Entertainment For Lively Minds
Bob Peck kissing Joanne Whalley's vibrator
I think we can all agree that Edge of Darkness was a fine bit of television – perhaps even a straight-up masterpiece – and a superb evocation of grief, with some of its best scenes to be found in the aftermath of the murder of Emma, played by Joanne Whalley.
Perhaps its most famous scene – and the one that still perplexes me some 24 years on, hence this post – involves Ronald (Peck) visiting his daughter's bedroom days after her shooting. With Time of the Preacher by Willie Nelson on the stereo, he begins the painful process of sifting through her things. I don't recall the exact chain of events – he looks at her diary, I think – but I do of course remember that among her possessions he finds her vibrator. His daughter's vibrator, this is. Which he then kisses.
Ever since 1985 I've wondered about that moment. No doubt it's a brave bit of writing, but is it a good bit of writing? Does it strengthen the scene or spoil it? Is it a beautifully wrought moment, or a clunky one? Certainly there's a none-more-tender element to it, but on the other hand it's so too-intimate that it pulls you of the scene. It reminds you you're watching a piece of fiction because a father kissing his daughter's vibrator seems so utterly implausible. (Or is it implausible? I don't have a daughter, perhaps I shouldn't assume...)
It's a writer's job to find new ways of illustrating emotion, and this certainly does that, but on the other hand perhaps it's a little ostentatious: Troy Kennedy Martin including it because he could, rather than because he should have done. Or maybe there are nuances that went over my young head. Like perhaps the moment is supposed to hint at a sexual element to their relationship? Or that Ronald doesn't actually understand where the vibrator's been. He is, after all, rather a done-up-tight character. 'Straight-laced' it says on the IMDB write-up.
So that's my dilemma. Bob Peck kissing Joanne Whalleys' vibrator. A good bit of writing, or the one misstep in a masterpiece? Twenty four years after seeing it I still don't have an opinion. I'd love to know yours.
- More from Albert Edward.
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Incongruous
My memory is that I thought it very strange. I don't have a daughter either, but my expectation would be that the Bob Peck character would have been shocked, perhaps even outraged at the thought of his daughter having a sexual life; meaning she was no longer his little girl but a mature woman. As you note, his character was pretty straight laced.
I never thought that there was a sexual, incestuous aspect to their relationship. I don't recall anything in his daughter's ghost hinting at this. But it was a long, long time ago.
Is it out on DVD? I could look it up, but I'll be lazy and wait for the answer.
DVD currently £5.99 on Play.com
Which is a steal - there's some worthwhile extras on there too. And this site is well worth a look for all things EoD related:
http://fabulousbakers.tripod.com/edge/
Worth it for the soundtrack alone
EC at his best
Er...
you don't need to have a daughter to know that kissing her dildo is a very strange, dodgy thing to do. But as someone once said, Ruth is stranger than Richard
Indeed
I'm sure I'd have thought the same if the Joanne Whalley role hadn't been his daughter.
Would that have been even stranger?
Thanks, Carl.
It's just occurred to me they're remaking it, of course. I wonder if the remake will include that moment?
Perhaps
the fact that you still remember it and think of it makes it a very good bit of writing indeed. Does it have to be realistic to be good?
Well, it was certainly memorable
although I'm not sure that necessarily makes it good. And it's not really about realism, which isn't really an issue, it's more about, ah, authenticity. About the audience believing in what's taking place on screen. It's interesting because in the piece posted by Michael M (ta for that, Mr M), TKM says that he expected the dildo kiss to be cut. Just now I was reading that an original ending in which Bob Peck's character turned into a tree was vetoed; indeed, that TKM never expected EoD to get made at all. The two most liberating scenarios for a writer is when something's not expected ever to see the light of day or when nobody expects much from the material. So I think TKM must have been stretching his wings a little, taking risks. Whether or not they were the right risks, I'm not sure, but the fact that he expected it to be cut is telling.
Just learned, incidentally, that he died in September of this year.
Interview with TK Martin
http://media2.bournemouth.ac.uk/documents/pdfs/scriptwriting/npf9tkmarti...
He talks about the dildo on pages 4 and 5.
At the back of the current edition of The Word
there's a list of all the rather diverse things DougieJ has discussed recently on this blog. If he contributes to this thread he could now add "Bob Peck kissing Joanne Whalley's vibrator"!
There really is no predicting which topic will be covered next, is there?!
Wow! name in actual print!
Thanks for pointing this out to me Johan. As I am obviously a fairly heavy user of the site I don't need any extra convincing by reading the 'sales pitch' in the mag, so may well have missed my minor claim to fame!
Thanks also to the Word staff for editing down my original post in which I say that 'Black Sheep and Pinot Noir' may have been imbibed, to 'a pint of Black Sheep and a glass of Pinot Noir', thereby magically keeping me within my alloted units ;-)
I was quite pleased with my little contribution to Word positivity until I read Patrick's recent post...
Joanne Whalley
also moved Michael Gambon's penis, as I recall
Why?
Was it in the way?
His wasn't
the only one
Stop press
The remake will include the discovery of the vibrator but Mel Gibson won't be kissing it.
Repeat: there will be no kissing of the vibrator.
Watched the whole thing
a few years ago for the first time since it went out - I took the vibrator thing to simply be an indication that he was seriously messed up at that point, and that he wanted to value anything 'private' of his daughter's, hence the teddy bear as well.
On a side note, I have to congratulate Albert Edward on one of the most attention grabbing subject lines of recent months.
This thread
is crying out for a lennylaw comment
Some discussions
Here
"Was he shagging his daughter?"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090424/board/thread/25686153
and here
"Did he just kiss the tip of his daughter's vibrator?"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090424/board/thread/117381753
The first discussion mentions a number of incestuous themes throughout the programme that I don't recall picking up on at the time.
Recently watched this series
Recently watched this series again and there are quite a few suggestions that his feelings for his daughter go beyond the bounds of normal fatherhood. I have no memory of picking up on that when I watched it as a teenager, either through stupidity or perhaps teenagers screw up their eyes and ignore such things.
Edge of Darkness is being discussed by Guardian readers
Some talk of the vibrator scene in the comments...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/jan/20/edge-d...
I've finally seen...
The Edge of Darkness remake starring Mel 'blow me first' Gibson and can confirm that as well as being a bit pony, it does NOT contain a scene where he kisses his daughter's vibrator.