- Transport strikes leave the staff of Grace Brothers trapped overnight in the store. What at first seems to be a nightmare soon proves to be a chance for everyone to share in each other's companionship.
- The transit strikes leave the staff stranded at the store. At first thought, the idea of camping out on the floor seems a bad idea, but soon the staff start sharing stories and find out that staying the night might not be as bad as originally thought.—Nadia Nassar
- Towards closing time at a busy day in Grace Brothers, the fellows at the Menswear counter are attempting to sell a pair of gloves, which are rather cheaply made but nice-looking, to a customer, inventing some colorful and untrue tales about customer and employee satisfaction when using these gloves. The customer admits he isn't too invested in the gloves but just needs a present for his Brother-in-law, who he isn't fond of, and Mr. Humphries admits the gloves are probably the perfect gift for that sort of occasion and the man buys them.
At the ladies' counter, a young man wants to get his fiancee a new bra as a present, but is highly embarrassed at his first foray into ladies' lingerie. He refuses to speak in front of Miss Brahms, and shows Mrs. Slocombe a bra he pinched from his finacee's room when she wasn't looking. Mrs. Slocombe looks it over and discovers the woman is either overweight or just very large-busted, as the bra is a size 44 at least.
Captain Peacock spots Mr. Lucas repairing a mannequin near the elevator. He reprimands Mr. Lucas for having left his counter. Mr. Lucas explains that he hasn't had a customer - or any commission - all day. Captain Peacock immediately notifies Mr. Grainger, whose job it is to get first pick of the customers and pass some on to his assistants and who has been unintentionally hogging them all, today. Mr. Grainger tells Mr. Humphries that the two of them should let Mr. Lucas have some customers and they agree the next man to come in will be his to assist. Moments later, a Scotsman with an almost indecipherable accent arrives. Captain Peacock helps translate for him, and Mr. Lucas discovers the man wants to buy a pair of tweed trousers but needs to be measured, having only worn kilts up until now. In fact, he is wearing one at this moment. Which would make measuring his inside leg a bit awkward. However, Mr. Lucas bravely attempts to do so after borrowing Mr. Humphries' tape measure. The man is surprised and amused at him trying to reach under the kilt, and explains he can measure his inside leg from outside the kilt, and demonstrates how. Mr. Lucas, much relieved, takes this measurement and goes to find him some trousers.
Meanwhile, rather shrewish and easily offended woman decides to try on a hat and Mrs. Slocombe tries to convince her to keep it, with the woman finding a complaint about every selling point she offers. Miss Brahms makes a sly comment about the woman's age which Miss Slocombe deftly manages to sidetrack the woman from thinking too much about, and seems finally on the verge of selling her the hat.
A young woman clad only in a low-cut bra, panties, and heels emerges from the fitting room, annoyed that Mrs. Slocombe seems to have forgotten she was in there, and demands if she can help her find a bra more to her liking. Mrs. Slocombe is horrified and covers her with a big wide-brimmed hat, and tells her because they share the floor with the Men's department she should have remained in the fitting room. The young lady says she refuses to wait any longer. Captain Peacock comes over to see if he can help, but Mrs. Slocombe doesn't want trouble, so she quickly sends the young lady off with Mrs. Brahms to find what bra she wants and returns to her first customer, who has decided, much to Mrs. Slocombe's chagrin, she doesn't need a new hat after all and wants to go browse the shoe department.
Mr. Mash hurries onto the floor with the evening paper to show Mrs. Slocombe - the transport workers all over their part of town have gone on strike, meaning there will be no cabs or buses to take them home. Mr. Rumbold's secretary follows him, saying that there is to be a meeting in Mr. Rumbold's office because of this news. All the staff follow her back.
Mr. Rumbold explains the situation for anyone who hasn't seen the paper yet, and then asks if anyone has a car. His own is in the garage being tuned up for his upcoming holiday. No one else has cars - Mr. Grainger lost his long since, and he was the only other who had one. Furthermore, no one lives close enough to walk - Mr. Humphries point this out, saying it would take him all night to get to his house. Mr. Rumbold nods, seeming to have expected this, and tells them that he's had a word with Mr. Grace and the CEO has given permission for the staff in every department to spend the night in the store until other accommodations can be made, with the restrictions that they are responsible for finding their own bedding and they are not to leave their respective departments once they bed down for the night.
Mrs. Slocombe immediately objects, afraid of being molested by the men since they have to share the department. Mr. Rumbold reassures her, with assent from the others, that they have no intention of doing anything of the kind. She objects also to the suggestion of Mr. Lucas, to the effect that she and Mrs. Brahms might feel safer sleeping in a fitting room while the men sleep outside - the fitting rooms have no air conditioning. Everyone thinks of what else they can do for bedding, and Mr. Rumbold hits on an idea - the sporting department has camping equipment. He has tents and air mattresses sent upstairs for the staff at once.
Four pup tents and a large family tent are sent up, with their respective bedding and mattresses. Three of the pup tents and the large tent are set up fairly quickly. The fourth is Mr. Lucas' tent - unlike everyone else, he has never set up a tent before and simply cannot figure it out. Captain Peacock attempts to help, but gets a tent pole knocked into his groin for his pains. He is called aside by Mrs. Slocombe, who is in the large tent. She is still very modesty-conscious and concerned there is no cover for the small window at the top. Captain Peacock explains that only a very tall person on tiptoe could see anything at all, and even then the window should steam up after a while. She also expresses concern of the zipper on her tent, which someone else would have to do for her, preventing her getting out should she have to use the ladies' room in the middle of the night, to which Captain Peacock suggests she not have the zipper done at all, which frustrates her.
Mr. Mash comes up from the bargain basement with a bunch of pajamas for everyone to wear. Mrs. Slocombe accepts hers but not very happily. Miss Brahms initially refuses to take any as she invariably sleeps in the nude but Mrs. Slocombe orders her not to do so in public for obvious reasons. Miss Brahms further complains that all the offered sets of pajamas are men's with flies. Mrs Slocombe shows her how to wear the pants the wrong way round and put a pin in the fly to keep it closed, which pacifies her.
Mr. Mash offers pajamas to Mr. Humphries, but he already has a kimono he procured from a friend in another department, and doesn't need them. Mr. Grainger's tent is rocking and bouncing when Mr. Mash arrives, as the older man is trying to change clothes in the confined space. He gives up, takes the pajamas from Mr. Mash, and heads to the men's room to finish changing. Mr. Lucas jokingly says, "Your flap is open", referring to the tent flap Mr. Grainger forgot to zip but knowing he'll think he means his long johns. Mr. Grainger, after realizing he fell for it, scolds Mr. Lucas and stalks off. Mr. Mash then offers Captain Peacock a pair of pajamas but he doesn't like them, since they look the same as all the rest. Mr. Mash, exasperated, heads off to find him a different looking pair. He gives a pair to Mr. Lucas before doing so. However, Mr. Lucas discovers that the pajamas were from a window display and in order to fit in it the left leg of the pants has been almost completely cut off, much to his dismay.
Captain Peacock attempts to go into his pup tent and discovers Miss Brahms is in it. She accuses him of spying on her, despite his protestations and apologies. He insists the tent is his, but she denies the claim. He explains the two women were to share the family-sized tent, but Miss Brahms tells him he has to take that up with Mrs. Slocombe. Captain Peacock goes to do so and hears a sound very like flatulence and hesitates to enter the tent. It turns out it was just Mrs. Slocombe's air mattress leaking air, and she comes outside. He demands to know why Miss Brahms is not in the big tent with Mrs. Slocombe. Mrs. Slocombe tells him that she flatly refuses to share a bed with any stranger. Captain Peacock tries to explain that means he now has no bed at all, but Mrs. Slocombe coldly tells him it's his business and she doesn't care.
Several handymen, led by Mr. Mash, roll what seems to be a large cabinet onto the floor. It folds down to reveal a bed in disguise. The bed turns out to be for Mr. Rumbold from the furniture department - the latter didn't want the staff to know he had an upgrade from their tents, but Mr. Mash explains to Mr. Rumbold, who isn't too happy but has to go along with it, he must sleep with the sales staff because the bed doesn't fit through the office door. Captain Peacock tries to explain to Mr. Rumbold what has happened and get permission to share the bed with him. However, the dirty-minded Mr. Rumbold seems to think Captain Peacock is having an affair with one or both of the ladies and it takes Captain Peacock a very long time to make him understand what actually is happening, and get begrudging permission to share the bed.
Later that night, once Mr. Mash and his men have retreated to their bargain basement, the staff of the clothing floor sit in small chairs that have been set up round a fake fire, with Mr. Rumbold playing his concertina and the whole group singing "T'il the Boys Come Home." Everyone's moods, initially testy about having to spend the night all together, seem to have thawed. They have a discussion about World War II, as at least three veterans are in their midst - Captain Peacock claims he was part of Operation Desert Storm, Mr. Rumbold recounts his experience with the catering corps (which Mr. Lucas makes fun of, but Captain Peacock reminds him proper food is essential to a healthy army), and Mr. Grainger used to work for ENSA. Mr. Grainger shows them some of the character impressions he used to do as "Whimsical Willy" during some of the ENSA shows, amusing the rest of the staff. Mrs. Slocombe then tells how she was part of the Air Raid Precaution team, when she was a very young girl, and she tells how she met her husband, who she is now separated from, during one of said air raids. Miss Brahms and Mr. Lucas both were too young to remember the war, but Miss Brahms' father was a commando so she recounts the amusing tale of how he met her mother on a training exercise, when he got separated from the others and his mother mistook his asking for assistance finding the 'Jerries' as a plea to come in and use the bathroom. Mr. Lucas laments he missed all the excitement but claims he'd be on the front lines if such a thing were to happen again - however, Mr. Humphries sees through the bravado, and claims Mr. Lucas would probably be in front of the front lines fleeing to some neutral country to avoid fighting.
Mr. Rumbold notices it's getting late, so they turn off the 'fire' and go to bed. Mr. Grainger has fallen asleep in his chair, so Mr. Humphries has to wake him. They all go to their respective tents/beds, save Mr. Lucas, who at first tries to persuade Miss Brahms to sneak off somewhere private with him, and when that fails makes the rounds of the tents saying good night to everybody, hesitant to get in his own because it still keeps falling down.
The wall-bed Mr. Rumbold and Captain Peacock are sharing has a reading light. Captain Peacock wants to make use of this, but has to put his book away when Mr. Rumbold can't sleep with it on, and they try to shut it off. However, neither can find the switch. Mr. Lucas obligingly responds to Mr. Rumbold's call for assistance but accidentally pulls the lever that makes the bed collapse. However, as it is not mounted to a wall, the bed doesn't go up, but the 'cabinet' falls down, trapping Mr. Rumbold and Captain Peacock inside it. Mr. Lucas hastily frees them, while the other staff members, startled awake again, look on.
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