Tonight's TV
Blue Monday
Out Of The Blue (BBC1, 2.15pm)
DOES this latest import from Australia
have enough viewer appeal
to become the new Neighbours?
Or is it as interesting and smelly
as a dead dingo? Time will tell, if
you have the patience to watch every weekday
afternoon.
The sun, sand, surf and smiles all remind
you of other soaps from down under like
Home And Away. So do the secrets that every
one of the characters is hiding as the class of
95 hold a reunion which, tiresome narrator
Gaby keeps promising us, will result in tragic
consequences.
This group of friends was torn apart 13
years ago when they went their separate
ways, she says. Now it's going to happen all
over again as they travel back to Manly, near
Sydney, for a get-together as thirtysomethings.
The end credits make special mention of
Manly. Very manly is Manly. "Manly...more
than a beach" says the slogan.
Getting womanly again, Gaby is gazing
into her mental crystal ball and predicting
the future. And saying how unpredictable it
is and that you "couldn't have imagined in
less than 48 hours our lives would be ripped
apart again" - she's big on ripping apart, is
Gaby - "because one of us would be dead and
someone close to us, maybe even one of us,
would be the killer."
In other Aussie soaps you fall ill, have a
deathbed scene, die, are buried and have your
relatives fight over your will all in the space
of a week of episodes. Out Of The Blue looks
like prolonging the agony. By the end of
today's double episode, everyone is still alive
and kicking. And the murder investigation, a
favourite plot contrivance from Dallas to Emmerdale,
is going to drag on for some time to
come.
With 135 episodes commissioned by the
BBC, which is co-producing the series, this
story will run and run. Presumably, the Beeb
is hoping that Out Of The Blue will plug the
hole in the schedules left by the defection of
Neighbours to five, but it's a different type of
series to that and rival Home And Away. This
one seems to have a bit more substance as the
group of best friends recall the way they were
when they last met and the way they are now.
There are hints of a massive falling out 13
years ago. It's all a bit complicated. The relationships
are all over the place. Tracy is with
Jarrod who used to be with Bec. She was "the
girl we always wished we could be" as well as
"the girl who took off and broke Jarrod's
heart".
"How come you left?" asks Zoe, Tracy and
Jarrod's irritating daughter. Of course Bec
can't say because this is a plot point that must remain secret for weeks, possibly months.
Busy Bec is fending off Stephen, who's followed
her to Manly because she walked out
after discovering that she's not his girlfriend
but his other woman.
Philby, back home with pregnant Tess, is at
war with brother Daniel, who's mixed up with
some shady characters, including a Mr
Reynolds. He's demanding back his 100,000
dollars and tries to take Addo's car - actually
his best friend's borrowed car - as compensation.
When she's not narrating, Gaby is snogging
Paul, who carelessly leaves his pants on her
couch. You'd think he'd have noticed he'd
gone commando.
They're trying to keep their affair a secret.
Paul wants to do the Manly thing and tell
everyone. Gaby wants a bit of Womanly waiting
for the right time. Presumably until Paul
looks old enough to shave and she won't be
accused of cradle-snatching.
The good news is that Tess is pleasantly surprised
by Philby's mother who is, make no mistake
a control freak. You can tell by the way
she insists that Tess has eggs not museli for
breakfast. "That's my grandchild you're carrying
in there," she says, patting Tess's bump.
Tess isn't put off. "After all the things you
said about her, I was expecting a monster," she
tells Philby. Not even finding a wad of money
and a gun in a jar in the kitchen can make her
see she's marrying into the Addams family.
Things could be worse. They could let Poppy
sing again. She's written a song for Gaby's
birthday and begins, for want of a better word,
singing it. She wouldn't even get past the first
audition for The X Factor.
10:51am Monday 28th April 2008
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