Season 5 Episode 6 Episode 234 Sky One Transmission Date: Sunday 21st October 2001 Directed By Alan Dossor

Dawn, team Todge, David Claudia, Dawn Victoria, Jamie Claudia, Stevie

GS: James Carson-Brandt (Andrew Hall) Tony “Todge” Hodge (Lucas Adamson) Councillor (Mandy Fenton) Carson-Brandt meets Fletch with news regarding the prosecution's key witness, whose application for protection has been turned down. It turns out to be none other than Victoria Baptiste. The team are enticed by a gorgeous presence in the Players' Lounge, who turns out to be none other than Dawn Spears, who has been away for cosmetic surgery. David doesn't know what to say (or where to look) when his new wife presents herself! Fletch is convinced Victoria is Prash's killer, now shifting the crime onto him, and is determined to find her against James and Lynda's pleas. Claudia finds an excuse to get out of the office and take documents to Mill Lane for David to sign. As she stands pitchside, Stevie makes sure to get Claudia flat on her bum by sending the ball her way. Now with her £200 dress muddy, Claudia steps inside the empty changing room. David heads inside while the lads warm down, and is stopped in his tracks by the sight of a showering Claudia, who seductively instructs him to join her. Claudia makes her exit and runs straight into Dawn, looking for her husband. Peggsy spots a necklace lying on the side, and Stevie knows somebody has had a girl in the room, but can't place who it belongs to. Fletch has discovered Victoria is in the private Abbey Clinic for alcoholism, and ropes a reluctant Jamie into getting to her by sending him in. Jamie pulls up outside the clinic, and makes a call to Tash explaining he will be out with the Chelsea lads tonight. As he enters, a photographer hides in the bushes snapping pictures. David asks Lynda to keep Claudia away from the training ground, as she could be a distraction to the “players”. Lynda tells David she has been looking for an excuse to get rid of Claudia, who she didn't hire, but her father the chairman did. Claudia tells Lynda she won't get away with sacking her, and she's going to call her father. Jamie wings it in front of a support group about his fears of returning to gambling, as Victoria sits opposite. Before he knows it Jamie is joining Victoria in her room for a smuggled-in bottle or three, but not before reporting back to Fletch. Fletch sees Tash, and spikes her suspicions by saying Jamie is out with the Charlton boys. With she having divulged in alcohol, Victoria brings out a pack of playing cards to tempt Jamie, with the game being whoever gets highest has to answer the other's question truthfully. Claudia and Stevie realise they are similar than they thought, when he talks of how he can't stand it when someone tells him he can't do something, and she knows she has to prove Lynda wrong in her opinion that she is useless. Stevie realises the necklace he still has is Claudia’s. Victoria puts it to Jamie that the real reason he has come to the same clinic as her is because Fletch has put him up to persuading her to retract her statement. Jamie wakes up the next morning still in Victoria's room, unable to remember if they have slept together like she is saying they did. Lynda also gets a shock when she arrives at the club to find Claudia sitting at her desk, having already prepared her office ready for her. Jamie returns home to find Tash has seen the back cover of the paper with him entering the clinic, and she is convinced he has been gambling again. Jamie can't tell her the real reason he was there, or even David when he threatens to drop him for the Shelbourne decider. Tash has packed her things and asks Monday if she can stay at his. Lynda decides to give Claudia another chance when she buys her dinner at The Grange. David and Dawn join them, and Stevie gets an eyeful of Claudia playing footsie with David under the table. Jamie goes to Fletch and pleads with him to reveal the truth of why he was at the clinic. Fletch won't even entertain the idea, as he will be done for perverting the course of justice, which is more important than Tash walking out on Jamie. Notes: The Best: Claudia heading into what will be the first of two of DT’s sexiest ever moments she will take part in, starting with the shower scene. See 5.11 Confessions for the next. Lynda’s suspicions of the tone in which Claudia asks David how he likes his coffee. Quotes: Claudia welcoming David to her ‘scene’ with the immortal words of "Lock the door and come and join me". Additional Info: Claudia tells Stevie she was working on a boat as a deckhand before she came to Harchester. She also shares info to Lynda on her older brothers who are in the Far East and the States respectively. What Was The Score?: Harchester face Shelbourne at their UEFA home leg. A goal from Rawsthorne, while Peggsy gives the ball away to Wes Hoolahan, and finishes 1-1. Soundtrack: Groove Armada: "Fogma", "Suntoucher" and "Superstylin", De Leon, Dumonde & DJ Jam: "See the Light", Humate: "Bedrock", The Charlatans: "You're So Pretty - We're So Pretty" Behind The Scenes: Normally, a supposedly minor character appearing in one episode and then never seen again wouldn’t create much attention. Here however, we meet Todge, who is given a pointed introduction to the team by manager Spears. Off screen, he appeared in the season’s squad photo and even a regular cast publicity shot. With this, the character remained an almost urban legend, in how he got so far without actually doing anything! <<SE05 EP05 |  Season 5 Main Page | SE05 EP07>>