Why didn't they show the crisps?!Nancy and Jez break the ultimate taboo, while Mark faces his lifelong battle with alcoholism.
- This episode establishes that Sophie and Nancy are friends. I guess the time at the boat house wasn't so bad for Sophie after all.
- Mark is quite often seen sitting in that Ikea-like chair by the window, while Jez lies across the couch. This isn't unique to this episode, but it's nice how details like this are adhered to throughout the series' run.
- Mark's mother had an affair, possibly with a lumberjack - or Michael Palin. ("You can't laugh at someone you don't trust - like mom singing 'The Lumberjack Song' after her affair.")
- On the phone, Mark's father uses "that voice." They really need to have him featured in an episode.
- It's funny how much time Mark's pursuit of Sophie takes up in these earlier seasons, considering how that relationship eventually ends up.
- We find out in this one that Johnson is a recovering alcoholic of 15 years. As I said in a previous post, this contradicts his drinking in his first season appearance.
- Jez is doing (unintentional) horrible drawings of Nancy. Now and again, Jez is seen doodling women in his room, or has his sketches tacked up to the walls. Jez is a lot softer than he makes out. This goes along with the poetry he writes in the sixth season.
- The story Mark gives about being an alcoholic ("You remember? The bear with the pork pie hat ... not even a proper cocktail...") is one of his best moments.
- Could this be the first appearance of Johnson's irresistible catchphrase, "this is bullshit, Mark!"?
- A deleted scene from this episode (which I saw because I got the first six seasons off Amazon UK for a paltry $40 - and you can too!) has Jez nonchalantly encountering Sophie and Jeff playing minigolf. Under directions from Mark via cell phone, Jez tries to get Jeff to admit in front of Sophie that terrorists and paedos should get the death penalty. It's quite funny.
WW2 References:
- Working late, Mark feels that he is "one of the few" in his Spitfire. However, upon further reflection, he figures it's more likely he'd crash his training plane during the Phony War (that period of relative calm between the invasion of Poland and the Battle of France).
UK References:
- Costcutter: According to Wikipedia, Costcutters "are supermarkets and local and urban convenience stores." That's pretty obvious from the dialogue.
- OfCom: Mark wants to call the Office of Communications after he's seen drinking beer on TV. From what I can understand, it's the CRTC of the UK.
- Alastair Campbell: A member of Tony Blair's staff, and a notable alcoholic.
- Hofmeister: On Mark's introductory beer, Wikipedia says it best: "Hofmeister was a 3.2% abv pale lager produced by Scottish Courage (later Scottish & Newcastle) from the 1980s to 2003. The brand was marketed in the 1980s with a series of advertisements featuring a bear, George, with a shiny, yellow jacket and a pork pie hat."
- Royal National Lifeboat Institution: A charity that saves lives at sea. Mark notes his membership in it as an example of why he's not so bad a guy after kicking Nim out.
- Kaliber: Guinness' non-alcoholic beer. Perhaps this is what Johnson was drinking in his first appearance?
- Scouser/Native wit: Mark calls Jeff a "Scouser," which is an unflattering term for a Liverpudlian. I guess anyone with half an ear and an idea of what the world is like would know that Jeff was from Liverpool, but it was news to me. Mark also mentions Jeff's "native wit," which all Liverpudlians are supposed to possess.
Mark Corrigan does have a tendency to stalk women - he had no problems trying to hack Sophie's email account, for example. He's mildly aware of this in season 7 when he's spying on Dobby and lives in denial, rationalising it as "extreme liking".
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