Welcome to the week ahead! And for the third week in a row, we’ve got Ben and Callum involved in Frankie’s story.
Mon 18th Jan – Katie Douglas
Callum reminds Frankie that she needs to stay out of trouble if she wants to live in Australia. Stuart includes Frankie in the invites to Mick’s birthday party, unaware of who she is. Frankie pushes Stuart for information on Mick, but is dismayed when she realises that Mick doesn’t even know she has been invited to the party. Frankie ends up confronting Mick in person when she sees him on the Square. She seeks answers over her mum, but Mick snaps at her as he’s distracted by his ongoing worry for Tina.
Tues 19th Jan – Daran Little
A hungover Frankie approaches Mick, wishing him a happy birthday and revealing that she’s leaving today. Mick is given food for thought when he spots Denise and Phil talking about Raymond. Later, Mick asks Ben about Frankie’s plans and is shocked when he learns that she has already left for Australia.
Thurs 21st Jan – Daran Little
No Ballum spoilers
Fri 22nd Jan – Simon Ashdown
No Ballum spoilers
There’s a lot of focus on Frankie this week as she tries to get answers out of Mick. But before that, Callum clocks her at the police station and warns her about keeping out of trouble – so I guess she’s told them about moving to Australia off screen. Callum obviously doesn’t know that it’s Frankie’s mum shipping her off and it’s not really what Frankie wants – though I imagine he might pick up on that.
Stuart later invites Frankie to Mick’s birthday party, unaware of who she is. I wonder who he thinks Frankie actually is – do they just meet in the middle of the Square and he decides to just invite her to make up the numbers? I’d say for anyone who knows Frankie on the Square right now, she’s Ben and Callum’s friend – so maybe that’s how he knows her, and invites her because Ballum are also invited?
Katie Douglas, the writer for Monday’s episode, has only written one Ballum ep before – and it happens to be the last one they were in before the hiatus, back in June when Ben collapsed. Hopefully we do see them together in one of the eps this week at least!
Tuesday is the day of Mick’s party and Frankie tells him she’s leaving. It looks like Mick’s having his party in the Albert, and Ben’s there looking sharp in that shirt, just over a year after he was last seen in it, subconsciously trying to put off his hook up I think! I like it though, and I admire the boldness in wearing it at the very least.
Mick gets an epiphany seeing Phil and Denise talk about Raymond, a child they were estranged from before reuniting, and it makes him want to see out Frankie; except Ben tells him she’s already left. Or has she? Maybe she has, but will return. Or maybe they’ll push some father/daughter instinct and she’ll somehow know Mick will be looking for her.
Speaking of Phil and Denise, Phil asks Denise about seeing Raymond in this ep – which would mean Jack’s blackmail material possibly comes into play. I doubt he’ll do anything with the USB evidence because the cops are allergic to actually turning Phil in, but surely if Phil is back in Raymond’s life despite Jack’s efforts to keep him out, Jack will have something to say about that? Or maybe not. Who knows what’s happening with that story.
There’s no mention of Ballum for the rest of the week, but we have a Daran Little episode on Thursday, so maybe an off chance we’ll get them, and a Simon Ashdown ep on Friday – so it’s a special one then. It looks focused on Sharon and Ian, and was that close contact I spotted in the promo pics for that episode? Hmm.
In other news, Metro have posted up a Ballum quiz – who said what. It was actually a bit more difficult than I thought it would be! Give it a go yourself if you want here.
And Max has gotten a nomination for Best Actor In An Online Production in the Version Awards for his role in Birdsong, the lockdown production he was involved with over the summer. Vote here as many times as you like until the closing date on 5th March!
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