- Date First Aired: 09/10/1994
Sharon has spent her hard-earned money on a machine that apparently causes your blackheads to fall out, much to Tracey's annoyance, who fears that Sharon may be turning into a shopaholic. Tracey also reveals that she's taken up knitting, using a thousand quid knitting machine. Unfortunately, she's not very good at it. Making matters worse, it's Chris' birthday today and he wants a present, so Sharon asks Tracey to knit him a sweater.
Meanwhile, Dorien has been acting strangely - she's been buying in bulk from chain stores and giving stuff to the sisters. Soon, the sisters get an invite to a wedding for Estelle Kapper - Dorien's mum. Tracey thus theorists that she's shopping to deal with this fact. They eventually manage to take Dorien's credit cards of her and force her to go cold turkey. When she struggles, they decide to go to the root of the problem and make Dorien talk to her mother.
Sharon soons gets Chris a present - a knitted jumper from Tracey. However, he is unaware that it has a message on the back calling him a "pratt". On the downside, this gives Tracey a repetitive strain injury, leading to her quitting knitting. Soon, Dorien decides to go to the wedding after all, decided that she likes Stewart after all.
Tropes in this episode:
- Age-Gap Romance: The 68-year-old Estelle Kapper to the 55-year-old Stewart, much to the horror of Dorien.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Sharon asks what Tracey's knitting machine is meant to do:Tracey: It's a knitting machine, of course.Sharon: Of course. What for?Tracey: Well, I was gonna make some spaghetti on it... or I could try knitting with it.
- Auto Erotica: On Sharon's 28th birthday, Chris left her alone so he could "practice backseat aerobics" with a girl called Stephanie.
- Big "WHAT?!": Dorien's response when she finds out that Tracey knows that her mother is getting married.
- Birthday Episode: Chris celebrates his birthday today, although it is not a happy occasion for him.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Sharon spent her 28th birthday (the last before Chris was sent to jail) alone in the laundrette whilst Chris was off cheating on her.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Sharon picks up an American accent when telling Chris about the American tourists.
- Curse Cut Short: Sharon tries to say the word "bastard" but is cut off by Tracey.Sharon: Oh, well, that's what I've always said, innit? Dorien really is a ba-Tracey: Sharon!
- Deadpan Snarker: Dorien doesn't like it when people say she's in denial.Sharon: Sounds like denial to me.Dorien: Oh, thank you Sharon. That's very rich coming from the woman that thinks denial is the river that runs past d'pyramids.
- Forgotten Birthday: Until prompted by Chris, Sharon didn't realize that it was Chris' birthday.
- The Ghost: Stewart, who will soon be Dorien's stepfather.
- Going Cold Turkey: The sisters force Dorien to quit her addiction to shopping abruptly by confiscating her credit cards.
- Happy Birthday to You!: Sharon sings it to Chris, but to a different tune and uses it to insult him.
- Homemade Sweater from Hell: When Sharon asks Tracey to knit a sweater for Chris, Tracey sees it as a sign that she really hates Chris.
- It Runs in the Family: Sharon remark toyboys run in Dorien's family after hearing her mother is marrying a man thirteen years younger than her.
- Marriage of Convenience: Dorien claims that her mother made her marry Marcus because he had lots of money, although it's suggested that she's lying.
- Mystery Meat: The brown runny food that Chris was served at the prison. Apparently, 30% think it's mince, 20% beans, and the rest chocolate blancmange.
- Noodle Incident: Tracey once made Darryl the only tank top which had room for a tank turret.
- Not Herself: Dorien has been buying at chain stores and giving stuff to Sharon and Tracey, a behavior not usually associated with her. It turns out that she's dealing with the fact that her mother is marrying someone else.
- One-Steve Limit: Stewart is the name of Dorien's soon-to-be stepfather, and was also a One-Shot Character in "A Brush with the Law".
- One-Word Title: The name of the episode is "Compulsion".
- Precision F-Strike: After Dorien gives a long speech about the type of man she wished she could've married if she wasn't forced to marry Marcus, Tracey and Sharon glance at each other and reply only with a flat "Bullshit".
- Retail Therapy: Dorien has been dealing with the fact that her mother is planning to marry someone new by buying in bulk. This even seeps into a proposed game of Monopoly:Dorien: You could buy lots of houses and hotels, an' I could pay you enormous amounts of rent!
- Shout-Out:
- Tracey remembers hearing a piece on shopaholics from Good Morning with Anne and Nick.
- After seeing Tracey's knitting machine, Sharon asks if she can get BBC Two on it.
- One of the specials at Sharon's Café is an "Anne Hathaway's Cottage Pie".
- Marcus is away in Hong Kong doing work for Chris Patton.
- Dorien wants to watch ITV.
- Speak in Unison:
- Both Sharon and Tracey say "What?" at the same time after Dorien reveals that she has never seen Stewart, the man who her mother is supposed to be marrying.
- They also both say "Bullshit" after hearing Dorien's ideal man.
- Status Quo Is God: Tracey tries to take up knitting, but ends up selling her machine by the end of the episode.
- Take That!:
- Sharon comments that you could buy Gyles Brandreth for a thousand quid as long as you can put up with him grinning inanely from the sofa.
- Dorien doesn't want to watch Newsnight or Sportsnight, but Sharon wants to only to see if they shoot Paul Daniels.
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Tracey tries to take up knitting, although she proves to be terrible at it.
