Season 3 Episode 5

Episode 145

 

Sky One Transmission Date:

Tuesday 5th October 1999

 

Written By

Jane Hewland

 

Directed By

Judith Dine

 

Jerry & team at airport

 

 

Wes, Mark McNeill

 

 

Billy, Scott

 

 

Lynda, Jerry

 

 

Luis

 

Phillipa, Jerry, Michael

GS: Phillipa French (Nadia Cameron-Blakey)  Mark McNeill (Martin Ledwith)

 

The following morning the first team land home, but unexpectedly find themselves fighting their way through a crowd of press, struggling to be held back by security, and yelling inaudible questions and flashing bulbs. Taken into a quiet room, Michael is shocked to see a dishevelled-looking Jerry waiting, and tells the boys there's been an accident. At the club, Zena is single-handedly taking all the calls coming in when Phillipa arrives to keep things afloat for Jerry. She confirms to Zena that a plane has been reported missing and if a Wes Kingsley and his agent arrive let her know. Jerry tells the team contact was lost with Biloo's plane, and he along with Sean, Leon, Gary Blackburn, Tank, Luis and Julie are unaccounted for. All Jerry can say is he is so sorry and the team will not have to face this alone.

 

As Zena escorts the families of the players who have made it home into the Players' Lounge, Kelly arrives unaware of what's happened, and Zena says she'd better sit down. Ann suggests an exhausted Jerry go home to Lynda for a bit, while she and Michael look after the team. Kelly can't believe it and is crying, but won't go home as Zena and Phillipa need her here. The team sit in silence on the coach home. Scott asks Billy if he's OK, but Billy is silent as in a trance. As the coach arrives at The Dragon's Lair, Wes Kingsley and his agent Mark McNeill also pull up. Wes gets out to congratulate Scott on the win, but Scott is aloof and doesn't stop to chat. Wes gets back to Mark who has taken a call from a journo mate wanting a comment on Leon who's missing along with a plane load of the team, presumed dead.

 

Billy is in denial to Scott, saying that they don't know they are dead. Scott gently breaks it to him that they are gone because the plane sent out a Mayday call, picked up by Heathrow. Billy reacts badly and runs out of the room, and Kelly yells to him not to go out as there are press everywhere. At the Block's mansion, Lynda is just up and immediately sees the state Jerry is in. He asks her to take one of her sedatives but she asks to be told what's happened. Jerry tells her the plane Biloo hired is missing, having lost radar contact, and those on board are dead, listing the victims. Lynda knows he is avoiding mentioning Luis and she finally forces it out of him that he was on board too. Lynda is stunned into silence.

 

Mark goes into Phillipa and says aside from representing Leon, he came for a meeting with Jerry over Wes Kingsley. Mark notices all the player's contracts sprawled out across the table and remarks on how Jerry obviously got the lawyers in fast, knowing there must have been around £20M of talent on that plane. Michael tells Ann of the questions he was asked as the police speak to the players individually, one being did he pack his own luggage. Ann wonders if they think it could have been a bomb. Billy goes into the empty dressing room where the team's home shirts are hanging on the hooks, and picks up Leon’s #34 shirt to hold. Wes is pondering his options, as Mark thinks he's now in a better position as before they only wanted Wes, now they need him. Wes adds you can't just replace a player like Luis Amor Rodriguez.

 

Jerry sits down with a brandy to be told by Phillipa that it looks like he will lose £25M in insurance, as Biloo's plane wasn't official club transport. Jerry believes this will finish him. Michael phones them to put the TV on and Jerry and Phillipa see that Luis is alive and surrounded by press at East Midlands Airport. An emotional Luis explains he stayed behind with a friend and if he hadn't have done he'd be dead now. All Jerry can say in regards to his love rival surviving yet again is at least they've clawed back £5 million. In his despair, Billy is pushing himself hard on the training pitch, repeatedly kicking a ball at the Harchester crest sign.

 

Jerry, Phillipa and Michael sit before the media at the press conference, where Jerry confirms the Harchester United players and staff on board the Gulf-Stream 3 were Viktor Tankyev, Leon Richards, Sean Hocknell, Gary Blackburn, Julie Alexander and Biloo Kapur. Jerry grudgingly has to state they are all delighted that Luis is alive and well. After wrecking himself on the pitch, Billy goes in to wreck not just Leon's home shirt but the whole dressing room in a fit of rage and despair.

 

A journalist spots the female victim angle in the story and asks for background on Julie. Jerry talks of how she worked in the canteen and Michael adds she and Leon got engaged in Amsterdam. Kelly nearly drops her tray in shock and Ann holds her as she cries. Michael asks the press to allow the team privacy and respect for the club and the dead, which the room of players and relatives applaud. When a reporter asks will the team be playing their next scheduled match on Sunday, Jerry, knowing they need to start to recoup in TV rights some of the money that has been lost, takes charge and says as long as Chelsea are willing, he sees it as a tribute to the people lost that they do play, and he will be reccommending it to the FA. The players and their relatives cannot believe what they've just heard, and Michael is stunned, bringing the press conference to an end.

 

Notes:

 

First appearance of Wes Kingsley (Razaaq Adoti)

 

·          Best Known For: Martin Ledwith had recurring roles in “Heartbeat” as Andy Ryan (1999-2000), “Holby City” as Father Michael Chambers (2001-02) and “Doctors” as Richard Miles (2001-02)

 

The Best: The eerie opening scenes as the team, blissfully unaware of what is about to hit them, enter East Midlands Airport. The strong, beautiful way the characters come together in the aftermath of a disaster, and all of the actors get their roles spot on. Dishevelled Jerry, Zena and Phillipa, who sadly never becomes a regular part, running the club’s admin, Ann and Michael looking after the team. Scott showing his sensitive side. Kelly’s grief for Julie. Luis’s voice breaking as he tries to talk about Leon and Sean. Mark McNeill is another strong guest character.

 

·          Quotes: Gary Bloom reports for Sky how rescue helicopters took off “at first light to search the Channel for survivors. The plane was approaching the south coast, five miles west of Dover when the Mayday signal was received. Coastguards joined and police are on the lookout for wreckage washed up on the beaches, but nothing has been found. It's as if the plane completely disappeared from the sky.”

 

Foreshadowing: Lynda’s first reaction, to fearing Luis’s death, to her joy when she sees him alive on TV, shows she hasn’t totally lost the memory of the love they had.

 

·          Continuity: As he mentions how he represents Leon, Mark says he has had Leon’s mother on the phone every five minutes. Lynda pulls out the 'Keep Smiling' polaroid of she and Luis given in 2.51 she had hidden away. A journalist asks Jerry do they think after the events at Wembley that the crash is connected. Jerry replies that Schiphol Air Control received a message about technical problems and the Mayday came just before the plane went missing.

 

Additional Info: Scott sees the back page of the paper lamenting he and Sean's success last night with 'Hocknell sparkles with Lucas'Aid!'. A later news report states how the plane vanished at around midnight. At the press conference Jerry adds the flight crew members were Ian Monet and Derek Newton (although we only saw one pilot).

 

·          Soundtrack: Massive Attack: "Angel”,  Cast: “Walkaway”,  Bush: “Swallowed”

 

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