Plot[]
Dobson and Hawks has a rule that its staff are not allowed to be married to each other and therefore maintenance man Norman Burton and window dresser Judy Best have to keep their marriage a secret. Further pressure is put on Judy when her sister Susan has to go for a job interview and there is no one to look after her baby son for the afternoon. Kindly Mrs Edgeley suggests that the baby is hidden in the stockroom and even Miss Sinclair joins in on the deception when she finds she is taken with the infant. Matters are complicated however when Leonard Swindley takes over as welfare officer for the branch and discovers the baby while conducting a stock check. Judy is forced to confess that the baby is her responsibility but Swindley misunderstands and takes it to be that the baby is hers. Further confusion arises when he finds out that Judy and Norman have a relationship and he enjoins Norman to do the right thing as a baby is involved. Norman in turn thinks that Judy is pregnant and faints when he is introduced in a matter of hours to "his" infant son. Matters are not helped by a livid Wally Hunt who finds a baby, a collapsed maintenance man and chaos in his stockroom and puts the blame squarely on his new welfare officer...
Cast[]
Regular cast[]
- Leonard Swindley - Arthur Lowe
- Mrs. Edgeley - Betty Driver
- Mr Hunt - Robert Dorning
- Miss Sinclair - Joy Stewart
Guest cast[]
- Norman - Julian Holloway
- Judy - Amanda Barrie
- Susan - Anna Sweeny
- Miss Butterworth - Lisa Peake
- Miss Clapper - Angela Crow
Notes[]
- Angela Crow, who appeared in many episodes of Coronation Street as Doreen Lostock, a member of Swindley's Gamma Garments staff, reunites with Arthur Lowe in this episode. Future Coronation Street actor Amanda Barrie (Alma Halliwell) also appears.
- Party political coverage in the lead-up to the 1966 General Election disrupted this episode's schedules more than usual. In the following regions transmission took place at 9.20pm: Granada Television, Associated Rediffusion, ATV, Southern Television and Scottish Television. Grampian Television broadcast the episode ten minutes earlier at 9.10pm. Anglia Television broadcast the episode at 10.20pm on Thursday 24th March while viewers in the area covered by the western England area of Television Wales and the West had to wait until Thursday 31st March at 6.30pm to see the episode. Border Television and Tyne Tees Television joined Westward Television, Ulster Television, Channel Television and the Teledu Cymru service of Television Wales and the West in not showing the episode at all.
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 6,650,000 homes (12th place).
Commercial releases[]
This episode was included in Network DVD collection Pardon the Expression - The Complete Second Series, released on 24th August, 2009.