Waterloo Road: Hi, Mr Gurney – I’m Josh

(Series 6, Ep.13) The Lovely Josh and his Gay Mate Nate are in love, and all’s right with the world. Except it isn’t, because the course of true love is never allowed to run smoothly.

The problem in this case is the parents. Josh has an easy enough time with his dad Tom Clarkson. Tom, despite a few misgivings, is a liberal, easygoing sort of chap who can fairly easily get his head round the idea of his son and his boyfriend spending the night together.

Nate has a tougher time of it with his dad, who is played by Reece Dinsdale (last seen drowning in Windermere on Corrie). This being Waterloo Road, a programme that likes to put a little twist on things, Matthew Gurney is not just a raging homophobe (though he is that as well). He’s also a man grieving for the loss of his elder son, killed in the army in Afghanistan. When he discovers that Nate is gay, it rips open his grief – in his mind, Matthew has now lost two sons. Nate, always second favourite son, now has no hope of ever replacing his lost brother.

Nate is torn between loyalty to his father and to himself, and eventually he chooses to be true to himself and to be with Josh (hurrah!). At which point Matthew seeks out Tom, who is attempting a date with Cesca (whose mind is very much elsewhere) – and gives him a nasty battering.

Cesca’s response to this, once she’s helped Tom stagger home, is to summon a bit of TLC for herself from the beautiful Jonah Kirby. She pronounces his name “Johnner,” which is rather sweet. Even though Jonah comes across as being a 39 year old trapped in a 17 year old (or whatever he’s supposed to be) body – he has a Zen-like calm to him that makes you fully understand why he’d be the one you’d call if you were feeling kerfuffled – Cesca is of course on very dodgy ground, career-wise. A few of the school staff have already started to notice how much time she’s spending giving Johnner private tuition. It’ll end in tears.

With all this drama, what you need is a bit of comedy, and you can always rely on Waterloo Road for that. Fabulous Janeece decided to share her wisdom (gleaned by a couple of terms as school secretary), and give classes in the skills of being a PA. She didn’t think it was odd that Ronan Burley, Rochdale’s answer to Del Boy, signed up and was so keen he asked if he could shadow her as she worked. It was obviously due to her inspirational skills as a mentor. The over-stocked stationery cupboard full of items that no-one had bothered to inventory couldn’t have anything to do with it, surely? It wasn’t suspicious at all that a boy who is famous for buying and selling anything that isn’t screwed down would be taking a large holdall into the cupboard with him.

I love Ronan. He’s completely cheeky, but he has his own ethical code as well. He’ll sell knock-off DVDs and games, but if you’re under 15 he won’t sell you anything with a 15 or 18 certificate.  And his face just makes me smile.

Ruby Fry and Grantley Budgen are always good for a comedy moment as well. Grantley got tickets for them both to see An Inspector Calls, to thank Ruby for her efforts last week. When he caught her reading up on the play in a revision book, he accused her of not being well read. Ruby triumphantly produced a Jilly Cooper from her handbag and challenged Grantley to read it. Adanna caught him quite engrossed in it: “It’s interesting from a philanthropic point of view.” In return, Ruby has to read Madame Bovary, and she’s really enjoying it. “I really know how she feels,” she says. “Sometimes I feel like a good bit of retail therapy when I’m fed up.”

That man Hodge who has been bothering Bex turned up at the school. He also sent Bex an envelope stuffed full of cash. It looks like Bex spent her two year “lost weekend” getting up to some dodgy stuff, but what? My guess is that it’s something a bit worse than selling stolen highlighter pens.

Next time: Issue of the day is going to be racism. And stolen test papers. And how to resist Johnner.

Posted by PLA               (more Waterloo Road here)