Maggie's Luck

Maggie has earned a weekend off, and she has plans for it: a break with Alan Lawson, the sort of escape she doesn't get to take often. But her son Steve has plans of his own, and his involve getting mum out of the way. Between a teenager who wants the house to himself and a job that never quite lets go, her hard-earned weekend starts to look doomed. The professional trouble keeps finding her at the worst possible moment, which is the point of the title.

The episode enjoys the irony of the title and plays it straight. Ray Lonnen's Alan Lawson is the kind of steady, decent presence Maggie's life rarely allows her, and Jennifer Hilary's Elaine Lawson complicates the weekend in ways the episode keeps deliberately low-key. Chuck Julian's Nagel and Don Fellows's McNally supply the case work that keeps intruding on her time off, and Lorna Yabsley's Barbara is the sort of helpful neighbour who knows more than she lets on.

David Crane and Terence Feely wrote the script, Nic Phillips directed, and the hour stays warm even as the plot thickens. The regulars do their dependable work around the edges: William Marlowe's Russell, Brian Gwaspari's Croft and Paul Moriarty's Barratt, with Nigel Rathbone's Steve getting the thankless task of being the teenage son who can't quite say what he wants from his mother.

Help arrives from an unexpected source, as these things will, and the episode ends with the rare sight of Maggie getting something she actually wanted. Her luck holds. Even her luck, the title suggests, is something she has to work for, and the hour earns its ending the same way. After all the interference, the small triumph lands better than any big one would. It's a small mercy, and the show knows how to make small mercies feel like the whole point.