Posted:
Since, it's a boring Sunday evening, I got to thinking about how one of my favourite all time soapie couples could not be more different from Michi. Michi and Kayamath is sometimes like a fairytale to me cos in South Africa, I'm used to soaps being very hard hitting and gritty. My favourite local soap is Isidingo, which is set in a gold mining town and my favourite couple on that soap, even though they left the show years ago is Derek and Phillipa. This was a couple that was absolutely meant to be but were constantly plagued by problems. And these problems were very realistic.
They were a groundbreaking pair on South African TV cos they were one of our first interracial couples on screen and everyone loved them. Phillipa was the free spirited, British raised daughter of the mine manager and Derek was the black, ambitious MBA who eventually took her father's job. At first their problems was obviously the difference in their race. Their relationship caused a mini scandal in the town, they faced disapproval from their respective families though it was dealt in a very civil, mature way and finally they themselves struggled with the cultural differences. They were pushed to breaking point a lot of time.
After a while, their race became almost irrelevant and their problems stemmed from their very different viewpoints on almost everything. While Derek was very much the conservative businessman, Phillipa was a very liberal journalist. At one point there was a strike on the mine and while Derek refused to give into the worker's demands, Phillipa ran articles in her newspaper supporting the workers. Eventually they did break up and even went on to have relationships with people seemingly more compatible.
But in the end they couldn't stay apart to long and Derek made a mad dash to the airport to stop her from going back to London. They got engaged in the cutest way possible. Actually Phillipa asked Derek to marry her and he just laughed and showed her the engagement ring that he had already bought for her. They finally got married in spectacular style with a church wedding followed by a traditional Zulu ceremony. And they sailed off in the sunset and lived happily ever after in America. Now for the life of me, I can not figure out how I went from adoring a couple like that that, which was so rooted in reality to loving Michi with all their vamps and amnesia and failed biology lessons. đ
Mr And Mrs Parshuram
