Every season, GBH Drama prepares to bring you coverage of the latest and greatest in British dramas. This month, we're getting a brand new series from MASTERPIECE: Ridley Road. Featuring intrigue, history, and an often overlooked dramatic storyline, this series does not disappoint. GBH Drama contributor Amanda-Rae Prescott is here to recap the magic as it happens.
Vivien’s successful infiltration of Jordan’s inner circle becomes an opportunity for the 62 to gather more evidence against Jordan and prevent more Jewish people from getting hurt. However, the closer Vivien gets to Jordan, the more likely the people around her are to discover her double life. Let’s talk about what happens in episode 3.
The Other Woman
Jane/Vivien wakes up still wearing her borrowed clothes in Jordan’s bedroom with the housekeeper Elise singing to her. She hears noise outside the door and goes to investigate. Paul, Jordan’s son, is playing with a pistol. Jane/Vivien clearly sees this as a safety hazard and takes it away from him. In Jordan’s office she runs into Francoise, Jordan’s estranged wife. Francoise jumps to the conclusion that Jane/Vivien isn’t just Paul’s nanny, she's one of Jordan's mistresses. Previous episodes made it obvious that Jordan was thinking in that direction, though nothing has happened. As Jack takes Jane/Vivien back home, she notices a tall man with an American accent pulling up to the fascists' front door. Who is that man?
Suspicions Mount
Barbara shows up to the salon to reassure Vivien that she’s doing just fine as a spy. However, Vivien is starting to show her lack of real training. Elise asked Jane/Vivien if the beauty salon business card was hers and she denied it. Unfortunately for Jane/Vivien, Elise comes to the salon and sees the distinctive butterfly patch on the coat on the staff coat rack, and later on she tells Lee, one of Jack/Peter’s fascist associates, that no one at the salon knows who Jane Carpenter is. Elise suspects that Jane/Vivien may be a cop and worries that Lee’s going to get arrested again. Lee thinks Elise is being overly paranoid. Stevie finds the flier for the fascist rally in Jane/Vivien’s purse. He runs out of the salon, likely ready to tell the other antifascists to show up to disrupt the rally. And later, Vivien confronts landlady Ethel about finding the prayer book. Ethel says she was against England getting involved in WWII but realizes Vivien is a nice girl. She demands “no more lies” but Jane/Vivien tells Ethel she’s going out to drink with the girls instead of telling her about the missions for the 62. Will all of these separate slip ups catch up to Jane/Vivien?
A Disagreement Over Course Of Action
Jane/Vivien overhears Francoise and others planning to march on the Ridley Road synagogue next. Soly tells the Rabbi he needs to prepare to fight but the Rabbi doesn’t agree with openly confronting the fascists. He also refuses to cancel services or move them to a location away from the fascist marchers. He tells Soly that he’d prefer the cops get involved than having his congregation fight the fascists. Soly clearly disagrees, but decides to follow the Rabbi’s wishes (and also prepare a backup plan.)
International Nazis
Jane/Vivien manages to slip back into the fascist gathering to find out who the mysterious American man is. George Rockwell is the real-life
leader of the American Nazi Party and he’s meeting Jordan to convince him to be even more brazen with his movement. This meeting actually happened in April 1962 but
events are simplified for the episode. Rockwell believes Jordan is missing out on opportunities to start the facist revolution they want because of undue caution. Francoise is clearly also in favor of more violent action: she is happy hearing about Jewish children screaming in terror. It’s also revealed that Francoise is separated from Jordan because immigration authorities blocked her from traveling to the UK. With all of this background, it’s clear that Jordan is planning something bigger than the march on the synagogue, and strings were pulled in order to have this meeting with Rockwell take place. Jane/Vivien is questioned once again about being a true member of the movement and Jordan tells his lackeys that Jane/Vivien is a movement VIP now. Francoise once again throws out the mistress accusations.
Institutional Antisemitism
Soly plays the tapes from the transmitter Jane/Vivien planted and the material is even more damning of the fascists than he originally imagined. There are racial slurs, Francoise talking about foreign involvement in the movement, and open discussions of more hate crimes. Soly takes the tape to the police in the hopes that they or the Special Branch will get involved to stop Jordan. The lieutenant asks questions about what Soly is really doing with the tailor’s shop since on paper he owns a cab company. Soly says his wife uses it to make curtains for the housewives. The lieutenant doesn’t take Soly’s side and says that since the tape was illegally obtained it only proves Jordan is exercising his right to “free speech” even if what he’s saying is bigoted. Clearly, the 62 are on their own to stop Jordan’s fascists.
March On The Synagogue
The time for marching arrives, and Jane/Vivien ends up right in front with Jordan. Peter/Jack is also visible in the crowd. Street vendors and patrons on Ridley Road scramble to get out of the way of the marchers, who are chanting all sorts of antisemitic and fascist slogans. The marching scenes are interspersed with shots from inside the synagogue, where the Rabbi is still trying to conduct services as normal. Soly and his men, once hearing the noise outside, use furniture to barricade the doors. Outside the doors, Jordan is claiming the Rabbi is preaching hate inside. During his speech, Jordan notices some of the fascists are moving to bust the doors down which was not in his original plan: Francoise called in the Spearheads, who are more violent than Jordan’s lackeys. Soly and the others see that the best way out is to escort everyone to the back door. Peter/Jack notices one of the fascists trying to sneak in through the side door and beats them up to stop it. Meanwhile, Stevie and the other antifascists begin to launch their own counter protest. Stevie manages to confront Jordan but the cops promptly arrest him before he can get a punch in. Vivien/Jane ends up escaping the chaos with Jordan.
Scapegoating
Back at the fascist safehouse Jordan realizes that Francoise’s friends are a problem. He knows if anyone investigates they’ll see she was involved. He orders lackeys to burn down the building to hide the evidence, assuming that the fire will be blamed on the 62 and other Jews. Jack/Peter finds a newspaper with Vivien’s engagement announcement to Jeremy and uses that as the kindling. He clearly feels hurt; he doesn’t know the engagement is broken off. Francoise is sent away, and she claims Jordan is only doing it so he’ll have more mistresses. Jane/Vivien ends up leaving with Paul and Jordan to the country estate. Jane/Vivien finds invoices for guns from Ireland in one of the suitcases which would be handy evidence for the 62 to have. The episode ends exactly as Francioise predicted: Jordan kisses and caresses Jane/Vivien as the screen fades to black.
How will the 62 get the evidence they need to take Jordan down? Will Vivien be able to reconcile with Jack as he clearly has some hard feelings about her engagement to Jeremy? Will Stevie finally find out Vivien really was on his side the whole time? Hopefully the finale of Ridley Road will answer all of these questions.
