Apple Tree Yard

Just finished the last two episodes and found it a bit unbelievable and drawn out. I was expecting a better twist in the end to liven it up and thought it was weak. I think it was supposed to be left open to interpretation, but no normal person would go and kill a person just because someone had said they wished them dead, and she thought he was "normal" so couldn't have believed he would. He wasn't madly besotted by her anyway as he was trying in on with the policewoman. A factual point at the end - There was no indication she was tried or convicted of perjury. Very disappointing. On a positive note thought acting good.

I just managed to catch up with the last part last night and really wasn't ready for the "twist" at the end that left me wondering whether Yvonne was as innocent as originally thought (or as the jury were led to believe). I hated her husbands character. who wanted to stay squeaky clean in his daughters eyes did't he?

A woman in her 50s wearing Spanx is a bit unbelievable, by the time you have reached this stage of your life you are not having it off in the broom cupboard with your foot in a mop bucket.

Really harri ?

well okay I wouldn't be wearing the Spanx

nigglynellie I think men very rarely write anything on or off a computer about someone they are having an affair with (shag in broom cupboards).

Presumably he did the same?

Oh harrigran I'm wearing my French knickers, lace trimmed, when I'm doing that

Good for you Nsnnylovesshopping xx?

nigglynellie she hid the letters she wrote on her computer in a file marked VAT3, so it is possible that the police would not have found the information, particularly as she never used any names, so even a search for his name would have revealed nothing.

I thought it was very good.

Well, it has not inspired me to read the book.

Surely the Police would have confiscated Yvonne's computer with all those revealing conversations on it?!

Ah Nanny, but are you trying to wrestle them off in a toilet cubicle so you can sit on a bar stool and flash your giblets ?

I'm still wearing Spanx at 66

I recorded the whole series before starting to watch. Main characters were awful, him a slimeball and her boring and insipid. DH and I watched all episodes on double speed and even faster on the boring bits. DH said it was unbelievable as the court scenes and legal bits were not correct. Mark, if he had been in security, would not have made the basic mistake of using a staion with CCTV and going to the house in daylight.
A woman in her 50s wearing Spanx is a bit unbelievable, by the time you have reached this stage of your life you are not having it off in the broom cupboard with your foot in a mop bucket.

This series has given a whole new dimension to the talk I give about the suffragettes, when I mentioned where Emily Wilding Davison spent the 1911 census night and talked about the plaque which is in the once broom cupboard there was much laughter and giggling. Nothing to do with the suffragettes I suspect (I didn't mention the bucket!)

That's weird because I thought she finally understood that he did in fact have a personality disorder. Because she said "you really didn't understand did you?" But as that didn't happen in the book who knows

Yes, I thought that aspect was deliberately ambivalent - she did seem a bit self-satisfied at the end, to me.

... just as, not just and.

whitewave .......
Yes, he took what she said literally whereas she meant it metaphorically.

Ana.............
Or did she?

I think the ending was meant to have us thinking 'did she/didn't she' just and commented above by whitewave and Ana.

Or did she?

whitewave Yes I think that what it showed in the end that Mark had trouble distinguishing between the different type of messages that humans give out to each other.
Yes, he took what she said literally whereas she meant it metaphorically.

But I distinctly heard Yvonne tell Mark 'I want you to kill him' when they were in bed together in one of the flashbacks. She sounded serious to me, and obviously to him as well!

Oh I think Yvonne wanted him killed and I think the fact that it was done exactly as she asked in bed- "I want you to smash his face in," indicates that Mark did it for her.

I haven't read the book which may have made it definite but I thought it was something said on the spur of the moment 'I would like you to kill him and smash his face in' because she felt so much anguish and hatred towards George at that time. From the televised drama I got the impression that perhaps Mark had Asperger's and took her to mean it literally whereas she just said it without truly meaning it - she just wanted the frighteners put on George to teach him a lesson and stop him stalking her.

Alima if you haven't seen Emily Watson before, try to find the film 'Oranges and Sunshine', a brilliant but heartrending portrayal of children shipped out to Australia:
Oranges and Sunshine tells the story of Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson), a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovered one of the most significant social scandals of recent times; the mass deportation of children from the United Kingdom to Australia. Single-handedly and against overwhelming odds, Margaret reunited thousands of families and drew worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.

Perhaps it would have made more sense if the script had stuck to the book

Oh I think Yvonne wanted him killed and I think the fact that it was done exactly as she asked in bed- "I want you to smash his face in," indicates that Mark did it for her. I seem to remember that the book was even more definite about her wanting him killed. I think the whole trial was a bit dodgy in places. One of the things about first person novels is that you can accept things because of the unreliable narrator theory, unfortunately this doesn't always translate well into a screenplay. Very watchable but not necessarily very accurate.

The book ended differently with Yvonne getting a jail sentence for perjury, but only served half of it. She didn't go to visit Mark in jail.

Mmm...maybe, but how would anyone have been able to prove it?

I get what you mean, but I thought the point of interviewing the PO was to verify certain aspects of Mark's character; I can't quite remember if she was for the prosecution or the defence!

I'm watching again and trying to fill in the gaps.