Sense & Susceptibility

***Sense & Susceptibility*** is the first episode of the second series of *Night Terrace*.

## Synopsis

Eddie is having trouble adjusting to Night Terrace’s new housemate, ex-DEPARTMENT agent Sue Denholm, but there are more pressing concerns: something is stopping the house from landing anywhere except 1955 London.

But what does a BBC radio serial about farmers called *The Fletchers* have to do with it? And can Eddie’s clog dancing help?

## Plot

The house is behaving oddly, seemingly unable to land anywhere but in 1955 London. Arriving in front of a bus stop on the 20th May 1955, Sue plots their previous arrivals on a map and finds the house has been appearing in a circle with a building in its centre: BBC Broadcasting House.

They make their way inside, posing as inspectors from the "Ministry of Valves", but are quickly drawn into the intense plots and counter plots of radio drama *The Fletchers*. Eddie and Anastasia are mistaken for Australian guest actors and end up performing with the other members of the *Fletchers* cast.

Meanwhile Sue is startled by the BBC tea lady, who bombards with an offering of biscuits and tea. Escaping the tea lady's clutches, Sue discovers a room with anachronistic or alien technology. She fetches Anastasia from the *Fletchers*  recording - despite director Charles' protests. Eddie distracts the the *Fletchers* crew with a demonstration of Welsh clog dancing in the recording studio, dazzling the actors.

In the next room, Anastasia and Sue investigate a purple egg-shaped pre-amp thing, some sort of alien device that makes people susceptible. It causes people to agree with anything said near or through it. Stepping outside of the room and out of the device's influence, Sue and Anastasia argue about what to do. Anastasia debates about time travel, uncertain if they must intervene to preserve history, or if the technology was always in 1955, and so tampering it would alter the course of history. Sue meanwhile reasons that "we become history every time we leave the house", and thinks they should destroy it. She wins the argument by opening the door to the equipment room and using the device's power to convince Anastasia she's right.

Anastasia comes up with a "not very sophisticated" idea, which essentially involves using the device over the Broadcasting House announcement system to order all staff to "destroy the equipment", adding that "this order cannot be countermanded" for good measure. The staff helplessly obey, leaving the Night Terrace crew to escape amidst the chaos.

Later, Mr King receives a call from Charles concerning "the experiment"; he expresses his dismay over how powerful the device turned out to be, and explains that only a few pieces of it survived the destruction at the BBC. Mr King requests that the pieces be returned to The D.E.P.A.R.T.M.E.N.T.…

## Cast and characters

* Jackie Woodburne as Anastasia Black
* Ben McKenzie as Eddie Jones
* Petra Elliott as Susan Denholm

### Guest Stars

* Ian Smith as Bunny
* Gary Russell as Charles
* Louise Jameson as Marjorie
* Dave Lamb as Dave
* Amanda Buckley as Vaneray
* Colette Mann as the Tea Lady
* John Clarke as Mr King

Additional voices provided by Michael F Cahill, Stephen Hall, Brianna Williams, Allan Carey, Richard Schipper, Graeme Callaghan, Andrew Waddington, Kyle Threlfo and the cast.

## Notes

* This episode starts with a cold open before crashing into the titles, and then Sue says "Half an hour earlier". Based on this approximately 6 minutes into the story equals 30 minutes of elapsed time since the house arrived.
* "The Fletchers" is a riff on *The Archers*.
* While this is the first episode of season two, Anastasia, Eddie and Sue have been travelling together for some time, *and* been stuck in London for a while.

### Continuity

* Anastasia warns Sue and Eddie not to take any technology out into 1955 London including no: mobile phones, CD walkman, Palm Pilots, MiniDisc players.
* Sue has bought a London A-Z.
* Anthony Eden is Prime Minister.
* There's a general election next week.
* Charles suggests a 5 minute cigarette break.

### Australian references

* Anastasia and Eddie are given some "Australian dialogue" to perform in *The Fletchers*:

* Anastasia: "G'day cobbers, sorry we're late our combi ran out of Vegemite just outside of Earl's Court and then Bazza had to chunder after going on the turps strewth." Followed by "Don't come the raw prawn with us Tom"
* Eddie: "Dinky-di, true blue, Black Stump, billabong." Followed by "Well I'm a stunned mullet who's as flat out as a drongo with a face like a dropped pie ya mongrel"

* From the post-credits sequence:

* (Male Australian): "G'day cobber we're the Aussie actors here to do *the Fletchers* sorry our combi van ran out of Vegemite just outside of Earl's Court tucker dinkie die true blue woop woop frog in a sock of thongs."
* (Female Australian) "Strewth you've had quite a bash here you Sheila? Stone the crows fancy a tinnie."

* Charles also gives an example of "Australian" as "Strewth we had a bluey in the coolibah last night"

### Trivia

* Louise Jameson (best known as Leela in *Doctor Who*) plays Marjorie, a long-suffering actor in *The Fletchers* who is repeatedly given the single line "Have you seen the cows?". As well as one other line of dialogue complaining about this, she recorded many different performances of "Have you seen the cows?" for the episode.
* Several of the statements Anaastasia makes concerning time travel to Sue are inspired by *Doctor Who*: When she asks if she "has the right", she is echoing the Fourth Doctor's famous question about whether he should alter history by destroying the Daleks in in *Genesis of the Daleks*, and "but you can't change history, not one line" echoes the First Doctor's argument from *The Aztecs*.
* In another *Doctor Who* reference, "Destroy the equipment, this order cannot be countermanded" is used in *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*. The Fourth Doctor also tries to get Davros to say "this order cannot be countermanded" when forcing him to order the destruction of the Daleks in *Genesis of the Daleks*.
* The Cockney slang in this story is partly real, partly nonsense, and partly inspired by Dick van Dyke's performance in *Mary Poppins*. It includes these lines from the kitten delivery man at reception:

* "Robin Hood Day's Dawnin', golden dove. Got a Charles Fox of kittens, me jubbly."
* "Just need a moniker on this Merlyn Rees of Linen Draper, chim-chimineee, chim-chiminee."
* "Lawd above, butcher's at the nickle and dime. You want these kittens or not, Gooseberry Pudding, step in time step in time?"

## External links

* Bandcamp - Splendid Chaps Productions ***2.1 Sense & Susceptibility***
* On the Terrace podcast: Persuasive Archery
* Australian National University - Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms - P (for "raw prawn" usage)
* Australian National University - Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms - M (for "stunned mullet" usage)

## References

 **Season One**
 **Season Two**
*Things That Go Bump in the Night Terrace* · *Ancient History*
 **Specials**
 **Hello! My Name is Eddie**
 **Night Your Own Terrace**
 **Horatio's Travels**
*Messages*