It’s Xmas Day and the Golden Crown is open for business. Brian helps out but Mary still misses Sean. Ignoring Brian’s warnings she takes a plate of turkey dinner down to the barge. There’s no-one there though and Mary returns with the dinner. She phones Bill to hear a friendly voice but catches him in the middle of a big family get together and this only underlines her loneliness.
Sway and Nadia prepare the vegetables while the Holloways are at church. Later Gramps pinches most of the carrots for his famous punch. Sway goes in search of some more, taking a detour via Qasim’s. He wants to know what being a Muslim is really like for a black man. Qasim’s experience is worth more than any books. There’s one main thing troubling him. Qasim laughs as he reassures Sway – circumcision isn’t compulsory.
Kamal phones Nadia. Khatija is still threatening to report him for working illegally. As she tells Sway Nadia wishes again that her parents were as laidback as his family. Sway thinks she has a rose-tinted view, his folks might not be as bad as hers but hasn’t she noticed all the religious stuff all over the house? Sway tells Nadia that since he’s been reading about Islam he’s started to notice it more. Nadia is touched, this is the first she’s heard about it.
Before lunch Shirley begins to say grace. She suddenly thinks though that Nadia might be offended and tries to say something to include her but only succeeds in digging herself into an ever deepening hole. Later Sway announces they are leaving tomorrow, Nadia has loads of bookings coming up for Eid Ul Adha. Shirley mistakenly thinks she’s upset Nadia. But as far as Nadia concerned, Sway’s family aren’t the problem, it’s her own and it’s time she sorted them out!
