Well the time has come to review the final episode from Series 1, ‘And in Again’.
Please Note this contains Spoilers.
Well it’s been coming a while but Hazel has finally kicked Budgie out and gone back to her dysfunctional mother in Hendon.
Budgie’s left a bit high and dry with a suitcase and the stolen fruit machine he nicked when he did the ill fated robbery of porno mags with Grogan (Rio Fanning) from the first episode ‘Brains’. More through instinct he stumbles on to Charlie doing business with his dodgy accountant Bertie Inchbeck (Tenniel Evans). Before Budgie’s entry Charlie is making plans with Inchbeck to launder £75k in cash from his dodgy ventures in The Bahamas before, rather conveniently taking a family holiday in The Bahamas himself. Budgie bursts in on this suitcase and one arm bandit in hand and accidently picks up the case with the loot when he leaves after palming the fruit machine onto Charlie as some sort of birthday gift for him.
Budgie tries again with Hazel but she’s having none of it and in true slapstick style the case transfers from Budgie to Hazel who’s back home with mum in Hendon.
Endell meanwhile is visited by Detective Inspector Bryant (Derek Newark), who despite having previous dealings and cordial relations with Charlie is looking to ‘nick someone that day’ and has had Charlie’s laundering activities in his sights. However with the poppy gone and not a great deal else Bryant can’t really do too much with Endell – despite his half hearted attempts at ‘leaning on’ him and Inchbeck, until he clocks the fruit machine. He tries to pin it’s theft on Endell, however Endell’s not taking it seriously and when he sort-of does he grasses Budgie up for it.
Meanwhile Endell has set his heavy ‘Laughing Spam Fritter’ (John Rhys-Davies) on the trail of the loot and Budgie. He tracks Budgie down at an amusement arcade roughing him up in the process and discovering Budgie has Hazel’s case rather than his own and more importantly Endell’s. Without much persuasion ‘Spam’ get’s the goods on where Endell’s case is – Hazel’s mother’s. Meanwhile Hazel and Mrs Fletcher have opened the case and see the fortune inside it. The pair are both shell-shocked and exited when a knock on door reveals Charlie’s arrival and quick departure for and with the cash.
Budgie meanwhile is nicked by DI Bryant and is well and truly in the frame for the fruit machine robbery and/or anything else that can be pinned on him… even the boots he’s wearing.
Budgie’s sent down in front the magistrate (Fanny Rowe), who’s only concern is dismissing cases as quickly as possible. Likewise both DI Bryant and Budgie’s lawyer Dinsdale (John Carter) – who’s been hastily arranged by and is another one of Charlie’s stooges, wants the case dealt with quickly so they can be elsewhere too. Dinsdale obviously is advising Budgie to plead not guilty… however Budgie doesn’t want to do, it may be possible the charge for his boots may be totally trumped up and he may have bought these and as for the fruit machine Budgie feels he can get off on the charge. In some quite slapstick scene’s in court and after much debate Budgie is not guilty of the stealing the footwear and things move on to the fruit machine. After the magistrate seems to want the case recommitted for later in the day or later than that even, both Bryant and Dinsdale are keen for it to be resolved there and then, which the magistrate agrees to. Even against Dinsdale’s advice when Budgie gives evidence he seems to have won things over to his side and the magistrate dismisses that part of the case and charges against him.
It seems Budgie has beaten it and is a free man, and naturally DI Bryant is disappointed not getting a ‘easy nick’ so to speak and a win in court. However Budgie can’t leave alone sometimes and has written some rather bold ‘BUDGIE WAS HERE!’ graffiti in the holding cells which Bryant feels is enough to get him back and recommitted for trial. This stupid act gets Budgie a year in Fern Open Prison.
Endell meanwhile is at the airport for the sunnier climbs of The Bahamas!
Perhaps a good – if perhaps a bit predictable, way to end Series 1, ‘And in Again’ is perhaps a honour amongst thieves tale which sees when the chips are down that so called code (don’t grass etc.)
breaks down when it’s a simple case of you or them.
Endell has more important considerations here like laundering £75k of ill-gotten gains in The Bahamas and when Budgie bursts in on this he becomes an irritant getting in the way of his crucial business here. Luckily for Charlie Budgie’s appearance means the loot disappears from view when this attracts the attention of DI Bryant and perhaps his bumbling half-hearted attempts at executing a operation against him and perhaps getting a fairly high profile conviction to add to his CV. One thing I find slightly out of tune was Bryant’s attempts of launching trumped up charges against Charlie for the stolen fruit machine. Surely that wouldn’t really worry Endell and he could easily wriggle out of that – as Budgie sort-of subsequently did, without too much difficulty and without having to grass up Budgie. However without that there wouldn’t be a story here and maybe Endell has a spotless criminal record up to this point, that he wants to maintain and in real life you’d be surprised what criminals would grass others up for to see a rival or a irritating associate like Budgie out of the way.
John Rhys-Davis was
brilliant as ‘Laughing Spam Fritter’ a truly menacing heavy you wouldn’t want to come up against and certainly wouldn’t want to lie to and take on!
I know ‘Spam Fritter’ reappears in a few more episodes in Series 2 and yes the character name is a bit comedy, however perhaps toning the name down a bit and placing him in a more believable, harder hitting drama like The Sweeney he’d be a formidable heavy that both villains and coppers wouldn’t want to come up against.
Again it shows Endell’s power and reach that he has a ‘team’ around him to carry out the dirty work from the violent action required from ‘Spam Fritter’ to dodgy fit-up lawyers like Dinsdale and bent accountants like Inchbeck to ensure he’s a fair few steps away from this action when it all hits the fan.
The
can’t live with can’t live without scenario between Budgie, Hazel and Hazel’s dysfunctional mother raises it’s head again in all honesty they’re all as bad as each other on this score and even though in Series 2 Budgie initially tries to make a break from this by reuniting with Jean and trying to cut ties with Charlie it’s not long before the pair will need each other again in a never ending game of naive stupidity.
Budgie’s trial in front of the magistrate was comedy gold. Played by Fanny Rowe who had a uncanny 1970’s likeness to former PM Theresa May,
she’s an architype in that sort of position in as much as not caring whether the job she’s doing is good or the right one and in this instance the with cases she’s given she doesn’t care if they get prison, probation or dismissal as long as it doesn’t interfere with her activities. Again she is like many others in similar positions who’ve come into them due to maybe wealth, position, privilege etc. rather than actually being good and the right people to have the power and responsibilities in these roles and there’s many examples of magistrates in the real world having a similar cavalier attitude to the role and it’s importance too.
Apologies going a bit deep there, yes the court room scene is brilliant comedy
with Budgie asking many times for his boots who’ve been taken away despite being asked questions about the one armed bandit case, DI Bryant’s inability to lay a blow and provide a convincing case against Budgie to the magistrate and the best efforts of Budgie’s lawyer Dinsdale to try and convince and fit Budgie up for a stretch in jail… which he almost avoids due to perhaps taking advantage of things and the incompetence of those around him – more by accident than his nous here!
Again Budgie can’t simply
leave alone and wants to leave his mark on things. By doing some foolish graffiti in the holding cells he gives DI Bryant an opportunity to get his ‘easy nick’ that day. I’m not sure even back in the ‘70’s a bit of graffiti would have got you a year in jail and it’s all pretty tenuous that they’d be able to prove he did ‘BUDGIE WAS HERE!’ let alone get him sent down for it. Still it’s enough to get him out of the way for a while and finish Series 1 off which in some respects for me has been a very enjoyable watch and insight into the world of Budgie and that those around him.
I’d rate ‘And in Again’ perhaps just short of
8/10 maybe it’s slight criticism is the easy way it finishes things off here and for Budgie in the end and the rather obvious open-ending which could have finished things here if Budgie wasn’t really a success back than, but as it was a success and it enabled Series 2 to come along not long after!
Well that's Series 1 all done
and again apologies for not being able to do these reviews as quickly as I’d have liked recently. I will get onto the Series 2 episodes very shortly and have started to enjoy these as much as Series 1 too.