The Nest

The awful mother was key to Kaya's story. The character was a well drawn reflection of some awful mother's who remain the centre of their own drama, after becoming a parent. No one else is every as important as they are, everyone else a bit player in the drama they live.
Her arrival, her response to the media, her total lack of empathy were all spot on.

I enjoyed The Nest but do wish they had left the girl's mother as someone in the back story and not have her turn up.
The dreary whiney voice made me want to turn the sound off.
My friend and her family expressed a wish to rent the lochside house but in reality I think it would be midge infested and let's face it the weather is never great.

The social worker's contribution to the case conference was spot on. She was emotionally engaged with Kya but in an appropriate way. I couldn't quite work out the relationship between the two sw. I wondered if the woman was possibly linked in some way to Kaya's time in the secure unit, co working with the community social worker who was to take over the after care element.
The comment from Kaya to her awful mother, that yes the staff in the secure unit had helped her reflect on her crime, and to see she'd been a child rather than an evil person (paraphrasing there)
The author had another tv drama recently - she's obviously one to watch, another Sally Wainwright.

The end, we thought, was just right - Dan & Emily moved to a much less salubrious area but transfigured with joy in the baby daughter. Kaya able to move on, empowered rather than brought low, and becoming a bright, clever and beautiful human being, finally shot of her dreadful mother.

And how great Glasgow looked - I lived there from 1970-1979 and it will always have a very special place in my heart (and I'm a born-and-bred Londoner!)

I think the characterisation of the social worker was probably not very typical of today's social workers. However, despite her rather unprofessional manner, I think she was shown to be a very sincere and sensitive person, who knew when to keep her mouth shut and when it was important to open it.

I agree that the portrayal of the mother was really over the top but the rest of the cast were fabulous I thought. An engrossing and involving drama, in my opinion.

The awful mother speaks like that in every role she plays, and always a grim face, and always a horrible part.

I thought the female social worker wasn’t much, was she lolled about on Kaya’s bed in the first episode, smoking, encouraging poor eating habits?

TBH, I assumed back then she was Kaya’s granny, and was surprised she turned out to be a SW.

Grannynannywanny I know what you mean!! ? I think that may have been one of the reasons they appeared to have moved house 6 months on.

The house was amazing. Apparently if you have £3k to spare you can rent it for a week. My mind is now drifting to all that glass that would need cleaning. Especially after a visit from the grandkids. My patio doors are left with a toddler height haze of sticky finger marks after every visit. Oh what I’d give to have them here making hand prints on the doors

It was the female social worker, I thought was an absolute mess.

Some of it was filmed in Glasgow City Chambers, DH used to work there.
I recognised quite a few of the streets in Glasgow.
It would be treat if there was another series.

Oh how I loved that house!

We really enjoyed The Nest. I just wish they had cast another actress as Kaya/Heather’s mother. She was completely over the top - as if she thought she was acting in a bad horror movie - and that voice! Her performance just jarred with me in an otherwise really good series.

That was the only criticism I had about it Marydoll. the social workers did seem to have a lot of time and were a bit unprofessional. But I waved that because the rest was so good. I thought the ending was fine. Although I wasn't 100% sure what I was supposed to think about Katya. She was beautifully dressed and made up at the end. I did worry for a bit that she was going to jump, but maybe it was just to show how she had changed since she sat on the roof of the flats. Excellent series though.

Yes Marydoll I agree. I think it was the amount of time he invested in Kaiya that made my imagination take the wrong route.

I have worked with a fair number of social workers, in the area the story was set in and never met anyone like those two! They didn't impress me at all. They seemed to have a lot of time to spend with one client!
?

Did anyone else wrongly suspect like me that the social worker was going to have a sinister link to Kaiya’s past?

Thoroughly enjoyed the ending of this story last night and thought it ended in the right way. Judgement was very good. Yes they had to come down a peg or two in the lives but their little bundle of joy overtook any resentment in that. Was quite a surprise about the Social Worker though, but there you go. Thoroughly enjoyed the series and will miss it and the beautifully scenery.

Exactly Grannynannywanny - mistakes do happen and that's what the story line said happened here. Heartbreaking.

I didn't feel there were any real loose ends. The social worker would have been prosecuted and sent to prison. His little girl would have either gone to live with a relative, under the kinship carer regime assuming her mum's drug use ruled her out. Or, possibly into foster care.

Dan's business would probably go downhill a bit but he'd be unlikely to loose everything.
Emily was a part time music teacher
I enjoyed the Judgement - accurate.
Great story, good cast with no weak links. At this stage, I hope they leave it at that rather than follow up.

I read a heartbreaking story last year about IVF clinic in US that implanted wrong embryos. A woman gave birth to twins and one of them was no relation to the mother or other baby. The genetic parents were traced and they reclaimed their baby. Unimaginable heartbreak for all involved

Maggie maybe I was thinking along those lines too.

Ah but..... Would the letter sent to each person tell the full story? What I meant earlier was, wouldn’t each person just have had separate notification that he/she wasn’t related to the baby? In that case, Dan could have kept his result quiet and just gone along with the assumption that the baby was nothing to do with any of them? He didn’t seem keen to pursue the truth? And how convenient that Emily couldn’t get anyone to speak to her from either clinic.

Or perhaps I’m just overthinking it? Anyone would think I’d too much time on my hands.

That's where I remember the awful mother from LulluDully, I couldn't place her but excellent character acting.

Maggiemay and oldgimmer, the DNA test proved that the baby had no genetic connection to Kaiya, Emily or Dan and that the wrong embryo had been implanted. I feel we’ve been left hanging and need a few more episodes.

The awful mum was Moaning Mildred in Harry Potter, if you saw the films. Murdered in the girl's loos and destined to haunt them for ever. She is just right for character parts.

I think there’ll be a second series too, to get to the bottom of all the unanswered questions. I enjoyed this one, so I’ll certainly be watching.

That’s an interesting theory, oldgimmer, that the embryo might have been Dan’s. I presume the result of the DNA test sent to each person would just show their own relationship to the baby or lack of it? He did seem to bond very quickly. Mind you, she was adorable.

Yes, there were too many loose ends. Good fun though.

I reckon the egg issue was a mix-up at the Clinic - wrong egg, or an admin error and the egg was, in fact, Dan's, so Dan's baby after all.

They were in a different house at the end, but does that mean that Dan's business went under? Maybe not. If he'd laundered money to start the business, there'd be an investigation into that, and that would take time. The baby was still quite young when we saw her at the end.

I assume the sister's partner left; could it have been her house they were shown in?

Other things I didn't get:

- was Dan's wife working or not? She seemed to drift about aimlessly a lot.

- what was David Hayman's role? Promising character, but didn't amount to much.

I enjoyed Martin Compton in this - nice to hear his Scottish accent rather than the SE one he adopts for Line of Duty.

I think the awful mum was also in a Marple episode.

Well, I was underwhelmed by the final episode, although all the acting has been great.

So was the baby a mix up, what happened with Dan’s business, was that a smaller house they were living in at the end, what happened to the iffy social worker’s child, did the sister and husband get back together?

Looks ready for another series?