Roxy, the boxer dog from Bristol who was starved to death

You might have read about this case - a case of deplorable animal cruelty by a Bristol trainee solicitor.

This woman, left her own house to go and live with her mother. She packed her stuff up and moved in. Naturally, her mother asked about the dog. Katy Gammon lied and said that her ex-boyfriend had the dog, Roxy.

Neighbours began to complain about the smell coming from the house she had left, along with the huge number of flies, and phoned the police. The RSPCA were then contacted and made a tragic heartbreaking discovery. Roxy was dead. She had been shut in the kitchen with no food and no water. She had been there for ten weeks.  She had been starved and dehydrated to death.

Disturbingly, this woman had had two offers from people to take the dog in and look after her, but she had turned then down.

 The most chilling aspect of this case is that this woman had piled dog food and dog treats just outside the kitchen Roxy was shut in. She had rigged up a length of rope between the kitchen door and some hooks in the hallway, to ensure the kitchen door was kept closed. Why leave the food just out of reach?

Katy Gammon was sentenced to just eighteen weeks in prison. I hope there are some animal lovers there...

Norris and Mary - characters or caricatures?

To begin with, Norris - is he is a true character or just a caricature? Well, some of his reactions are what might be called and understood as 'typical' Norris, including his busy-bodying and his lust for gossip. These aspects of Norris and are so predictable that he is at these times presented as a caricature. To be a character a person needs some depth and in his dealings with Rita, Norris is clearly a character.

His attachment to Rita has been quite a torment for him and indeed for us too. Does he love Rita as a friend? Is he in love with her? They must know each other inside out having worked alongside each other at The Kabin for decades - seeing each other at their best and at their worst - tired, angry, frustrated - they will have seen it all from each other.

Rita and Norris have their roles - Rita - the one in charge, the wise one, the tolerator of Norris. Norris is the tolerated one the nuisance, the one who sees the worst in everyone and telling them about it, and let's not forget, the tormentor and love object of Mary.

Mary's name is always accompanied by words such as weird, odd, strange and creepy.  It's a shame though because she is undeniably different, even unique and she does offer such huge comedy potential. Her uniqueness is genius. Whoever created the character of Mary deserves many congratulations. So is she a character or a caricature? Certainly there is a predictability about how she behaves and she does live in a motor home. She has great cooking skills too, but what makes her a real character is how tenderly she cared for Dev's children and how sensitively she handled her responsibilities to make things as easy as possible for Dev as he dealt with his own grief and tried to manage the children's grief.

Mary's attachment to Norris is baffling - to all but her. That said, she is not totally blind to his faults and has been known to berate him and to point out his idiocies. Yes she did try to seduce Roy, but soon realised what a pointless task that was. Devoted to Hayley as we knew he was, we never feared for a moment that Mary would take him from her.

Now though, in an attempt to take Roy's mind off Hayley and provide distraction ad mental stimulus, she  plays chess with Roy - with no designs on him.

 Whatever they are, Norris and Mary are invaluable to our favourite Street.