I’ve been suspicious from the very start, but really, please, what on earth is going on? Well, to answer my own question, we know that Henry is ‘involved’ with Gemma for a bet. It seems it is as crude as that.
So, we have the toff with the working-class girl - all brash and brazen and on the surface with no finesse, at least not of the superficial kind. But there is an irony here, and that is that though Gemma appears to have no class, at least superficially, I repeat, she is in possession of some excellent qualities – and she has them in spades.
Gemma is the embodiment of loyalty. It was Gemma who went back into the Register Office room to check that Chesney was ok after the wedding collapsed. It was Gemma who devoted herself to Rita when she had a brain tumour diagnosed and was the best friend anyone could have had.
Gemma has her rough edges, but she is decidedly a good person, despite her background and some of the friends she hung around with in her earlier days.
Why then is Henry on the scene? Does Gemma really want to be with him? Is Henry engaged in some kind of social experimentation? It was confirmed in Friday’s second episode that Henry was going out with Gemma for a bet. Such an undertaking is at best stupid and at worst cruel. It will end, Gemma will be hurt and Henry will continue his life pretty much unscathed by the experience. His attitude towards Gemma can be summed in some of the words of the secret telephone call he made. ‘Can you believe the cheeky wench tried to finish with me?’ Wench! Are we in a Shakespearian tavern in 1590? Heaven help us if there are people still referring to women as wenches!
It could have been so much better. Henry’s snobbery could have been exposed by Gemma and her ‘rough diamond’ character could have genuinely turned Henry’s head and maybe they could have had an honest relationship. The storyline could have been treated with a light, deft touch and Gemma could have mocked him, gently, because no one can help the class that they were born into. As it stands, we are left with an untapped vein of humour and if our favourite street needs anything right now, it is a sizeable dose of humour.
By Ruth Owen, twitter:
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