Family Stories

Different family stories told in Monday’s episode. First, Kylie at Freddie’s house, sorting his late wife Sadie’s clothes for the charity shop. There’s a dress he doesn’t want Kylie to pack up. It’s long and silver and sparkly. He wants to keep it for the story in its fabric.

In 1973, as a surprise for her 21st birthday, Freddie took Sadie to London, to the ballet in Covent Garden. Going there was a dream she’d long had. He borrowed a suit from a friend. Sadie packed a skirt and blouse. “I had no idea how dressy the ballet was.”

In London with only an hour before the performance, “cursing like a navvy,” Sadie went dress shopping. They had little money left. It had been spent on the tickets, trains and a b & b. Sadie found her dress in a Soho secondhand shop. She could then enjoy every minute of Sleeping Beauty.

The people you love…

Freddie wants to keep the dress, a reminder of that evening of elegance and magic. Of his Sadie’s dream come true, of his dream come true in sharing his life with her. The silly little rows don’t matter, he tells Kylie, it’s the people you love and those who love you.

Contrast that evocative story of a marriage, embodied in a dress, with the Platt family in real time. Freddie drives Kylie to the hospital when she checks her phone and find many messages. Sarah is having her baby, early.

Platt family’s silly row

A family argument has been brewing in the waiting room, and it explodes with their arrival. Kylie and Freddie stay out of it, as do Todd and David. But Gail, Audrey and Nick don’t really need anyone else for a good fight.

Gail is the worst of the lot. She turns on Kylie for letting Sarah down as her birthing partner. She pouts that it should have been her. “Oh yes, if she’d fancied giving birth in a multiplex” – Audrey’s little dig at Gail for being at a movie when she was needed.

Nick tells his mother this isn’t helping Sarah, and comes under fire for how will he be helping when he’s moved halfway across the country. He says who could blame him, “try and be 35 with your mum breathing down your neck.” Gail’s answer? “Try it when you’re nearly 60.” Audrey sputters with astonishment.

My husband said it reminded him of a time when the Platts were discussing some trashy family, and David said “we are that family.”