It is no secret that I admire Lynne enormously, having been privileged to see her work on the stage in Melbourne before she got into TV work, I have been frustrated by the way in which her talents have been ignored. Daniel Bennett clearly had no idea how to write for the older characters in the show, and although the poisoning story was excellent in many respects, not least in Lynne’s brilliant performance, it was marred by the lack of proper follow through and Daniel Bennett’s incomprehensible decision to give the climax of this story to someone else, that is to one of his obviously favourite characters, Martha. Irene was brilliant for the few short weeks that this story ran and then suddenly it was if he was bored with her and returned to the younger cast and she was forgotten. Thankfully the current writers are not so shallow and are writing for the entire cast with much greater depth. My wife was, and is, a huge Irene and Barry fan, and is both intrigued and irked by Lou's appearance on the scene. I am absolutely delighted that the fabulous Lynne gets to do her stuff. She has been amazing. Friday’s scene in the diner was excellent purely for its simplicity and understated acting, a master class in how it should be done. I hope the younger cast were taking notes. And I very much agree with Jimbo that Irene looked fantastic when she was dressed up for the opera, but then she is a truly lovely woman.
Thank you writers, for giving Irene a long over due story line, may it be a long and and in depth story and the first of many to come.
