On The Edge (Ch4)
Ray Davies of the Kinks was getting all maudlin about it, more than 40 years ago — ‘They put up a bowling alley,’ he sang in Come Dancing, ‘on the site that used to be the local Palais.’
Nostalgia for Britain’s lost Palais dancehalls supplied the bittersweet twist in the last of a triple bill of short dramas by new writers, part of the On The Edge series.
The Final Countdown, by Natalie Burt, depicted the ravages of dementia on a marriage that began on the dancefloor, back in the Sixties. Dora (Eileen Davies) could no longer feed or dress herself — but, as her grandson Terry told a social worker, she wasn’t the problem.
Her husband, Ray, couldn’t bear to see her go into a care home. ‘Taking her away will be like yanking out his batteries,’ fretted Terry.
Pictured: Screengrab from On The Edge made by Channel 4
Nostalgia for Britain’s lost Palais dancehalls supplied the bittersweet twist in the last of a triple bill of short dramas by new writers, part of the On The Edge series
Fed up of well-meaning friends and neighbours asking how Dora was doing, Ray came up with a drastic solution. ‘I might just have said,’ he admitted, ‘that she was a bit, well, you know . . . dead.’
The story reached a neat and touching resolution when Dora went walkabout and ended up in the derelict Palais, reliving her memories.
Ray surrendered to the inevitable, the council found Dora a room in a nursing home up the street, and the couple spent their evenings jiving to Swinging Sixties hits. I hope a few Kinks numbers were in the mix.
If that conclusion is sadly a little too twee to be realistic, it’s better than ending on a note of tragedy or despair. Each of these short stories, with the shared theme of ‘confronting changes’, wound up with a splash of optimism.
Letting Go starred newcomer Luna Mwezi as Faith, an adolescent girl in care, torn between her longing to live with her real mum and a sense of dutiful gratitude to her foster parents. Anthony Welsh played Gabe, a man determined to be the loving father he never had himself — so determined that he was getting right on Faith’s nerves.
The story by Beru Tessema centred on Gabe’s boxing gym. Perhaps he seemed a little too inspirational to be true, but in such a short drama that didn’t matter.
Pictured: Screengrab from On The Edge made by Channel 4
Realism wasn’t the issue in the first and weakest of the dramas, Wet Look, a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Little Mermaid.
Tanya Reynolds was Gwynn, an aquatic lass who lost her tail after she fell in love with a human (Iwan Rheon). At first, it looked as though this might become an allegory for transgender woes: ‘I feel bricked up in this body and I hate the way it’s making me feel,’ complained Gwynn.
Instead, it became a metaphor for how a serious illness can leave people feeling like exiles from their old lives. It didn’t quite work, but writer Toby Parker Rees served up the best joke of the trilogy, when Gwynn tucked in two-handed to a dinner of shellfish sushi. Yum!
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