner plus the confirmation from Satan's daughter & Darlelen's well played invocation of the undead, for the whole wing to be spooked so that a kind of mass hysteria could take hold. Of course this was also helped by the way Fenner does haunt the prison and the psyche's of the women in the wing.

But a better way of dealing with it would have been to deal with the underlying fears head on: to understand where they are coming from and not confirm & exacerbate the psychological power of the more superficial manifestation of them with the exorcism. No wonder Natalie was watching and kind of smirking, cause she knew that Satan's daughter was psychologically disturbed - haunted by her own psychological ghosts, and not under the influence of some mysterious power from another realm. Rather than providing a solution the exorcism set things up for Christie's murder.

IMO this provides a critique of shallow religiosity that doesn't deal with deeper psychogical traumas and spiritual needs. It also kind of comments on how Christianity has spawned all these secularised versions of Christian ghost/horror stories - vampires etc. Carribean Horgan's that are picked up by the west and made to fit in with it's versions of demonic ghost stories.

Ah, well I guess the references we make depend on the progs we have watched in the past. I associate all the camp and intertextual references & eps portrayed thru a range of different genres more with Xena It did that kind of thing a lot. Although of course it was less grounded in a contemporary sense of everyday reality than Buffy. Neverthless Xena does work through a grounding in contemporary experience. Although Buffy's musical eps are well known it was Xena that first did one & I think where Joss Whedon got the idea from. But as you say it makes it possible to deal with complex themes and issues.

Very well put, and I completely agree. As you say, there were real issues going on for the women and the wing in terms of recovering from the trauma of Fenner's death (and, more specifically, his life, meaning his evil reign of terror on the wing), but these weren't successfully addressed by the prison system, just as Fenner himself was not successfully addressed.

I've only ever watched maybe one full ep of Xena (the show wasn't really my taste), so that's why I mentioned Buffy--but from what I've heard about Xena, its certainly applicable here. My choice to reference the musical ep of Buffy is probably due to my positive feelings about musical theatre more than anything else. :)

Only a few points about the Xmas show that haven't been made already. I certainly like the shifting moods throughout the programme as the episode cut to a very light hearted childlike atmosphere when the prisoners played snowballs outside and the pantomime. The writers did well in having the normally down to earth Joy opt for the 'exorcism.' While it apparently applies to Miranda, you got the feeling that it ought to have served a purpose in exorcising Fenner's evil influence down the years. Another adroit piece of writing was Grayling's explanation as to how Miranda was stranded at Larkhall in the first place and blowing away the gothic and mysterious atmosphere that her presence had generated.
It is interesting to note that a dead or ghostlike Fenner still claimed a real influence on the episode and the closing credit symbolised his passing.,

They did a brilliant job at this on every point--brought the mystic back to the level of reality. Which is what made the flights of fancy acceptable for a show so grounded in realism. Only Fenner's ghost continued past the point of its realist explanation (ie Julie J being unmedicated), and that was purposeful, as you mentioned, because of the lasting impact of his evil influence.

Has anyone discussed the parallel between Julie J's self-stabbing in the Xmas ep and her theft of the knife back in season 3 when Julie S is out on electronic tagging? I mean, of course, literally it makes sense to think of them together, but there was a lot in the camera work and staging to emphasize the connection between these two scenes.
1. The foreshadowing shots of the knife cabinet with a knife missing (a technique which has never been used at any other time on the show, if I recall correctly)
2. The Macbeth "Is that a dagger I see before me" moment (Julie S's son's play), with a floating dagger not controlled by Macbeth is directly echoed in Julie J's sense that the knife is operating under someone else's contro, and it comes at her from above, with very similar staging
3. Sadly, in S3 Julie S's voice manages to snap Julie J out of it, and she saves her friend. In the Xmas ep, there was nothing Julie S could do to bring Julie J back to her.

#3 is the important point I think they are making with the contrast between these two scenes--the Julies, the inseparable couple, have become emotionally estranged, have truly individuated by this point. It will be interesting to see how their relationship evolves in S8....

I think in a way 7 was Fenner's series. And the epigraph at the end was as much a homage to his contribution to the prog. as an indication of how he haunts G Wing & it's occupants.

As I recall, there were many times when the promos for series 7 eps on TV One in NZ consisted of a screen filled with Fenner's image and comments about him being the ultimate TV villain.

I have mixed feelings about all this: for one of the few progs that makes women central and that has created one of the great lesbian couples, this domination of Fenner in series 7 and the homage to him makes me feel a little sad. And we had to sit thru all that screen time focused on Di & Fenner while the Pat and Sheena storyline suffered from lack of screen time, and caring attention to scripting and production of their story.

Very good points about the 2 Julies and the reflections back to earlier series, abzug, and their increasing indivuation. I thought the Julies joint speech and finishing each others sentences was well done and fun in series one. But I always felt they were kind of marginalised by being the Greek chorus of sexualised working class women. I like that their individual stories and relationship with each other has developed over time into a major dramatic storyline.

But they also have overcome their estrangement and int he Xmas ep were already re-building their relationship.

That is one of the few gripes I have with Shed. In fact s5-7 were about Fenner. And it is such a cheap soap opera trick, having the Dirty Den character for so long.
Its cheap and annoying because it doesn't do anything for what BG was trying to say. Evil is not creative. It's just plain annoying waste of time.
They could have had so many other male characters (if they wanted to explore the interaction between men in the prison service and women prisoners). They could have bbuild enough drama and character development around these. But yeah, having Fenner is an easy way out.
I'm not saying that he shouldn't have existed, just not given so much screen or plot time.
There were moments during the later series when I really felt "betrayed". I wanted to watch a program about women, not sit down for 60 min to get annoyed by some evil twat with more screen time than sense. The telly is full of them.

When you take the number of prisoners in that wing and then the number of prison officials, you feel like the officials have been again given the power by the sheer number of stories and screen time given to them. When this was supposed to be about girls, bad girls.

Tho I thought there was more screen time for women cons in the 2nd half of series 7. Been watching the Spain ep (9). Moments that made me laugh: Darlene and Janaine giving Spiers the finger behind his back as he wlks away after criticising their novel (I want to see more of Darlene!!!); The Costas walking towards customs in the Ab Fab outfits and saying they don't want to draw attention to themseleves (in those outfits!!!). And I like it when the Costas mention someone with a villa in Nerja, cause I spent a holiday once in a villa there.

I felt exactly the same way munky! Particularly by the end of S5 (ie after Karen gets arrested for vehicular manslaughter), I felt like Fenner had taken over everything. I mean, I always hated the guy, from that moment when he went to Stubby behind Helen's back to get him to reinstate G-Wing in the fashion show. But that didn't mean I sat there wishing he would die. But by S5 until the end of S7, I wished for his death every time he came on screen. And you're absolutely right, that it felt like a betrayal, for him to be dominating a show which had been so focused on women (and that feeling of betrayal is probably what inspired my murderous impulses!).

My other complaint about Fenner's screen time is that they didn't use it to give us a fuller understanding of the character, or what drove him to his behavior. In S3 and S4, I think they did this more effectively with Fenner, so we sympathized a bit with his fears, his yearning for Karen etc. Similarly, Shell's psyche was explored very effectively in S2, while still maintaining her status as a generally evil character. But by S5-7, with Fenner it was all about how absolutely over the top bad he could be. And that got very oppressive for me, as a viewer (and I am sure was quite oppressive for all the women at Larkhall!).

I've had some discussions in the past about whether the show would have worked as well if they had rotated villains. Like, lets say Helen had been able to get rid of Fenner in S3. Yay! But then S4 rolls around, and some new psychopath has found his way onto the wing, and must be similarly dealt with. Kind of like what they've done with Spiers. In a way, this would undermine one of the major points of the show, which is that the prison system has no effective means of ridding itself of the bad seeds. If Helen had been able to get rid of Fenner, and then Karen get rid of Fenner Jr. in S4 or 5, it would imply that, yes, bad, corrupting people do exist in the prison service, but they are identified and eliminated effectively by the bureaucracy. And I don't think the writers of BG believe this to be the case. Although, of course, we'll have more insight onto this once we've seen S8!

I can understand the criticisms of how Fenner has been so dominant in contrast to the way Pat and sheena's story was rushed. There has been a pattern to his behaviour in time because of the way he has inched bit at a time into further areas of criminality. It takes a stretch to compare the lazy, conservative Fenner of Series 1 who wanted his 'bit on the inside' and the freedom to manage G wing the way he wanted to the psychotic who was capable of murdering an innocent pedestrian , stitching up Karen for the murderand locking up a prisoner to die slowly. What is noticable was when in Series 2, Fenner started taking money from Charlie for Yvonne to get a private room with the comment 'This is the first time I've stepped over the line.' It is indicative of the man that when he got away with that, then it became all the easier to take the next step (managing Virginia's brothels for instance).
It all goes to show that, once someone like him has a central grip on the system and has his survival skills, it is very difficult to unseat him.

Oh yes, Fenner has constantly upped the ante. All criminals on the run do it. And that's what Fenner is, a criminal on the run locked inside the prison service.

I fully understand and accept that Fenners exist and are very difficult to root out (like all evil). Tragic part about it is that the prison service looses men like Dominic but can't get rid of the likes of Fenner.

But I still would have liked Shed to have a male in power who wasn't the typical villain using and abusing everything and everybody. You know, something like a breath of fresh air, something like Helen was for prison governors. Especially in this country (where the macho culture is at very low levels), I think the men watching the show would have enjoyed it and deserved it.

I think they've done a good job of showing a variety of women characters (both in power and without power) and having an enlightened decent male character would have been interesting. I know there was Colin, but he wasn't really in power. Dominic and Mark were short lived. But yeah, at least they provided a temporary counterbalance.

It would have been interesting to explore the issue of the impact a positive male figures would have had both on the prisoners and on prison life. Needen't be more than one or two since this is a women's prison and a show about women. For a lot of women I think, alongside gaining a lot from the sisterhood of the prison, having a chance to readjust, to explore basic human relationship with another male would have been therapeutic. A lot of these women seem to not have met a decent, caring man in their life.

Well Grayling had morphed into a kind of positive & supportive male figure.

I also liked the feel of a London/ Brit Xmas in the Xmas Special. It took me a few years to get used to Xmas being in Winter when I lived in London. Xmas here in NZ is much more of an outdoor thing as it's the beginning of summer - lots of Xmas days in my youth weere spent playing on the beach or out in our backyard while visitors came & went. These days if it's fine we sit out in the sun & eat & chat on my brother's deck with some food being cooked on the barbie.

Xmas in London is a very indoor affair with people shut up together for long periods. A big snowfall can add a touch of romance and magic to an outdoor world where there's very few people moving about & very little that's open. In NZ that sort of weather can happen like right now. It doesn''t snow in Auckland, but in the South Island some people have been under snow & without electricity for about 12 days. Dunedin streets have become a very dangerous ice rink, and in the last 24 hours the middle of the North Island has been covered in snow with most of the major highways closed.

It's just damn chilly here in Auckland, interspersed with rain and wind.

Anyway, the Xmas ep strikes me as very Brit with a strong mix of Brit traditions: pantomimes, carol singing, the mix of secular & Crhistian traditions, and the movie refs at a time when the main enteratinment is TV showing old movies. Thank god they didn't have the queen's speech though!

yes, but he is gay.

Oh aye, and have Joy deliver it. Or better still, Darlene!

Yes, and his evil, corrupt, narcicistic period was when he was closeted. So there's a sense that once he became an integrated person, rather than pretending to play the masculine role, he became more sympathetic to the prisoners.

I know i'm late to the party (was in London for the day yesterday), but just wanted to post the following re exorcisms...

From wikipedia...

Anglicanism
In the Church of England, every diocese has an official exorcist, who will usually be an elderly priest and from the Anglo-Catholic wing of the church. Diocesan exorcists usually continue in their role when they have retired from all other church duties. Anglican exorcisms usually take the form of a mass for the dead.

I know that I have harped on about Grayling but the changes that he has gone through is Shed at their most subtle. There seem to be a whole multiplicity of factors at work.
He ceased to feel constrained by his Mason friends in high places to deny his sexuality.
In a bizarre way, marriage with Di drives Grayling to realise that he ought to come out as gay (which he did in the drinks party at Larkhall before all the PO's)
He fell in love with Tony (even if it ended badly). Before then, you get the impression that his thing was secret 'one night stands' with younger men.
He came to admit publicly to Di that he 'had been a bastard.' All that very nasty bitchy stuff between them in Series 5 laid the foundations for him being to admit guilt.
Karen's scorn in late Series 6 burned out the last of the careerism there was in him- you get the feeling that, instead of forever worrying about what area thought of him and seeing his job as a stepping stone, he began to value what he did in itself and understand human relations. His attitude to Snowball was strangerly speaking not the cold self serving opportunist and his first tentative (if misguided) attempt at being a real governor.
He came to appreciate how tough a wing governor's job was when Frances appeared on the scene and also realised what Karen had done and how he hadn't appreciated her value.
He became more personally effective in the way that he grappled with Karen's negativity and despair in late Series 6.
At root, he came to the position of becoming at home with himself- his sexual identity- and the other half in figuring out just who he was. After being attracted to evil as in Bostock, he came to turn his back on it which is symbolised in telling Fenner at the end of Series 6 that he did it for justice. That word had a resonance for all the female heroes that tyhere have ever been in BG.

I have to agree with everything said about Grayling and his development as a more balanced and sympathetic character. I've actually come to like him...especially through the whole storyline with Karen at the end of S6. I love how he understands that they have to produce incontrovertable proof in order to catch Fenner, as he seems to be made out of Teflon...nothing sticks!

One comment about Masterton's uniform....in keeping with the Bush/Blair commentary, it could be seen as an American Civil War uniform. The hat is more of a Bell Boy style, but the jacket is very similar to the Confederate soldiers as well as some of the military schools that cropped up around that period.

I definitely think that was a big turning point for him--seeing how utterly destroyed Karen was kind of woke him up and got him thinking beyond his own needs and concerns. He was never all that supportive of her, but in the end she was the only one he could rely on, and I think realizing that changed Neil's whole sense of how he should relate to people--not just using them for his own objectives anymore.

OK, I thought you had just finished season 6--but you've also seen the Xmas episode? Or did you manage to watch all of season 7 in the last 24 hours? ;)

No.....I haven't seen all of S7...just E13, the Xmas special. I d/l'd it for future reference...as I'd just become addicted to BGs when it became available.

I'm a horrible spoiler hound....so I've read all of the episode recaps at the official site (which still doesn't give all the details...so I don't mind knowing what's going to happen).

I very much like your post, Abzug about Grayling and Karen. Unquestionably Grayling got the full force of Karen's contempt for his obgsession about his 'bloody career' and for once, you started to see Grayling start to shape up a little bit better in his interaction with Karen than he ever had with Di. Once Karen regained her nerve when she spotted Fenner on the CCTV tape, she started to come into her own. I liked the way Grayling persuaded Karen after her ordeal at the trial to nip into a taxi to go to Fenbner's wedding. In the final scene, they made a very good double act in unravelling Fenner. It is typical of Grayling's relative inscrutability that he goes through these changes without registering them. Again like Helen, you have to more judge him on what he does rather than what he says.

The problem I have with the change in Grayling's character is that early in series 4 he was actually a rapist. Even tho it meant that he gave Fenner a taste of his own medicine, I found it hard to get past that.

Now... continuing from the discussion on the camera angles thread.... I think the Xmas special does make Fenner one with the building by having him haunt it in the women's imagination. Here the use of camera angles is quite conventional in using a lot of low angle shots to emphasise his evil psychological/psychic power. It's underlined by the way the building itself seems to be haunted - windows blowing open etc. Also we see Fenner thru Julie J's eyes, but for the other women we just get a sense of a haunted building. It is very powerful the way we watch Marion (name? Satan's daughter) go into check Julie's cell without followqing her in, then she comes out and tells us Fenner's there - the unseen can be as spooky as the seen. And then we see the women's fear.

I think this ep also uses a totally different style from that of Mike Adams that has been mentioned on the other thread. This has a lot to do with using horror movie conventions and ripping off particular scenes from specific films. Apparently there's a bit of The Exorcist in there, but I don't know that movei.

The first time I saw the ep I found the scene where Julie J is freaking out, and Marion is yelling at Fenner backed up against the fencing with her arms spread wide very powerful. The camera cuts to her as the lights go up - very effective spectacle. Lighting is used well in this ep to put it in horror movie territory. This is accentuated by the insertion of "real life" broadcasts of the UK TV weather man. In other eps in this series the prison is quite well lit, so the darkness buts the prison into the shadowy side of "reality".

I wish I had more to offer this conversation at the moment, I read it w/interest, esp Abzug's finely worked set of intertextual references, which were terrific--also, Richard's summary post of Grayling's char progression was superb, very lean & clear & succinct. I have placed the Xmas special back on the burner in me head & will see what it comes up with. I need to think abt the lesb narrative issue.

I didn't want to just come in & applaud w/o offering at least something to the conversation here, however small, so fwiw, this is what I woke up with this morning:

Miranda. The name has to be ironic at the very least, no? Shakespeare made it up, it didn't exist before The Tempest. Her char is an innocent, pure, quite the opposite of this insane killer; nevertheless, given the setting, the storm, all that... there may be other more direct parallels I'm missing since I'm not Shakespeare Girl. But the name's so distinctive, I thought it worth mentioning. --e

Yes I agree the name of Miranda is distinctive. I haven't commented on it becuase it throws up a half remembered line of a poem that I couldn't quite identify. Well thanks to the Internet it's part of a Hillaire Belloc poem. The line that stuck in my mind was "Do you remember an inn, Miranda?" Here's the poem:

http://www.thecapras.org/mcapra/miranda/tarantela.html

Tarantela, by Hilaire Belloc
Do you remember an Inn, Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?
And the tedding and the shredding
Of the straw for a bedding,
And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees,
And the wine that tasted of tar?
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers
(Under the vine of the dark veranda)?
Do you remember an Inn, Miranda,
Do you remember an Inn?
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers
Who hadn't got a penny,
And who weren't paying any,
And the hammer at the doors and the din?
And the hip! hop! hap!
Of the clap
Of the hands to the swirl and the twirl
Of the girl gone chancing,
Glancing,
Dancing,
Backing and advancing,
Snapping of the clapper to the spin
Out and in-
And the ting, tong, tang of the guitar!
Do you remember an Inn,
Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?

Never more;
Miranda,
Never more.
Only the high peaks hoar;
And Aragon a torrent at the door.
No sound
in the walls of the halls where falls
The tread
Of the feet of the dead to the ground,
No sound:
But the boom
Of the far waterfall like doom.