Season 4 Episode 26Episode 228 Sky One Transmission Date: Sunday 15th April 2001 Written ByPaul Hodson Directed By Henry Foster |
Ray, Prash, Fletch Prash, Lynda Victoria, Lynda Fletch, Prash Ray, Lynda Prash |
GS: Emma Conlon (Jessica Hill) Jake Conlon (Billy Hill) Pat Bowyer (Richard Hainsworth) Richard Keys (as himself) Andy Gray (as himself) It's the day of the final and Prash addresses Harchester's fans live on Sky Sports, asking them to bring their passports as they will be in Europe next season. Ray, operating as manager once more, pays Fletch a visit where he informs him he won't be starting today as his head is not in the right place, with Fletch seething from being removed as manager after only one day. Victoria chases after Prash, pleading with him to let her have Patterson-Palmer only for him to inform her he sold it yesterday. The only pay-off Prash will issue Victoria is to buy herself a drink. Jamie learns from Ray he is playing today. Lynda buys her ticket from a tout outside the ground. Fletch goes to Prash demanding he forces Ray to make him play. Prash continues to stall Fletch with how he still plans for him to be manager next season, they just needed to get through today with Ray's experience. Entering the club with Lizzie, Lynda is surrounded by press. Bringing his "potential sponsor" AKA new buyer Pat Bowyer into the Players' Lounge, Prash spots Lynda standing with the wives. Prash ushers Lynda away and tells her she's not welcome, ordering a security guard to see her out. Lynda manages to sneak back in, disguised in her sunglasses. Lynda lurks around the offices unseen, before entering her former office. Inside she finds Victoria getting drunk. Lynda tells Victoria she can't do anything because everything Prash did was legal, though neither of them feel calm about it. Victoria adds she'd like to torture Prash for a year before killing him. Sitting behind them in the dugout, Fletch overhears Ray telling Andy how Prash offered him a five-year contract if they qualify for the Champions League, which he of course won’t be accepting. A fuming Fletch publicly confronts Prash in the director's box. Inside, Prash gives Fletch the cold truth about how he would never trust him managing a Champions League side when he has no qualifications and couldn't even hold a morning's training. Lynda re-enters the Players' Lounge, and tells Lizzie how it still feels they are her players not Prash's so she can't leave the game. Prash again tries to throw Lynda out, but this time the wives, or “Charlie's Angels”, step forward and tell Prash it would be a shame if a photographer happened to overhear he was throwing out the former owner who has just lost her baby. Prash is forced to admit defeat. Ray puts Fletch on in the second half, and is again left fuming when the ref disallows another foul on Harchester by West Ham, this time refusing a free kick for a challenge on Linger. A second West Ham goal sees Ray's anger get the better of him, and he is sent off the touchline to the stands. Ray encounters Prash on the stairwell and Prash believes he is throwing the game as some sort of revenge! In Lynda's old office, Prash negotiates selling the club to Pat, for forty million if they make the Champions League. A lurking Victoria overhears from outside the door. Only ten minutes after coming on, a disappointing Fletch is substituted, and storms off the pitch publicly blaming Dattani, in the tunnel yelling he is going to kill Prash. Victoria reports back to Lynda what she's just learned, and when Lynda states she just wants Prash out of her life, Victoria says she should care as it proves Prash never wanted the club, just the chance to make a profit. With five minutes to go, Harchester need one more goal to secure their Champions League status. The crucial goal comes from Danny and Harchester have done it. Lynda watches a jubilant fan pitch invasion, and then reflects on how Prash is now going to make forty million. In the stands, Pat congratulates Ray, and reveals how he would only have had to pay twenty-eight million to Prash if they hadn't qualified. Victoria, Lynda, Ray and Fletch all seem to be on a mission to get somewhere, but is it to the same place? Prash celebrates in his office, when suddenly his door swings open and somebody charges at him, with him raising his hand to protect his head. Victoria is next seen entering the Players' Lounge seemingly in her element, snatching a bottle of champagne and snogging the barman. Lynda is next, seemingly in a trance and not registering the joy of her friends at the result. Ray too seems subdued upon his arrival, as if he is worried about being seen. Fletch is spotted by Eddie outside the Players' Lounge, apprehensive about entering. Eddie and Fletch shake hands on their recent troubles, and Eddie notices Fletch has hurt his hand. Siobhan requests Monday take her to the Caribbean this summer, and the two share their first proper kiss. Lynda and Ray come face to face and when she wishes him well done all he can say to her is that he's sorry. Lynda looks at Ray as if he means something else. In his office, Prash lies sprawled on the floor, eyes still with blood leaking from his ear. Whoever paid him that visit finished the job. Notes: Last appearances of Eddie Moliano (Ed Sanders), Ray Wyatt (Mark Moraghan), Prashant Dattani (Ramon Tikeram) until a flashback revealing his death in 5.15 Guilty, Campbell Hooper (Dean Holness), Matt Conlon (Paul Swinnerton), Lizzie Conlon (Natalie J. Robb) and Siobhan Bandele (Alison Coffey) Best Known For: Among his career, Richard Hainsworth played Captain Paul Fitzroy Drummond in intergalactic soap “Jupiter Moon” (1990-91), Pete in “Grange Hill” (1991) and recently the film “Fisherman’s Friends” (2019). The Best: Blotto Victoria, moving between Lynda and Fletch and aggravating their grievances over Prash’s treatment of them, fuelled by her own bitterness for him. Emma and Jake, at times more fun to watch than their parents, emerging from the tunnel with the team to walk out onto the pitch with Matt. The team’s loud and wild victory celebration in the dressing room, with Gary Bloom making the classic sports journo error of popping in for a word with the conquering heroes, only to be carried into the showers for a soaking! And it wouldn’t be a DT season finale without ending on a cliffhanger - following on from S2’s who got shot at Wembley and Didier’s penalty kick in S3 - to now with who killed Prash? Foreshadowing: Prash has a comment on Victoria “knocking her brain with alcohol” Continuity: With John Salthouse's last episode as Exec Producer until his return in DT80's and Season 10, Ray remarks to Danny he is "Playing the occasion, not the game". But also this episode being penned by long-time DT writer Paul Hodson, his work stretching back to 1.1. Prash gets personal with Victoria how with her performance it was surprising her marriage to Didier lasted more than two weeks. What Was The Score?: A second corner kick from Campbell sees Matt score. Paolo Di Canio fouls Dion Osbourne and immediately scores an accepted goal, to the fury of Ray who has to be held back remonstrating with an official by Andy. Frederic Kanoute makes it 2-1 to West Ham. Harchester are finally awarded a free kick when Danny is brought down, and Eddie steps up to take it, scoring and Harchester are level. Danny gets the third goal in stoppage time. Liverpool draw 1-1 with Man City at Maine Road, which means Harchester have qualified for the Champions League. Soundtrack: David Bowie: “Heroes”, Moby: “God Moving Over Face Waters” |
