[Afamilyatwar-list] Episode 13

[Veit, Richard]

Episode No. 13, "The End of the Beginning"

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“The End of the Beginning” 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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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