Laurence Moody - What Became of Jack and Jill?

[dem bones]

Laurence Moody - What Became of Jack and Jill? (Sphere, 1971: originally Robert Hale, 1969, as The Ruthless Ones)

Blurb:
Jack loved Jill. And Jill loved Jack - especially the money he would inherit when his grandmother died. But the old lady kept an annoyingly strong hold on life - and Jack's purse strings. So Jack and Jill reached a decision: grandmother had to die. And with all the cunning of two teenagers with no morals they set about frightening Gran to death.

It's nineteen sixty nine baby .....

Meet Johnny Tallent, nineteen. A bearded, long-haired groover in tight hipster jeans, very much "of the swinging age." Johnny lives with his gran in a small semi-detached at 34 Acacia Avenue, has done since his parents died ten years ago. He so can't wait for gran to join them.

Jill Standish, is eighteen and ambitious. Gran disapproves of her sluttish dress sense - glorified loincloth posing as a mini skirt - but trusts Johnny to choose a decent girl when he's grown up. More fool her. Johnny's very happy to have found someone who shares his ... philosophy.

On some subjects these two were surprisingly knowledgeable — on most, vastly ignorant. At one and the same time they were too old and too young for their years .... true to thir generation, neither Johnny nor Jill at any time envisioned a long-term future. Without subscribing to the mass death wish so common among their contemporaries. five or at the most ten years was as far as they looked ahead.

But it had to be good while it lasted ...

Jill wants Gran to die even more than Johnny does. The sooner they have the old bat in her grave, the sooner Johnny inherits. And Jill, quite happy to let the lad believe he's the brains of the operation, has plans for all that lovely loot.

So Johnny dreams up an elaborate scare story to help the old girl on her way. The gist is that, young people the world over have declared those of pensionable age surplus to requirements. They've had their lives, time to shove off and let someone else have a chance. To this end, the youth have joined forces as World League of Teenagers (slogan: 'God's a Junkie') to instigate enforce a pogrom. Johnny only gets to learn of this from 'with it' types who believe him to be one with the programme when, in reality, his only thought is for gran's safety. He's tried to protect her, how he's tried!, but somehow they've found out about her! Pressed for details by his terrified guardian, Johnny oh so reluctantly tells all he knows.

"Well, let's see ... They'll hunt them down in the street to begin with, I suppose. With clubs probably - yeah, its bound to take years to fit everyone out with rifles and sub-machine guns. After they've cleared the streets and open spaces they'll go into the houses and mop up the bedridden. Just think - all over the world it'll be happening simultaneously. There's never been anything like it before — never, ever. Of course the odd oldie may may manage to hide away for a while in a cellar or attic or somewhere but in the end they'll get 'em all —"

He can't say when they'll come for her. It could be months. It could be tomorrow.

Which, coincidentally, is when the students parade along Acacia Avenue during rag week hi-jinks .....

TBC

[helrunar]

Interesting find! Roger Marshall (screenwriter) wrote episodes of The Avengers for both Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg's series, and his scripts were uniformly excellent. He also wrote one of my not-so-guilty pleasures, an early Seventies six episode series called Zodiac co-starring Anton Rogers and Anouska Hempel. Those scripts are a lot of fun.

cheers, H.

[cromagnonman]

Unequivocally second Steve's estimation of Roger Marshall. Truly one of the giants of scriptwriting from the era when tv produced programmes worth watching [and how long ago that all seems now]. His credits are far too extensive to go into in any detail but his association with John Thaw ran the gamut from Recap to Mitch, taking in my very favourite episode of The Sweeney en route: "Golden Fleece" (1975) which has Patrick Mower and George Layton effecting the most hilarious attempts at an Aussie accent this side of the 'Bruce' sketch. Its also notable for Cheryl Kennedy looking very fetching in a bikini, and the use of a piece of irritatingly catchy incidental music called "Holy Mackerel" by Shadows drummer Bruce Bennett [also used as the theme tune to Rugby Special]. Once its in your head I defy anyone to successfully remove it. Go on, I dare you.

Oh yes, and Marshall also wrote an episode of Dempsey & Makepeace but we wont hold that against him.  

[dem bones]

It's only 150 pages of fairly chunky print, but such a relief to actually complete a novel after what seems like ages. From what I the movie says faithful to the novel for most part, though no cemetery scene in Moody's book and I'm not sure the "Teenage Power" beach riot or the "Seabird" stuff made the movie. Without wishing to spoiler it, Mrs. Tallent, enfeebled by years and chronic arthritis though she be, is not quite the mental pushover dear, protective Johnny took her for ....