Series 18, episode 16

Kevin develops a strange friendship.

24 February and 20 November 1995

“Are you OK, Lucy?”

A straight pickup, with Dennis still on Dudley. Lucy defuses the situation by telling the facts – Josh and then Lucy split from the room, and have a brief chat.

Dean and his “mate” hypothesise that Mrs. Mitchell got it from Mr. Mitchell, and he got it from someone like Brisley. Dean is so ill-informed that he thinks you can catch HIV from swimming in the same pool as someone who lived with someone who was. Look, do you know how difficult it is to catch a *verruca* in a public pool? Be rational, not emotional.

Mr. Robson is having none of this bollocks, and uses a Hard Stare at Dean. It’s almost enough to remind Josh that it’s perfectly safe: if the verruca virus is an armoured tank, HIV is a paper chain made out of the thinnest crepe paper from cheap Christmas cracker hats. All that chlorine kills off germs and bugs and nasties, just as cheap Christmas crackers kill off fun. You’re more likely to die of laughing at the “joke” in a cheap Christmas cracker than from HIV contracted at a swimming pool.

“Are you OK?” asks Robson, who doesn’t know what the children know. And then Lucy tells her, and he adopts the Sad Robson face. Just what we didn’t need: a flashback to all of last year’s Robson-angst.

“We could have a very serious health risk on our hands,” says Mr. Parrott. “The last thing we need is to panic,” says Mr. Brisley, not fanning the flames of the human Daily Heil. Miss Carver asks sensible, practical questions. Mr. Parrott continues to be a bastard, and Mr. Brisley says he’s over-reacting massively. Yep, the Human Daily Heil.

Out in the playground, it’s the human Daily Chinese Whispers: apparently Lucy has AIDS and six months to live. Jessica tells little brother James to “leave us alone”. We can tell when Jessica’s stressed, she bosses Arnie about and doesn’t smile. Remember the time last year when Jessica marched into Arnie’s room because of the noise from computer tennis?

After their rocky start to the year, Kevin and Wayne are friends, and Kevin explains how he wants to take his A-levels a couple of years early, to become an astronaut. And then Kevin’s mother walks in, and wants to know, “which girl at school with AIDS?” She’ll be turning up tomorrow morning demanding to see Mr. Robson. She’ll demand that Mr. Robson breach confidentiality, she’ll claim “This girl is not my concern.”

Having an AIDS test – or not – is Lucy’s decision. Mr. Robson recognises this. Mr. Parrott, in his usual busybody way, is more concerned about the school’s “reputation” than giving a quality education to any of its pupils.

Mr. Brisley recognises Dean’s distinctive art style from the graffiti on Lucy’s locker. “Clean it up. Don’t care if you miss a lesson.” The trouble from missing a lesson is less than the trouble Mr. Brisley could make.

By the time Lucy and Mr. Brisley have their heart-to-heart, both can gain something from the chat. The camerawork here is a simple spin, reflecting the dizzy rush of emotions. Mr. Brisley gives the facts, that HIV can’t be transmitted by touch. Or cups. Or toilets. Or swimming pools. Or even kisses on the forehead.

The subtext, never spoken: Mr. Brisley is gay. He knows about this kind of thing. He has to, in order to have a life.

“AIDS is a disease, not a judgement,” says Lucy’s councillor. Lucy can still smell the perfume, and misses the touches. Ooh, he’s bringing out a Memory Box. A literal memory box. Lucy puts the earrings back on, and packs some keepsakes – including the pictures from California ’85.

Plenty of unusual shots in this episode: in the water of the swimming pool, cameras in the lab bottles Dorothy looks into, and from the ceiling looking down on Kevin as he dreams of being an astronaut. Sure, there’s the cut-cut-cut over-the-shoulder they’ve always done in dialogues; also that gentle circle while Lucy talks to Mr. Brisley demonstrates how Lucy’s in a spin. Nigel Douglas always gave interesting shot direction.

There are other plots in this episode. Remember Becky and Jacko, love’s young dream? Jacko isn’t sure if they’re still an item, Becky’s been stirred up. Not *entirely* sure why the entire Sixth Form burst into a chorus of “Tonight” from West Side Story: is it the Manyeke effect?

Maybe Bits and Pieces did cause change: in a class discussion about hot air, Mr. Hankin calls on Poppy rather than Kevin, and tells Wayne to stop interrupting Sarah-Jayne.

Kevin spends lunchtime with Dorothy the lab assistant, talking, seeing the apparatus for testing hot air balloons. And seeing her mementos. Buzz Aldrin’s glove from his spacesuit of the Gemini mission: a rare and valuable artefact. Sarah-Jayne’s been eavesdropping, and whips out the glove. Panicked by an overheating experiment, she drops it and treads on the glove.

Dorothy is not amused, and tells Kevin to stay away. “You know very well what you’ve done”. If (as we suspect) Kevin is on the autistic spectrum, maybe he doesn’t. And with Mr. Hankin able to provide an alibi, Dorothy’s perhaps a little hasty, and apologises. To make it up, she takes Kevin to the observatory, to see other galaxies. His mother is worried, but thanks Dr. Dorothy Pollard.

Shall we have a comedy plot? We need a comedy plot. Dave the caretaker has a reliable friend. Mr. Reliable (it says so on the van). Inside is something for Mr. Hankin’s hot air. Dave demonstrates that this item is subject to gravity (and stupidity) by rolling it down a ramp out of the van. It’s to help the First Form test their hot air balloons.

Cliffhanger? Lucy and her dad have taken the tests. We don’t see the results in this episode.

Fashion watch: Kevin’s rugby top: green and navy with highlights of yellow and red. Very stylish, and very 1994. If this is the top we think it is, it was fairly expensive – £8.99 from BHS – and will likely last to the end of the decade – or until Kevin grows out of it.

Passing through Kate (swimming pool instructor) – Natasha Bain. Still in theatre, and got good notices for The Secondary Victim in 2017.

AIDS counsellor – Richard Ashton. Garth in Don’t Tell Father, Thorvard in Vikings, and Little John in WB’s The New Adventures of Robin Hood (don’t think that ever aired here).