Chapter 15 ~ Family Rules – Part IV
March 30, 2010
The set-up was quite simple.
Jamie Masters as the young mother, one-year-old kid, live in boyfriend, mother who didn’t really like either of them but doted on her grandchild and the boyfriend’s father, forced to move in after his house was destroyed in a fire. Put them all together in a small two-up-two-down and hilarity would ensue. Couldn’t be easier. The BBC would be disappointed to learn that they’d turned it down at an earlier pitch.
But Thames picked it up and ran with the ball.
On the basis of its being a vehicle for Jamie, of course. Which is why they named her character after her; the norm in America but not so in the UK.
They might as well have called it Jamie Saves The Day! Because that’s what she did week in week out, as her boyfriend kept promising to deal with his father. Who was rapidly becoming the object of Jamie’s mother’s affection; a bad thing, as he had a crush on Jamie, worshipped the ground she walked on, mobilised against his own son at every twist and turn.
And though it sounded complicated in synopsis, it worked like a dream on screen.
Besides, it was nothing compared to the off-screen dramas that underpinned the performance. And kept the public hooked to both story-lines.
In the first two series, Ken was little more than a prop, seemingly subtitled whenever he was on screen.
Here, the baby in Jamie’s arms: Jamie is a caring mother.
Here, her boyfriend tries to change the baby’s nappy with hilarious results: He can’t care for the baby as well as Jamie (he needs Jamie).
The old man bends over the cot: Oh no! What’s he going to do this time?
Subtly hidden by camera angles, Jamie breast-feeds the baby: Bet you wish it was you, don’t you lads?
They all grimace: The baby’s stunk out the room again!
They might as well have used a toy doll.
For the first two series, they could have replaced him with moulded plastic.
Until he learnt to talk.
Then, all bets were off.
Because over the course of the next three years, slowly, quietly and effortlessly, Ken went about the business of stealing the show.
