The following is commentary on Episode No. 13 ("The End of the Beginning") from members of AFAMILYATWAR-LIST. If you wish to add your thoughts to what is being said on this page, become a part of our discussion group by clicking the "Join" button.

 

 


 

 

Paul Cook

I like this title, a very apt one indeed. All the characters are sombrely reflecting on, and trying to come to terms with, their own dilemmas and concerns. There is much loss, and fear of loss in different ways for them all. They all seem caught up to some extent in their own little worlds, making honest communication difficult between. I am reminded of the first Christmas at the Ashton’s in episode 1. How very different the atmosphere is in this Christmas of 1940, with everyone war weary.

Fine acting from Freda here, unsettled by all the changes going on around her. To some extent of course her situation is a normal one, that of trepidation facing the prospect of adult life away from home. Of course, the war is compounding these issues for her. Freda is having to mature quickly into an adult Ashton. Freda senses the comfortable nest of home gradually disappearing before her eyes.

The war is a way of life now. This is clear by how they all react to the house being hit by an incendiary bomb. There is humour here when Jean complains to Margaret about not digging up her bulbs, as Margaret is trying to put out the fire in the garden. This feels a very British reaction somehow. Jean does seem preoccupied, even clueless about what to do. The others deal with the incendiary bomb in the attic with bravado and stoicism. Good old bulldog spirit.

I like the secret of the tin, and how I feel tantalised by this theme throughout the episode. When we see Margaret examining the contents of the tin we can sense that something is up, particularly when she suggests afterwards to her mother that she go and sort out the attic. No clues for us until well on into the episode that something is up. Edwin is clearly enraged by something, and is very bitter and angry about what we find out to be the contents of Jean’s father’s will. Is this a point of no return for the relationship between Edwin and Jean? It certainly seems so, when we hear them talking, more to themselves as to each other, in the bedroom. Edwin’s rage has dissipated, and he seems left in a lonely melancholic state. His rhetorical question, “What is there to show for thirty years” really comes from the heart. Neither can really look each other in the eye.

Good to see Bill Waddington as Ted, another character from "Coronation Street," Emily Bishop’s former lodger.

I have been caught up with watching “Secret Army” over the past few weeks, a series I would highly recommend to all. Interesting to see Mark Jones, (Michael Armstrong) playing the part of a French police officer in a recent episode I viewed.

 


 

Gert Pedersen

Paul's done a great review of this episode, and I can't add much to his precise words.

Once again my favorite scene in this episode includes Barbara Flynn, namely the talk between Freda and Tony in which Freda talks about a possible future in the WRENS - Barbara and Trevor as actors seem to enjoy playing together and bring out the best in each other. And as Freda and Tony they seem to be made for each other - had they not been cousins....

And it is very evident, that John Finch is the author of this episode: Great story with a balanced portray of the characters!


 

Richard Veit

This episode presents a pivotal moment in the sad decline of Jean Ashton, both in terms of her general mental stability and her feelings toward husband Edwin. With sons David and Philip away in uniform, her anxiety level already is high when she learns from Robert that Edwin has signed the 16-year-old lad’s enlistment papers for the merchant navy. This drives a serious wedge between the couple, one from which they never will be able to recover. Another divisive turn of events happens when Edwin discovers the substantial provisions of his late father-in-law’s will, which Jean has concealed from him for all these many years. This revelation comes about after the incendiary bomb damages the attic, a misfortune that further serves to remind the humiliated Edwin that even his very home belongs to Sefton Briggs.

Some other random thoughts on “The End of the Beginning”…

Again we witness the ARP’s Ted Fiddler dabbling in the black market, this time procuring a dozen eggs for one of his “clients.”

This is our only opportunity to see a depiction of Sefton’s wife (Tony’s mother), shown briefly in a photograph of the Briggs couple, taken many years earlier at Scarborough. When Sefton mentions that he gave the decorative picture frame to Mrs. Foster (a frame in which Tony’s mother placed such sentimental value ), Tony appears to be quite hurt by this unthinking remark.

I am always struck by the wonderful rapport that exists between cousins Tony Briggs and Freda Ashton—maybe between Trevor Bowen and Barbara Flynn, too, for all I know. Their screen time together never fails to provide a wealth of subtle acting nuances, witty dialogue, and suppressed romance.

Aussie Owen Thomas, having no choice but to endure Freda’s abrupt change of feelings toward him, elicits the audience’s admiration and sympathy. Freda is quite rude in how casually she dismisses him from her affections, but I must say that it does seem all too true to life, particularly among young people in fledgling relationships.

I very much like the mirror shot that director Michael Cox chooses in the powerful scene between Edwin and Jean in their bedroom. It frames the troubled couple dramatically, suggesting that there is no escape from lives that did not go as either had hoped they would. What an emotionally charged moment it is when Edwin confesses to his wife that he has precious little to show for his thirty years of marriage.

Time after time, there is amusement to be found in Sefton’s public pronouncements, almost like a running joke throughout the series. He possesses an uncanny ability to say precisely the wrong thing in his toasts at family gatherings. In this episode, he proclaims that ships in the Atlantic are going down every day, unmindful of the mental anguish such a comment is sure to cause his sister while young Robert is poised for an assignment at sea.

Finally, I pose a question for attentive viewers: who is it that appears in the photograph with Freda, shown in the closing few seconds as Edwin is reading the poem? To my eyes, it does not seem to be either Tony Briggs or Peter Collins, but of course I could be wrong. Any ideas?

 


 

Paul Cook

I am thinking about Richard's reference to the black market in episode 13. I feel a bit perturbed by this, as all I see here is an example of how the ordinary person in the war tried to get a few basic commodities. The concept of the black market is far more pernicious. When we consider Sefton's dappling in the raising of a pig for slaughter, then I would totally agree that this is black market shinannigins. As for having a dozen eggs to pass on, then this is typical of the kind of sharing that got us through the war.


 

Richard Veit

Thank you, Paul, for that excellent post. I did not intend for my comment about Ted Fiddler to be harshly judgemental. As you suggest, there were different levels of black market activity, something I acknowledged in an earlier post: “It seems that civilians were inclined to wink at such behaviour if it remained on a superficial level.” Just as Sefton’s pig investment was more pernicious than Ted’s dozen eggs, so was Harry Jenkins’s shady racket far more egregious yet. That does not excuse Ted Fiddler entirely, of course, for he did not appear to be dabbling in such contraband purely out of altruistic motives. In a later episode, “The Forty-Eight Hour Pass,” Ted will slip Edwin a small package of bacon. When Edwin thanks him for the generosity, Ted says, “That’ll be tenpence to you.” I would not be so charitable as to call that “sharing.” Still, I do find Ted Fiddler to be a sympathetic and quite likeable character, and his occasional lapses of propriety seem to be more mischievous than unpatriotic.

 


 

John Finch

Paul, I agree your comments re the black market, and of course it went on most everywhere on a small scale when people thought they could get away with it, which was most of the time. My mother was an expert in a small way. I wasn't so interested in passing any kind of judgment as in indicating how guilty people could feel about such a small offence . Some others also liked to boast about how clever they were. On the other hand I came off a tanker on the North Atlantic run when the Germans made their last big attempt to close the pipeline, only to come into conflict with a relative who was boasting about fiddling a petrol ration which he shouldn't have had anyway. I blew!

While I am on, can I recommend a book by Angus Calder called The People's War.... a fantastic piece of research. Our own researcher on "A Family at War" was equally diligent. Her research should have been published, but like many other things, including my copy of Sassoon's selected poems, it got 'lost'.

 


 

Gert Pedersen

After lots of considerations, I have come to the conclusion that to me episode 13 is the best. The episode is written by John Finch and bears all his well-known 'trademarks': A very sophisticated story with both humour, troubles and hope, lots of very capturing dialogues and last but not least: a fantastic Freda! I also like the whole mood of this episode because it is (as the title says) the end of the beginning, but also the beginning of a new era with serious things to come (Edwin and Jean's relationship, Robert's departure, Margaret's new relationship etc.). The fact that the Ashton house is being hit by a bomb brings the 'outer world' into the family life. And other 'bombs' are about to explode within the Ashton family. All in all: A great episode!!

 


 

John Finch

I recently came across the little book of poems from which Edwin quoted at the end of Episode 13. It is the second verse of the poem THEY by Siegfried Sassoon. I had loaned it to Granada and, unusually, had actually got it back!!!!! On the first page is my name and the date, December 1943. Also the place, Rosyth naval base, where I had joined HMT Bat, a rescue tug designed to follow the Russian convoys. What memories these things revive.