Muddy hell
Tracy gets stranded in the countryside with dad Frank on her wedding day
avid has proposed every which way to Tracy in a bid to get her down the aisle, but as soon as he takes his eye off the ball and assumes they’re on a home run, their plans come a cropper when Frank kidnaps the bride.
Tracy has a bad feeling about the whole business from the start. First, she worries that David has changed his mind, and then she’s winded when he announces that they can’t marry if his cancer has come back.
David gets the all-clear from the doctor, but it all goes wrong at the joint hen and stag do organised by Leyla, Carly and Vanessa. The fact that David is dressed as a nurse is the least of Tracy’s problems when her dad Frank shows up. Tracy (herself wearing a moustache) isn’t happy and orders him to sling it before pouring a drink over him.
DOutside, Frank confides in the groom’s dad, Pollard, and says he wants to make things up with Tracy, but Pollard suggests he should leave for good. As Tracy staggers out of the pub she sees Frank’s car and attacks it, accusing him of never wanting her as a daughter.
‘He’s desperate to build bridges with her,’ says Michael Praed, who plays Frank. ‘Tracy asks him to prove that he cares and he accepts the challenge. He tells her to get in the car and drives off. He’s got an idea – a typical Frank idea.’
Turns out it isn’t a very good one, as Tracy wakes up in the car the next day and the battery is dead. She calls Vanessa, who arrives with her hair in curlers and, crucially, bringing the wedding dress, which Tracy puts on as best she can.
But Vanessa’s car rolls into a watery ditch when her half-sister accidentally releases the handbrake, so the desperate bride tries to flag down a passing car and her pristine ivory dress gets splattered with mud.
Tracy’s on the verge of tears when Frank turns up on a tractor, promising to get her to the church for the ceremony. Back in the village, David waits anxiously – will the bride show up on time?