We sit down at a large table, and Honoria pours out glasses of iced water.
‘Now!’ she says. ‘Tell me all about yourselves. How long have you been writing forNorthside?’
‘Just a few weeks,’ I say. ‘It’s been … It’s been a baptism of fire.’
‘I can imagine,’ says Honoria. ‘And before that?’
‘I’ve been in LA since I left college,’ says Art.
Honoria raises a single eyebrow. ‘Heavens! What were you doing over there?’
Art tells her, in that confident way of his that could almost come across as bragging but never quite does. He makes his journey fromSlow News DaytoLA Medicsound like a progression, not adecline. Honoria looks delighted by him. First Roo, now Honoria Quigley – good Lord, he really can charm anyone.
Once he’s given her his CV, Honoria turns to me and says, ‘And what about you?’
‘Well, I’ve never been to LA.’ I fill her in on my work history. ‘I suppose I owe my career toNorthside. That’s the show that made me fall in love with soap operas. And television in general, I guess.’
‘Bernard should count himself lucky to have both of you, but I’m presuming he doesn’t,’ says Honoria. ‘What’s that horrible little worm up to now?’
She makes an excellent audience, scowling when we tell her about our disappearing notes, gasping at the revelation of the doctor’s appointment.
‘I always suspected he had his equivalent of a mob doctor,’ she says.
‘So you believe us?’ says Art. ‘You think Bernard would actually wreckNorthsiderather than lose control?’
‘I don’t doubt it for a second,’ says Honoria. ‘Not after how he treated me.’ A shadow passes over her face. ‘I loved being inNorthside, you know. I always knew Ma Cusack would be the most rewarding role I’d ever play.’
‘Really?’ Art is clearly trying to keep the scepticism out of his voice, and almost succeeds. ‘Even with your theatre work? I mean, you played Mother Courage at the Abbey. And Lear in that all-female version ofKing Lear.’
Wow, he really has been spending time on Wikipedia.
‘I did,’ says Honoria. She smiles. ‘And I’m well aware that, even at its finest,Northsideisn’t the equal of Shakespeare. But being Ma Cusack … being Ma Cusack was alwaysfun. I lovedher so much. And the audience loved her too. She made people sohappy.’
I feel a lump in my throat. ‘She did.’
‘I never played another role that did that,’ says Honoria. ‘And it may not have beenBrecht,’ she fixes Art with a piercing look, ‘but where else in drama do you get to inhabit a character as they grow over the course of years before the audience’s very eyes? As an actor, that was simply thrilling. There’s nothing else like it.’ She sighs. ‘I’d go back in a heartbeat, if they ever asked me. I’d go back tomorrow. But they’d never have me.’
And when she says those words, something sparks inside my head. A hundred sparks. A thousand sparks.
I know how we might saveNorthside. Or at least the anniversary episode.
‘I think I have an idea.’
I’m so excited I can’t say anything more until Art says, ‘Go on. Tell us!’
‘Triona Clancy said we needed something big for the anniversary episode that would get people tuning intoNorthside,’ I say. ‘So what would do that? What would cause a real sensation?’
I pause for dramatic effect, but it clearly doesn’t work because Art says, ‘What would?’
‘The return of Ma Cusack!’ I clap my hands with excitement and look at them both expectantly.
‘Come on, Annie,’ says Art. ‘We can’t do that.’
‘Why not?’ I say.
‘Lots of reasons!’ he says. ‘The first one being Bernard.’
Honoria puts a hand on his arm. ‘Arthur,’ she says, ‘you’re a very charming young man.’