Fraught & Staunch

Fraught & Staunch is a fictional BBC mystery series that lives in the mind of Adam Chase and Jennifer Kohnhorst. It’s principal characters are Reginald Fraught and Trulee Staunch, a married couple who are not detectives but nonetheless solve crimes on a weekly basis. Fraught is brilliant but forever worrisome; his trepidation is balanced by the clever, folksy wisdom of stallwart Staunch. Of course the greatest mystery of all is how these two old codgers, so different in temperament and each so set in their ways, manage to stay happily married!

In this week’s episode, Fraught must undergo a serious kidney operation and Staunch is responsible for caring for him. The couple finds themselves forced to adopt the eopnymous character trait of their better half, and gains a new appreciation for the other.

In one scene, Staunch sits bedside while Fraught grimmaces in pain thinking, “Blimey, I never knew the strength me old Reg ad inim, feckin’ ‘ell!”

The next morning when Staunch comes to visit Reg in the hospital (where he gets free care thanks to the National Health Service) he sees the worry that creases her face and thinks, “Can it be that sumpin has finally gotten under the skin of me old girl Trulee?” He was touched by the love that expressed itself in an unusual amount of fussing from his ordinarily brusque compainion.

Indeed, Staunch was fraught with worry for dear Fraught. And this compelled her to be kinder and more patient than all the previous seasons. Fraught, meanwhile, staunchly persevered through the inumerable insults and degradations that the human body suffers in recovery from major surgery. Stiff upper lip, that one.

No crime was committed nor mystery solved in this episode of our favorite middle-aged amatuer detecting couple. But perhaps the powers of keen observation which enabled them to solve such great mysteries as “Who Left the Lid Off?” and “Will We Get a Reservation?” also allowed them to see the strengths of the other in themselves.

At the close of the episode however, we are assured that nothing much has changed. After a day of self-doubt and mild opiate withdrawl, Fraught complains to Staunch, “Will no one sit with me? Does no one love me? What, am I a ghost in my own house?”

Staunch, stuffing a pillow into a clean case, replies, “Well a ghost wouldn’t make ‘alf so much laundry, would he?”

Laughter. End scene.