Recap / Birds of a Feather S2E2: Sweet Smell of Success

Tracey: All you 'ave to do is flash your plastics and Marcus picks up the tab.

Dorien: These are not plastic!

Tracey: I meant your credit cards, not your thrupp'nny bits.

— Dorien Green misinterpreting an innocent comment fromTracey Stubbs.

• Date First Aired: 13/09/1990

Things are not going great for Tracey. Not only is the electric bill up soon, but so is the car insurance. Discussing this with Dorien, she suggests selling Darryl's old Jaguar. Money is tough in Dorien's household you see, and they're thinking of getting a cheaper car. However, Tracey is having none of it, as Darryl wanted his stuff intact for when he got out. Just then, Sharon comes to inform them that Lisa Slag, one of Chris' affairs, has gotten herself rich by flogging a cheap perfume called Aromatique. After listening to her, they decide to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, they are not successful at selling perfume. Even worse, mortgage interest rates have gone through the roof. Tracey is thus forced to sell off the car, having decided to sell it to Dorien. Unfortunately, she wants it sold to her for less than the predicted value, leading to the sale being called off. Soon, the person comes to buy the car, but he proceeds to drive off with the car without paying for it, apparently to repossess it. Now if Tracey wants it back, she's gonna have to pay up.

At the prison, Darryl reveals that he has a stash of cash stored in the spare tire of his Jaguar. With this in mind, they try to buy the car by exchanging it with another car but someone else has bought the car in the meantime. It all seems bad for everyone until it turns out that the person who had bought the car was Dorien, allowing them to retrieve the money after all.

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Tropes In This Episode:

• Alliterative Title: The title of the episode is called "Sweet Smell of Success".
• Amusing Injuries: Tracey messes with Dorien's treadmill and sends her crashing to the ground.
• Answer Cut: Tracey asks Sharon where she's going to get some more money from. Cut to Tracey on the phone trying to sell Darryl's Jaguar.
• Ass Shove: Tracey tells the car salesman he can stick his almost identical car up his ass.
• Big Damn Heroes: Just when it seemed like Sharon and Tracey were going to lose the car (and the money), it is revealed that Dorien was able to purchase it to save them the embarrassment of having the car repossessed becoming common knowledge.
• Brick Joke: Sharon makes a snarky comment about having Gypsy blood to Dorien early in the episode, then after seeing Tracey and Sharon celebrating over a spare tire (which unbeknownst to her had £25,000 hidden in it), she murmurs that maybe they do have Gypsy blood.
• Continuity Nod: Chris' affair with Lisa in "Nicked" gets brought up again.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Tracey at Lisa's expense.
    Lisa: A lotta people lose their enthusiasm after month two.
    Tracey: Oh, we won't. Not with over £26 to show for our work.
  • Later Sharon at Dorien's expense.
    Dorien: Tracey, Sharon, I hope you don't take this amiss, but people are talking.
    Sharon: I know. People 'ave been talkin' for nearly a million years. It's wonna th' things that distinguishes us from the higher apes. (Beat) That and Filofaxes.
• Driven to Suicide: Tracey mentions how she should go upstairs and slash her wrists when Darryl's car is repossessed and she can't afford to buy it back.
• Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Tracey and Sharon try one of these involving selling cheap perfume. It doesn't work out.
• Halfway Plot Switch: The episode starts as a story about Tracey and Sharon flogging perfume, then becomes one about Tracey selling Darryl's Jaguar to make up for her money troubles.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Tracey hadn't checked the price of Darryl's car on Computer Car, chances are that it wouldn't have been tracked down and reprocessed in the first place.
• Right in Front of Me: The car salesman tells Tracey the Jaguar she's interested in was owned by a nasty bank robber with a bimbo wife, not knowing that Tracey is the bimbo wife in question.
• Shout-Out: The episode title is a reference to the movie Sweet Smell of Success.
• Suicide as Comedy: After Tracey says she should slash her wrists, Sharon asks if she's going to use her ladyshave.
• Treadmill Trauma: After Dorien offends her, Tracey speeds up her treadmill and sends her face first into the ground.
• Unusual Euphemism: Tracey calls Dorien's boobs "thrupp'nny bits".
• Workout Fanservice: When we first see Tracey and Dorien, they're working with somewhat revealing clothes.

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