Making Peace Drama Radio 4
Any drama that starts with “Fool if you think it’s over” is sold on me.
This afternoon play wafted vintage early ‘80s, Elkie Brooks – remember Pearl’s a Singer; Lilac Wine.
It’s a certain time that you have lived through... but this was a story that hooked you in.
Set in Achiltibuie in the north-west Highlands, it was the story of three women.
Not quite the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover ... more the jilted ex-wife, the mistress turned wife turned fresh widow and the daughter of the first wife.
It was trip-you-up drama, punchy drama, funny and serious at the same time.
It was three women talking - Kate, her daughter Abbie and Lulu the new widow – whose husband David – that’s Kate’s ex-husband - has just died.
Fresh from David’s funeral, Lulu arrives to meet Kate and spend time with Abbie – who drinks too much.
“What’s she like any way ... Lulu, who the hell is called Lulu?” asks Kate.
Lulu, 13 years younger than Kate, arrives vomiting after the hell of twisty country Scottish roads. She is horrified by the little cottage.
“This is David’s house, it’s not the tiny house of a neighbour?” she asks.
David left a “weird codicil” in his will that Lulu should visit Kate in the Highlands.
He was full of surprises, it turns out he also left the Kate’s house in the Highlands to Lulu, he had lost everything else to debt.
Yes, it all sounds ridiculous - these women all washed up together – but it had soul.
It was a drama about inheritance, loss and the importance of making peace with the past and with each other.
“Why did you stay with him?” asked Kate.
“Because I loved him,” came the reply.
And it ended on an upbeat with a rainbow or – as only Elkie could sing it – “sunshine after the rain.”
