EPISODE 683 Joan gets a nasty shock when she goes for her final job interview. Alice tries to discover the truth about Harry. First broadcast ... 1986 (Melbourne) Broadcast on Channel 5 Sunday 14 January 2001 04:40 DVD release: volume 40 disc 3 (AUS) Duration: 0:44:17

Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Joyce ~ Joy Westmore Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Alice ~ Lois Collinder Kath ~ Kate Hood Merle ~ Rosanne Hull-Brown Rodney ~ Philip Hyde Marty ~ Michael Winchester Spider ~ Taya Straton Spike ~ Victoria Rowland Brumby ~ Sheryl Munks Vicki ~ Rebecca Dines Harry Grosvenor ~ Mike Bishop Stud ~ Peter Lindsay Billy ~ Glennan Fahey Mary Simms ~ Susan Fraser Sinister Man ~ Peter Gray UNCREDITED Pat Slattery ~ Dorothy Cutts OTHER CHARACTERS Damien Mortimer Written by Quincey McQuade Directed by Sean Nash

Vicki notices Spider is irritable since her mother visited, but Spider refuses to talk about it. Rodney catches Rita talking to Harry trying to arrange another meeting with Alice. Stud and Billy decide to use Harry's meeting with Alice to get access to the women. Joan is offered another job by Hampton Security: she makes sure the firm is in no way connected with Centaur Security. Ann announces that a reward flat will be made available to those coming top in a new points system for good behaviour. After a tipoff from someone else working in his office, Joan's new employer takes a phone call from Willie and he tells Joan she can't have the job after all as she was sacked from Centaur. Spike helps Merle to phone Tommy and she tells him that she and Kath will be escaping. Stud and Billy knock out Harry and tie up Spider and take her to the library where Alice and Rita are waiting. Rita and Alice overpower Stud and Billy and tie them up. Joan gives up hope of finding a job and phones the Minister, but has to leave a message when he isn't available. Rita and Alice free Harry: he tells them that it was Stud and Billy who raped Lorelei, and Rita and Alice take them to a storeroom. Rita asks the other women to think of a punishment for the men, and they all draw lots for the privelege of "cutting" them. Kath breaks into Marty's locker and plants the drugs. Rita leaves a razor near the storeroom door, and tells Stud and Billy the women will visit one by one, and the winner of the draw will be able to do whatever she likes with the razor. Kath makes Rodney suspicious of Marty and then doses a sweet with the heroin to give to Spike. A passer-by bumps into Marty in the street and slips something into his bag. Kath gets Merle to give Spike the sweet: she eats it and is taken ill. Kath persuades Merle that Spike will be all right, when she panics that the sweet was poisoned. Rodney searches Marty's bag when he arrives at work and finds drugs in it, and passes on the information Kath gave him about Marty and Spike to the Governor. Marty is suspended. Spike is found unconscious and Rita confronts Kath. Stud frees himself and Billy. Kath phones Mr Willis to say the job is done and she wants the escape arranged for the following day. Stud knocks out Rita and Alice when they come to carry out the "cutting". Marty realises how he was set up when he accuses Rodney and he doesn't know what he's talking about. Merle rescues Rita and Alice and knocks out Stud and Billy, but becomes hysterical when she thinks she's killed them. ***

Thanks to Anthony for pointing out the enigmatic message written in felt tip on the cardboard box on the storeroom shelf behind Billy's head . It could almost be read as an in-joke about Cas(s) Parker (who, like Merle, was initially "beef" but later "vegetable"). Sadly, I suspect it only means that the box contained 14 tins of vegetable and beef cas(serole). If the 14X1980 is supposed to be a date, let us hope the box now contains something else, as six years seems a long time to keep even tinned food. And that the box of "fruit yoghurts" on the top shelf doesn't still have its original contents either...

Story Editor: Bevan Lee
Script Editor: Morgan Smith
Storyliners: Tony McDonald, John Coulter, Bob Greenberg

ITV regional broadcast dates:-
Broadcast on Westcountry Monday 29th September 1997 23:45

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