"Three of a Kind"

The last episode of the third series of MatH is not bad but it's not terribly memorable either.  The "poker" episode of 3'sC offers bad puns ("Poker-hontas") and a strip element.  This episode, "Three of a Kind," is milder.  It aired on 20 November 1974.

Derek:  We start with an aerial shot of Robin and two of his mates playing poker.  We know Larry of course.  The new fellow, with the sandy hair, moustache, and beard, is called Derek.  The actor, Jeremy Bulloch, was born in '45 and has credits spanning over 50 years, the most notable being seven episodes of Dr. Who, in '65, '73, and '74.

Robin is winning the game, and failing to be modest about it.

Larry tells a dirty joke about three old ladies and a well-built burglar.  The girls come in before he finishes.  Robin tries to signal to him.  When Larry sees the girls, he says he forgot the ending.  Jo says she heard the joke on Stars on Sunday (a music program then in the middle of its decade-long run).

The girls notice how smoky the room is.  Chrissy says they should hang a goverment health warning on the door.  As Chrissy tidies up, Jo sprays a pine-scented air freshener.

Robin's throat is bad.  He's been treating it with fags, beers, crisps, and peanuts.  Derek wants to examine it.  He'll be a fully fledged doctor in a year.  Everyone peers down Robin's throat.  Derek says Robin's tonsils will have to come out.  Chrissy asks if she should go get the bread knife.

Toby jug:  Downstairs, George is figuring out whom to bet on in a football match.  He and Mildred argue about the money in her toby jug.  ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jug_(container)#Toby_Jug )  She's saving up for a new winter coat.

Back upstairs, the two guests leave.  The girls think Robin's throat is getting worse.  He says he's fine, and don't argue with an invalid.

Dr. McLeod:  Robin gives in to his friends' pressure, and the next scene is set in a doctor's office.  In a rare continuity error, Derek introduces Robin to Dr. McLeod, even though this doctor was treating Robin on "Match of the Day."  Duncan Lamont, by the way, was also doing Dr. Who in '74.

Robin says he doesn't believe in doctors.  McLeod assures him that they exist.  He asks if Robin has a temperature.  Robin says, "Everyone has, haven't they?"

McLeod is annoyed by Derek's kibitzing, but Derek's diagnosis is correct.  Robin has tonsillitis.  Derek has already arranged for Dr. Berkeley-Jones to operate, and he's reserved a bed for Robin.  Dr. McLeod says maybe he's misjudged Derek, who'd make a good consultant.

Idiot:  At the trio's flat later, Mr. Roper is again fixing the kitchen taps, badly.  Chrissy goes in the lounge and says Roper's an idiot.  Jo agrees.

Robin enters and says he's going to the hospital tomorrow.  He's nervous, so Jo says she had her tonsils out.  It left a scar.  She points to her waist.

Chrissy says at least they're not snipping out bits that are useful.  Robin says all of his bits are useful.

Mr. Roper comes in and tells a story from the war, about one of his mates who had his tonsils out and died, but from a buzz bomb.  After he leaves, Robin calls him an idiot.

One reason Robin is nervous is that he's heard of hospital mix-ups, like a man going in for ingrown toenails but having a baby.  Chrissy says it's the easiest operation there is, but she keeps putting her foot in her mouth.

Robin says that the last time he was in hospital, they held him up by the ankles and spanked his bottom.  We assume he means when he was born, although you never know.

The three of them have gone into the kitchen, so Chrissy says that the operation is as easy as putting a washer on a tap.  So when she turns on the water, it shoots out at her.  Robin lightly embraces Jo as they laugh.

Headstone:  The next morning, Chrissy stops Robin from eating since he's going to have an operation.  He talks about dying, so she asks him why he always dramatises.  He hands her a box with his insurance policies and all his savings.  Trying to look sombre, she says, "I've already ordered the headstone." 

When Robin leaves, apparently either catching the bus to the hospital or going on foot, Jo says they'll see him on Tuesday.  After he goes, Chrissy says the next few days aren't going to be pleasant.
Jo:  For him?
Chrissy:  For me, 'cause you're gonna be doing the cooking.

72:  In the hospital, a young nurse takes Robin's pulse, 72.  He gets it mixed up with his temperature.  And then when Derek comes in, he does the same.  She's not impressed with him, and after she leaves, he says that they (nurses) won't speak to you when you're a student, but "the minute you qualify, they have the trousers off you."

He tells Robin that Dr. Berkeley-Jones is a good doctor who hardly drinks at all anymore, at least not during surgery.  He doesn't sound like he's joking.  And he thinks that Robin ruined this afternoon's poker session.

The girls come in and Jo calls Derek doctor before recognising him.  Robin says Derek isn't a doctor because he still has his trousers on.

After Derek leaves, Robin says Derek is in a bad mood because of the poker game.  He jokes about Chrissy running the game.  She doesn't think it's funny.  He says poker is a man's game.  She says that in Moscow the women sweep snow and dig ditches.  If men can play poker, so can women.

Robin admits that there are certain things women are good at.
Chrissy:  Yeah, bearing children, cooking, and washing up.
Robin:  No, you missed out on the one I was thinking of.

She says she'll bet his money in the box, since it's only his poker winnings.  He asks if she can play poker.  She says, "What a daft question!"

Ashtray:  Back at the flat, Chrissy is trying to memorise poker hands from The Illustrated Book of Card Games.  Jo thinks Chrissy should've told Robin she can't play.  Chrissy says she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.  She sticks a note to the bottom of the ashtray.  (It goes right on without tape, so perhaps she's invented the post-it note.)

She lets in Larry, who's wearing his Oxford sweatshirt.  She says he was supposed to be there by 3.30.  He says next time he'll bring a note.

Jo puts a floral arrangement on the card table.  And she's going to be serving cucumber sandwiches and barley water.

We briefly switch to the entryway, where Derek comes in and accidentally bumps into Mr. Roper.  George tells him that Robin is in hospital.  Derek says, "Larry and I are carrying on with Chrissy," but he means poker.  George is intrigued by the possibility of gambling.

Derek goes into the trio's flat.  He says Robin is worried, but about his money, rather than the surgery.

We find out that Jo is also serving fairy cakes, smaller versions of cupcakes.  She encourages the others to use napkins.  Larry has her move the flowers, since that's where the pot goes, as in kitty. 

Chrissy thinks 10p a bet is too much.  They'll do 1p.  She says they're here for a social afternoon, not to win money off each other. 

She consults the ashtray to see how to play.  Larry gets suspicious but lets it go.

No limit:  Downstairs, George listens to the match on the radio.  They lose.  Mildred says he's gambling mad.

He sneaks the money out of her toby jar and goes upstairs, allegedly to work on the water tap.

Larry has won the last three hands, winning a grand total of 8p.  Mr. Roper comes in, looking gleeful.  He invites himself to play, but when he hears the limit, he says that he'll look at the water tap.  The men offer to help.

Chrissy reluctantly offers to make the limit 2p.  Larry says there's no limit.  She's unhappy about that.

Mr. Roper moves the ashtray.  When Chrissy objects, he says he didn't know she smoked.  She says she doesn't, but she likes to keep it handy in case she starts.

Bluffing:  Back in the hospital, the nurse rolls in a phone on a cart.  Robin is about to get an injection, but he takes the call.  Chrissy asks about poker.  She admits she lied.  It's down to her and Mr. Roper.  Robin asks if Mr. Roper is bluffing.  "I don't know, I'll ask him."  He stops her.

She tells him her not very impressive hand as the nurse gives him an injection in the bum.  (He's facing us and partially covered by the sheet.)  He tells Chrissy she has an unbeatable hand.  After he hangs up, the nurse, suddenly sounding very Scottish, says, "I wouldn't have the nerve to tell a great big whopper like that just before I went into the operating theatre." 

The actress playing her, Louisa Martin, in 1971 had a recurring role on Emmerdale Farm, a program that's still running to this day, although shortened to Emmerdale.  A couple decades after this episode, she had a recurring role on Avonlea. 

Chrissy has Jo get the rentbook.  She bets Mr. Roper's five pounds plus another ten.  She smiles.  He gives in. 

Then Derek sees her poker hand.  Larry is amused that she was bluffing.  She's mad with Robin for lying to her.

But this is nothing to the fury of Mrs. Roper when she shows up in the doorway.

Accident:  In the closing scene, Mrs. Roper checks on Robin in hospital.  She and George had to go to outpatients.  He had a little accident.  An empty toby jug fell on his head.  Robin is sympathetic until George comes in with a huge bandage on his forehead.  Robin and Mildred laugh, he especially, so much it looks like the actors are breaking character.

Commentary:  When money is involved in the Battle of the Sexes, the results can get ugly.  Not only do we have Mrs. Roper hitting her husband with a toby jug, but Chrissy is prepared to gamble away the rent money, just to prove she can play poker as well as a man.  And Jo doesn't even try to stop her.

Jo in the last section of the episode ends up in the role of hostess, with all the feminine touches like flowers and cucumber sandwiches.  It's ironic that when Chrissy lists off stereotypical things that women are supposed to be good at, she mentions cooking, even though she's just complained about Jo's cooking.  (I don't know why Chrissy never cooks.  Perhaps she's even worse.)  Hopefully the fairy cakes are store-bought.

I like that the nurse is played for neither stereotype of "hot nurse" nor "cold nurse."  She's just a woman doing her job.

This episode offers an example of Larry trying to behave himself around Chrissy and Jo, not finishing his dirty joke, which they already heard on television anyway.

Looking back on the third series, I think it starts out well but becomes weaker.  The addition of Larry as a tenant is good, but the last few plots are less interesting.  I'm curious to see what happens in the fourth series, but first there will be a cinematic interlude.