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Plot[]

Rita Parker, canteen assistant, has a problem. Her itinerant Uncle Mike has been thrown out of his hostel but husband Jimmy will not let him stay with them in their house. As Rita is part of the lock-up routine at Dobson and Hawks at night, her solution is a drastic one – let her Uncle stay the night in the store. What she doesn’t realise is that he is also bringing in two of his gentlemen of the road friends - Harold and Ted. The three men sleep in the bedding department, wears pyjamas from menswear, eat breakfast from foods and are read a bedtime story by Ted from paperbacks from the books department. After a few days Swindley starts to become suspicious when he notices strange things in the store, as do other members of staff. Convinced that they have a night-time intruder, Swindley stays behind one night and hears the three men. Convinced that they are a violent and dangerous gang (having overheard Ted reading the latest Mickey Spillane thriller) he calls the police who find his tale to be a tall one and no intruders. Once they have gone Swindley does find the three men and is about to evict them however his better nature is appealed to when he realises that Harold is a piano player with a love of Rachmaninoff and he allows them to stay the remainder of the night, sleeping in himself in his office. Next morning however the store has a distinguished visitor – Mr Bowman-Wallis from the Board of Trade who is looking into sales efficiency. This look bad for Swindley however Mr Bowman-Wallis finds the displays in the stores bland whereas the three men in the bedding department give it a “lived-in look”. Both Swindley’s and Rita’s jobs are saved.

Cast[]

Regular cast[]

Guest cast[]

Notes[]

Commercial releases[]

This episode was included in Network DVD collection Pardon the Expression - The Complete Second Series, released on 24th August, 2009.

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