It’s a great responsibility putting the bins out. I’ll tell you why in a minute, but first: the TV event everyone’s talking about. No, not the Crown – though I’ll definitely be all over that as soon as I’ve watched His Dark Materials on Sunday – but the last episode of Doc Martin.
Or is it? The teasing people at ITV have left us on a cliffhanger. Faced with the prospect of failing his medical board examination run by his old mentor (played by a sadly ageing Tom Conti – god, that man was gorgeous in his youth) he resigns from General Practice and tells Louisa at the same moment (in the middle of Al and Morwenna’s wedding) as she tries to tell him she’s pregnant.
Oops.
To be honest, much as I’ve enjoyed the series, I think it’s time they stopped. After nine series they seem to be running out of ideas and recycling the same plot lines with different characters. It happens – but they should bow out gracefully because, as the song says, burnout is better than fading away. It’s been a stonking series, comic and sad by turns with a stellar performance by Martin Clunes as the irascible, no-nonsense autist whose saving grace is his love for Louisa (Caroline Catz) and their son. They’ve had some great actors guesting too; Eileen Atkins is a regular, as was Stephanie Cole; popping in and out before popping her clogs was Claire Bloom as Martin’s mother – in fact spotting the guest actors is as much fun as enjoying the sunny beaches and cliffs of its Cornish setting. But all good things come to an end and this should. Now.
So, as I said it’s a big responsibility putting the bins out. In our town they alternate each week between recycling and rubbish (much to the annoyance of the righteous, like nous who have far more recycling and only put the black bin out once in a – ahem! – blue moon) but the problem is we can never remember which week is which. Checking the bins is no good because the green bin fills up in no time whereas the black one keeps a homeopathic quantity inside, so every Thursday we peek out of the windows to see which bins our neighbours have put out. But it occurred to me this morning, what if everyone else does the same? Then the first person to put their bin out would be responsible for leading the rest of the street astray, and since I put the black bin out last night, that would be me!!!
Horrors.
While we’re on domestic issues, we had more to put in both bins this week as the dishwasher was finally delivered, generating more plastic, cardboard and polystyrene than any bin can reasonably be expected to hold. It was plumbed in yesterday and I am happy to report that the first wash is delightfully clean and sparkling or, to use a word OH coined, sping.
So now all we have to moan about is filling and emptying the bloody thing…
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 