Written by: Anita Bronson
Duration: 60 minutes
As Charisma enters the dorm, the watch chant 'BIG RON!' as he announces that his compensation money of £1,000 has come through. Charisma then invites the Watch out for a celebratory drink with him and Big Ron.
Josie attends her Junior Officers course at Southwark and is the first woman to take part in the course.
In the mess, Vaseline reveals to the Watch that the Marion's want to name the baby Damien!
It's Malcolm's day off and he arrives at his mother's house, as it's her birthday. His mother points out that he should have called first as Malcolm's sister Felicity, her husband David and a couple of friends are joining her for tea.
The Watch are called to a scaffolding collapse on the banks of the Thames, where two workmen are trapped. The tide is also quickly coming in, so the Watch don't have much time. As the Watch begin to move the debris, A.D.O. Scase arrives and takes charge, ordering Tate to get his crews to secure the scaffolding before continuing the rescue.
Tate obeys Scase's orders at first and pulls his crews out, who are not happy to say the least! They are a Fire and Rescue Service and want to do their jobs! As the Fire Boat comes in, one of the men is taken to safety.
The workmen wait around for a while, before ignoring Scase's orders and they go back to work. Tate then ignores Scase's orders and sends the Blue Watch back to work. Scase is not happy and Tate calls him 'inept' and tells him exactly what he thinks of him! Tate then tells him that he is taking complete charge of the situation!
Malcolm gets drunk at his mother's dinner and offends his sister by calling David boring! He also begins to moan about how all his family think about is money and insinuates that David wants his mother out of the way so that he can get her house! Malcolm then provokes his sister further and they start a fight!
As the Watch arrive back at the station, Scase decides to moan at Hallam about Tate and then goes on to the subject of the Borough Street catastrophy; telling Hallam that he will have the book thrown at him.
The Watch join Charisma and Big Ron at the Swan and Sugarloaf for a drink, where they discover that 'Big' Ron isn't very big at all! Big Ron gives some very over-the-top tales of his life in Oz. Big Ron later gets very drunk and gets up on a table singing. He ends up falling off and fracturing some of his ribs!
Sicknote is utterly jealous when Dominic is given the male lead in the POPs production of The Student Prince. He implies that Dominic has bribed the producer into giving him the role! Sicknote then resigns from POPs and wants Jean to resign with him. As Jean refuses, Sicknote tells her that if she doesn't leave with him; their marriage is over!
Doreen informs Charisma that she and Big Ron will be going back to Australia the next week. He suggests going to visit them, but is told that their flat is only a one bedroom, so there won't be any room for him. Charisma then asks about his dad and is told that he wore a uniform and that he was on leave from National Service when his mum met him. His name was Dudley Phillips.
The next shift, Charisma informs Bayleaf of his plans to look for his dad. He later goes to look for Connor O'Hara and finds a mechanic who can contact him. The mechanic later tells Charisma that he has spoken to Con and that he knows of a guy who knows where he can find his dad. All he has to do is go to the Park Lane Hotel.
At the Southwark training centre, Josie participates in a pretend shout, where she takes on the role of the senior officer. A problem arises straight away when the driver can't get the appliance around the corner entrance! One of the firemen on the course continues to die and come back to life again! Film crews are also on the scene, as is an annoying old woman.
Vaseline goes to a posh woman's house to do her gardening and ends up sleeping with her!
Charisma goes to the Park Lane Hotel to discover that his dad is an alcoholic who scrubs the kitchen floor for a living. Charisma leaves the hotel without even approaching him.
The Blue Watch attend baby Damien's christening, where, at the last minute Vaseline changes his name to Damien Anthony Sidney! At the party afterwards, Nancy questions as to why Jean isn't there, but Sicknote won't really say. It is then suggested that Sicknote should sing a lullaby, so he sings 'Sunny Boy' and sends Tate to sleep!
The women talk in the kitchen and Josie suggests that Dorothy gets a job, however Dorothy doesn't think Tony will like it. As Josie walks through to the living room, Sandra comments on how Josie will never have a second shot at marriage because men don't like women who put their job first and that she doesn't consider the Brigade to be a job for a woman.
In the night, Vaseline gets up to go to the loo, then accidently gets into bed with Marion 1, who bribes him into sleeping with her!
Tate discovers that Scase has reported him to Area Staff for insubordination and Charisma tells Bayleaf that his dad was killed in Korea and is buried out there.
Tate about Scase...
Josie - Katharine Rogers
Jean - Amanda Dickinson
Director: Gerry Poulson
Producer: Paul Knight
Executive Producer: Linda Agran and Nick Elliot
Airdate: 12TH November 1989
---------------------------------------------------
Memorable Quotes:
Tate: "That bloke's half a pork pie short of a picnic, do you know that?!"
Starring:
Tate - James Marcus
Hallam - Sean Blowers
Vaseline - Mark Arden
Sicknote - Richard Walsh
Bayleaf - James Hazeldine
Charisma - Gerard Horan
Kevin - Ross Boatman
George - Glen Murphy
Tony - Treva Etienne
Malcolm - Rupert Baker
Marion I - Jenny Bolt
Marion - Helen Blizard
Sandra - kim Clifford
Dorothy - Carol Harrison
Nancy - Yvonne Edgell
Clare - Valerie Holliman
Melanie - Laura Hill
Scase - Cliff Howells
Dominic - James Paterson
Doreen - Jeaniie Harris
Big Ron - Bunny May
Producer - Richard Syms
Miss Barratt - Anne Small
Harold - Geoffrey Drew
D.O. Simpson - Geoffrey Freshwater
Margaret - Barbara Bolton
Felicity - Christine Garner
David - Tim Myers
Gilbert's Wife - Jill Johnson
Gilbert - Roger Ostime
Foreman - Tom Wright
Sub Officer Beattie - Malcolm Kaye
Woman in woolly hat - Bernadette Milnes
Man in hard hat - Sam James
Mrs. Van Kuyper - Fleur Chandler
1ST ITV Man - Robert Angell
Mullard - Frank Lee
Vicar - John Rapley
Pat - Des McAlleer
Steven - Ben Robb
Peter - Rory McNicholl
Driver - Terry Cade
Desk Officer - Arthur Blake
Landlord - Alf Joint