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| "I've only had one small swig" |
We continue from the previous episode, as Ffion unconvincingly maintains that she has just found the bottle as she was tidying up; “I’ve only had one small swig,” she tells him,
 |
| "You can't do that, Ffion!" |
but he protests that she cannot do that.
“I know – it’s stupid really – I didn’t even want it,” she replies, and on Hywel’s instructions, puts the bottle down;
 |
| "Right, do you want a cup of tea?" |
“Right, do you want a cup of tea?”
“How long have you been doing this? The truth, Ffion!” he demands,
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| "It's not what you think, Hywel" |
but she says that it is not what he thinks. “How many times has Rhys had to pick you up off the bathroom floor?” Hywel continues, but she informs him that Rhys does not know and explains that it is different this time, insisting that she has it under control.
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| "I go to work – and Rhys has no idea" |
This does not fool Hywel, but she goes on, “I get up and I go to work – and Rhys has no idea. Go now – Gaynor will need help with the girls.”
 |
| "I'm not going anywhere until you're honest with me" |
He is determined that he is going nowhere until she is honest with him. She assures him, “Look, I understand that you’ve had a shock seeing me with a bottle – but it won’t happen again, and you don’t have to worry about Rhys.”
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| "We'll see about that when I tell him" |
“We’ll see about that when I tell him!” Hywel snarls, but she says that Rhys will not believe him.
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| "You've tried that before – plotting with Mam!" |
“You’ve tried that before – you and Mam, plotting against us – but you failed, and you’ll fail this time as well!” she rages at him, “There’s no need to say anything –I’m fine – we’re fine.”
Hywel points out that she is living a lie, and Rhys has a right to know,
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| "I'm happy and Rhys is happy" |
but she stresses, “I’m happy and Rhys is happy – does this look to you like the home of someone with a problem?
 |
| "Everything's in its place, and there's food in the fridge" |
“Everything’s in its place, and there’s food in the fridge. We are doing all right – we just need some peace.”
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| "Every time you pick up this bottle . . ." |
Hywel wonders how long this situation will last, emphasising, “Ffion, you’ve got cirrhosis – every time you pick up this bottle, you may as well hold a gun to your head!” She is convinced that she can stop
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| "Just don't tell Rhys!" |
– and will stop, today, but begs that he should not tell Rhys.
Hywel continues, “Ffion, you’re ill – this poison could kill you. If Rhys knew that you have told me but haven’t told him . . .”
She alleges that he is only worried about himself, and regards that as typical, but he roars, “Unlike you, I just want what’s best for him –
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| "I'm going to look for my son" |
“I’m going to look for my son!”
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| "You want to split us up!" |
Ffion shouts, “You love this, don’t you? You want to split us up – it must feel like you’ve won the lottery!”
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| She swallows some of the vodka |
She removes the cap from the bottle, and takes a swig of vodka, then tells him, “You’ve caught me, and now you’re going to tell Rhys –
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| "Go and tell him the big news!" |
“go on, then, go and tell him the big news – he won’t thank you, you know!” She drinks some more, and Hywel can be heard going down the stairs.
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| Hywel manufactures an excuse for Gaynor . . . |
Once outside the house, he makes a phone call to Gaynor, alleging that the sound desk at CwmFM has a problem;
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| . . . then hears a scream and smashing crockery . . . |
he hears the sound of a scream
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| . . . fortunately only one mug |
and smashing crockery from inside, so quickly informs Gaynor, “I can’t come back now – I’ve got to stay and sort it out – there’s a hell of a mess here!”
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| He hurries back inside |
He hurries back into Cysgod y Glyn, where Ffion is getting stuck into some more vodka; she fears that it is Rhys coming upstairs,
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| "Do you fancy a drinking session?" |
but when she sees that it is Hywel, she asks if he fancies a drinking session.
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| "This is going to kill you!" |
He shouts, “Listen, Ffion, if you carry on like this, it’s going to kill you – and I won’t let that happen!”
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| "Well, Hywel Llywelyn, here's your big chance!" |
“You’re going to save me on your white horse, are you?” she sneers, “Well, Hywel Llywelyn, here’s your big chance!” He asks if she really thinks he wants to be here, and she replies, “Do you really think I want to listen to you preach?”
He goes to fetch a dustpan, to clear up the broken crockery, and demands how she manages to hide the alcohol;
 |
| "Anything's possible with a bit of imagination!" |
“Anything’s possible with a bit of imagination,” she says, heading to the toilet,
 |
| "I haven't finished with you yet!" |
but he has not finished with her yet.
 |
| "Are you going to stand there all night?" |
“Are you going to stand there all night?” she enquires, and he wonders whether she can see what this is doing to her; she is quite sure that she is fine.
“Yes, until your liver stops working, of course!” he answers, but she is of the opinion that it is working fine, although it has had a few knocks.
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| "This old liver is doing its job" |
“This old liver is doing its job – come on, Hywel, 20% or 30%. I’m not a betting woman, but they sound pretty good odds to me. Can I go to the toilet now?”
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| "If I carry on drinking . . ." |
He demands what she is talking about, 20% or 30%, and she explains, “If I carry on drinking,
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| ". . . there's a small chance, perhaps, that I could die" |
“there is a small chance, perhaps, that I could die! OK, happy now?” and she drains the bottle. “They’re just trying to frighten me – scare me!”
 |
| "Hospitals don't work like that" |
Hywel enlightens her that hospitals do not work like that; “Open your eyes – you’ve got to stop drinking! What are you doing now?” She is reaching into the cupboard under the sink, and finds what looks like a fabric conditioner bottle.
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| "You ought to try this – it's good stuff!" |
“You ought to try this some time – it’s good stuff!” she tells him, “And it’s cheap!”
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| "Put that down, Ffion!" |
As she takes a drink of the contents, he urges her to put it down; then she laughs and announces that it is vodka;
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| "All you need is a bit of imagination" |
“Clever, eh? As I said, all you need is a bit of imagination.”
 |
| "You'd never know, would you?" |
Then she takes a bottle of white wine from the cupboard; commenting, “You’d never know, would you?” Hywel demands what if Rhys or Arwen found that, but she points out that they do not cook or clean.
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| "We could have a hell of a session – what do you say?" |
“We could have a hell of a session with these now, you and me! What do you say?” She pours ‘fabric conditioner’ into a mug.
He wants to know if there is any more around the flat,
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| "About half an hour, perhaps" |
and she replies, “Perhaps,” and unsteadily makes her way to a chair. Hywel enquires when Rhys will be coming home, but she does not know, guessing that it might be half an hour.
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| "You have to phone to stop him!" |
“You have to phone to stop him!” Hywel insists, “He can’t see you like this.” She replies that he will find out when Hywel opens his big mouth. “Not like this – unless you want him to see you like this!” Hywel snarls. She want to know what she is supposed to tell him, and Hywel is sure that she will think of something.
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| After some more vodka . . . |
After drinking still more of the vodka,
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| . . . she tries to delay Rhys |
she tells Rhys, “Sorry to disturb you. I’m feeling much better now, thanks. Don’t come home straightaway tonight – dinner isn’t ready, I’m running a little bit late.
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| "A surprise for you – if you're a good boy!" |
“And I’m preparing a little extra surprise for you too – “if you’re a good boy, that is. See you later.”
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| "Her deserves better than you" |
“He deserves better than you,” Hywel growls, and Ffion is of the opinion that he also deserves a better father, but nothing can be done about that. Hywel wants to know what it was that pushed her over the edge this time.
 |
| "Finding out Gethin was having an affair" |
“Let me think – what happened?” she slurs, “Finding out that Gethin was having an affair, perhaps? Come on, Hywel, you don’t think I could have faced that circus without help, do you?”
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| "No wonder your liver's ruined!" |
He is devastated that she has been drinking since then, and remarks that it is no wonder that her liver is ruined.
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| "But I stopped on my own" |
She, however, is adamant that she stopped on her own, but he points out that it was not for very long. He adds that a lot of things are now making sense to him about the way she has been behaving; “Kissing Rhys in front of me in the Deri – I knew then that there was something wrong with you.
 |
| "Were you drinking when we were in the Gower?" |
“Were you drinking when we were in the Gower?”
She scathingly replies, “I must have been to snog you!”
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| "Oh no, he's pouring it down the sink!" |
He maintains that she messed with his head, then disposes of the remains of the vodka down the sink. “Oh no, he’s pouring it down the sink!” she wails, “I hope I don’t just buy some more! Well, if it makes you feel better.”
 |
| "The whole point is to make you better!' |
He stresses that the whole point is to make her better, but she will not concede that she is ill; he pleads, “If something happened to you, Rhys would be heartbroken – you should have stayed away from him. You knew you had a problem – you knew you were drinking, and what did you do?
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| "You snared a boy with his whole life ahead of him" |
“You snared a boy with his whole life ahead of him!”
Ffion yells at Hywel to shut up, and finally goes to the toilet,
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| She locks the bathroom door . . . |
slamming the door behind her and bolting it.
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| . . . and subsides to the floor |
She sinks to the floor inside the bathroom, as Hywel demands that she opens the door.
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| Another hiding-place for vodka . . . |
She reaches into the laundry bag, retrieves yet another bottle of vodka
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| . . . which she starts drinking |
and begins drinking it.
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| "Open this door, Ffion!" |
He continues rattling the door handle, but she tells him to go home, and screams at him to stop, which he does;
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| "Everything was going so well" |
“How did you get here, Ffion?” he demands, “Everything was going well – you were happy. Seeing you like this . . .” She is insistent that she does not want sympathy from him, of all people, because he did this to her.
 |
| "You knew Gethin was sleeping with your hussy of wife!" |
She is almost becoming incoherent as she goes on, “You knew that Gethin was sleeping with your hussy of a wife, weeks before the wedding – you could have told me!” but he replies that it would not have changed anything.
 |
| "Perhaps I should have done things differently" |
She disagrees with this, and he admits that perhaps he should have done things differently.
 |
| "You destroyed my life in front of everyone" |
“You destroyed my life in front of everyone – and I had nowhere to go,” she complains,
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| She is getting through that vodka |
and we see that this bottle is almost empty.
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| "If Rhys could love me, I couldn't be that bad" |
“And then Rhys came along – if someone as lovely as Rhys could love me, I couldn’t be that bad, but you did your best to split us up, didn’t you? You made me hate myself for being with him – we could have been happy, if you let us, but you didn’t, did you?”
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| "The question is, how are you going to stop?" |
He advises that it does not matter how she started, but now the question is how she is going to stop; he tells her to come out so they can talk,
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| Ffion suddenly goes quiet . . . |
but it appears that Ffion has dozed off, and he is anxious about her, demanding that she answer him.
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| . . . which alarms Hywel |
As he rattles the door once again, she laughs;
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| "You panicked then, didn't you?" |
“You panicked then, didn’t you? Do you know what?
 |
| "When I was about ten years old . . ." |
“When I was about 10 years old, I broke my leg running after Gareth Morris, trying to give him a kiss. He’s got three kids now, and works for the council. Anyway, I fell and broke my leg, and I had a huge plaster all through the summer holidays.
 |
| "Boy, did it itch!" |
“It was a scorcher – the grass was yellow, everyone was brown, and, boy, did it itch!
“It was terrible – I tried everything – it almost drove me mad –
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| "Until I got hold of Grandma's bottle of gin!" |
“until I got hold of Grandma’s bottle of gin! The relief – there was nothing else like it! And from then on, I longed for it.”
 |
| "So that was when it started" |
Hywel, outside the door, realises this is when it all started,
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| "All it does is treat me like dirt!" |
as she goes on, looking at her bottle, “This has been everything to me – and all it does is treat me like dirt! If only it would leave me alone! I just can’t stop,” she sobs,
 |
| "With cirrhosis, I'm playing with fire!" |
“And I know, with cirrhosis, that I’m playing with fire!”
Hywel urges her to stop, but she cannot; he assures her that there is help available, and indeed he will help her.
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| "I don't want to die!" |
She groans, “I don’t want to die.”
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| "Come out and talk to me, Ffion" |
Once more he encourages her to come out and talk to him, so they can take one step at a time.
 |
| She struggles to her feet . . . |
She gets to her feet, with some difficulty, and unlocks the door.
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| . . . and stumbles from the bathroom . . . |
She is scarcely able to walk, but Hywel supports her as they move to the other room,
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| . . . before vomiting in the sink |
where she has to stagger to the sink in order to throw up.
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| She is assisted to the sofa |
Then he gently leads her to the sofa, and will get her some water. Ffion’s phone sounds, and he sees a message from Rhys;
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| Panic stations – Rhys is on his way |
“Ready or not, I’m on my way home!”
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| Hywel does his best to remove the evidence . . . |
Hywel panics and tries to remove all evidence of the alcohol,
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| . . . and puts on Ffion's shoes for her |
then helps her to put on her shoes, as they have to leave immediately. “We’re going to my house, so you can sober up,” he instructs Ffion, but she mumbles that she does not want to go.
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| They leave the flat as rapidly as possible |
“Come with me, quickly, now,” he urges, and grabbing the empty vodka bottle, he manages to negotiate her down the stairs without any accidents.
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| Hywel checks there is no-one about . . . |
Outside, he checks that the coast is clear,
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| . . . and they head for his house |
then supports her as they proceed along the back street towards his house.
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