...Help From My Friends

When the school is vandalized a suicide note is found in one of the lockers. As the school brings in a suicide counsellor Doris sets about organizing her friends to try and discover who wrote the note, in order to try and stop them taking their own life.

Suspicion falls on Kelly Hayden who is struggling in Lydia's dance class and Timmy Ellis who was a child TV star but is struggling when his old series is to be cancelled.

I include this episode in the season of death group of episodes and although no one actually dies we do have a couple of characters considering suicide. 

I find it is a little frustrating that we have not seen these characters before. Surely it makes more sense and is more powerful if we already have some attachment to characters. Maybe the male character could have been Troy or Dwight and as for the female character the writers totally messed up here. We have Kelly played by Connie Needham but Connie has already played Kathy in season 1’s "To Soar and Never Falter." Why not continue with Kathy’s story line? We already know her and have an emotional attachment to her. Maybe her M.S. is now developing and becoming worse and she is struggling to keep dancing making her realize it is the end of her dancing and she is totally depressed. I don’t know it just seems like a crazy thing to do when you already have an actress with a perfectly good story line for a character she’s already played but instead give her a different character to play. In a season where there are already too many guest stars taking over, this episode could be improved by adjusting the story line and using characters we already know.

However, all that said I do really like this episode and Connie’s performance is very good when she is talking to the teachers and the counsellor.

Valerie’s performance is fantastic at the end of this episode and always brings me to tears. Although Lee Montgomery as Timmy leaves me a little cold. I particularly don’t like the scene with the gun in the dressing room as it seems way over the top and too heavy handed for me to take seriously. Surely if someone is suicidal they don’t sit there pointing a gun at a mirror making silly speeches, they would just do it. Where did he get the gun anyway?

There are a couple of things that are confusing in this episode:

Firstly the layout of the school. When Doris and Leroy are in the hallway after leaving the dance class the lobby entrance can be seen behind them. Then they go downstairs but later we are told that the trashed lockers are on the 2nd floor so the class they came out of had to be on at least the 3rd floor. How many of these large dance rooms do they have?

Also at the start of the episode after Leroy and Doris have left the dance class and turn the corner they bump into Timmy who is standing at an open locker, and he talks about a petition. They then run down 2 flights of stairs to where the lockers have been vandalised. This is where the suicide note was found but if Timmy’s locker is on a different floor then how can the note be his? Do the students have more than one locker?

Also at the beginning of the story the kids talk about it being winter and how cold it is, Julie comments how much she loves the snow. However we are virtually at the end of the season which means they are coming to the end of the school year and the summer break so surely it’s now spring and not winter?

I love the scene where all the kids think they know who wrote the note and all think it’s someone different. Also at the end, Doris comes up with the idea of doing the improvisation but Timmy doesn’t want to do it and says someone else should do it. Instantly Coco has her hand up enthusiastically volunteering, that’s just so Coco.

Albert co-wrote the Light One Candle song, which I really like although it would have been nice had members of the cast actually sang on it.

Original  air date in U.S.A 10th March 1983

Original  air date  in U.K. 25th August 1983,  Repeated The Children's Channel  Autumn 1992,  Now 80s 27th  & 31st March 2022         

Original air date in Australia 01st July 1983                            

Original air date in The Netherlands  18th November 1983

Original air date in Italy 3rd May 1984 

Original air date in Belgium  17th  March 1988   

Original  air date in France 21st May 1988