When Rocky first meets Jean he asks her a strange question: "Do you play darts?" When Madge meets Alistair, she asks him a similarly bizarre question: "Do you play the saxophone?" They seem to be on the same wave-length. Lionel describes his father as "peculiar." So he is -- and so is his wife, Madge. In fact, Madge is the perfect match for Rocky. She's adventuresome, realistic, cheerful, about 20 years older than she looks and 40 years older than she feels. She must be doing something right.
We first hear of her when Lionel brings Jean to Hampshire to meet his father. We don't see her, though, because it's a Sunday and she's at church, singing. Music obviously plays a big part in her life. She plays the drums and loves country music -- even the horn on her pink Cadillac plays Dixie. You don't have far to go to persuade her to sing for a crowd. Give her a good Country & Western song and she's yours.
She's against blood sports and she doesn't mind interfering with the filming of the miniseries until subliminal references to hunting are eliminated. She walks through the shot several times and says that it might well happen again if the mood takes her. She's as spontaneous as Rocky is and much more than a pretty face. She tells Jean that theirs may not be the longest marriage on record, but 'by golly' it's tremendous fun. She's off to Mongolia or Libya or the Congo at the drop of a hat. She can shoot the rapids as easily as she can visit Graceland. The last thing she seems to want is to sit in the big house at Hampshire and mingle with the snobby country set.
Rocky and Madge would much rather have bacon and eggs than toast and coffee. No sensible diet for them. No acknowledgement of terminal illness. No concern over cholesterol. Or testosterone. Every moment is valuable. Every day is to be lived to the ultimate. They have no time to sit and wait for something to happen -- instead they prefer to make things happen. Instead of choosing to take the car the hour's drive to London for Lionel's wedding, they prefer the three-day trip by tandem. The search for Rocky and Madge and the tandem may worry the rest of the guests, but we suspect they will be found in time for the festivities.
When Rocky and Madge allow the townsfolk to glorify Jean and Lionel and do nothing to correct misconceptions that they have, Lionel says that the two of them are old enough to know better. Madge tells him that if they ever think that they are old enough to know better they should have themselves put down. They live totally in the moment. Time doesn't matter to Madge; she tells Jean that it's what's in the time that matters. I love the way they play with one another and with everyone else -- Beauregard and Lululbell Dupree are as far from Lionel and Jean Hardcastle as you can get. Lionel tells Jean that sooner or later Rocky and Madge are going to be put away. Jean assures him that that wherever they get put away they will cheer the place up no end. They cope with old age, she says, by refusing to accept it.