Give me a big Thug

spoiler alert: this post makes reference to the Sept 1 episode on CBC

"The Windasses are bad bandidos" Thus spake Graeme so it must be true. Graeme (who is a bit like Fonzie, if Fonzie had been a young arsonist from Northern England who spent time in the nick) seems to have some background knowledge of the Windass clan (a bum rap surely - ed) and they are not nice. Gary Windass (the son) is a maniac and Uncle Len is even worse. They did bad things to a friend of Graham's who had an ice cream van, at least that's what Graham says. (that story left me cold - ed).

Hoodlums are no stranger to the Street. There was that ex-husband of the cabbie who worked for Streetcars for example. I think her name was Ronnie Clayton and hubbie was a gangster. Steve McDonald, of course, decided to get involved with Ronnie and trouble ensued. There was also that gang which beat up Deirdre's former husband, Samir Rachid. I guess the most famous gangster was the legendary Jez Quigley. Personally, I always had a soft spot for him (in the head? -ed) but he was a violent, drug dealing thug. Finally Big Jim McDonald gave Jez a thrashing (so he did), an act which unfortunately landed Jim in the big house for an extended stay.

There are, of course, degrees of thuggery. Charlie Stubbs was a bit of a thug but he wasn't one-dimensional and had other aspects to his character. The same is true for Tony's nervous, bald-headed accomplice who does all of the dirty work for the Tonemeister. He seems like a troubled man who is indebted to Tony. As for the Windasses, well it's hard to say whether they will become actual characters or just vehicles for mindless violence.

Let's get ready to rumble.