Laura: You know what Brittas said - if he found it in here again, he'd confiscate it.
— Laura Lancing on the topic of Carole keeping her son Ben in the leisure centre.
- Date First Aired: 24/01/1991
- Alternative Names: "Carole's Husband" or "Sharing and Caring"
Brittas is worried about the fact that his staff members are not coming in to work and decides to talk to them. At the same time, Helen is heading off to take care of her bedridden uncle Simon (although it is made quite clear that he is not a bedridden uncle and rather an affair that Helen is having behind Brittas' back).
At the centre, Brittas discusses his plans to get the staff talking with Angie - sharing and caring clinics involving one-to-one dialogue. However, this conflicts with a guest speaker that Brittas has booked, so Brittas has to shuffle things up. Meanwhile, Carole's mother is in hospital for a hip replacement, so Ben is with her again. Laura offers to take over and mind the baby whilst she has a break, taking it to the women's changing room as she is doing this. During this, a young boy is looking for a tie, but Brittas' obnoxiousness leads to him running away.
For starters, Brittas is such a bad receptionist that he generates long lines, leading to Ken Owens, the guest speaker, getting mad at him. Meanwhile, possible salvation for Carole comes in the return of her husband, Derrick, who wants to take her back. Unfortunately, things go wrong for her immediately. For starters, Carole, who's unaware of what Laura did, ends up thinking that her baby had gone missing and starts charging through the corridors with the intent to kill Brittas. Then, when telling Colin to relocate the baby, his vague description leads Colin to grab the wrong baby. This is the point at which Derrick actually comes in and, thanks to Brittas, ends up believing that Carole is having an affair, produced a Chocolate Baby, and spread rumours about Derrick being impotent. The result is by the time Carole goes in to greet Derrick, he gets mad with her and tells her that he never wants to be with her again.
Afterwards, Brittas introduces the guest speaker. However, Brittas ends being so obnoxious that Owens relapses, puts his hands on every drug that he has on him, and attacks Brittas. At home, Brittas talks about how all day, he's seen families fall apart and how lucky he is that he seemingly has the perfect marriage with Helen, completely unaware of her philandering ways...
Tropes relating to this episode:
- Alliterative Name: One-Shot Character Peter Philips.
- Alliterative Title: One of the names for this episode is "Bye Bye Baby".
- Axe Before Entering: Carole breaks down the door to Brittas' office in a fit of off-screen rage with an axe.
- Blaming the Cuckold: Whilst awaiting his return, Carole reveals to Angie that she blames herself for Derrick having an affair, due to the fact that she had refused to have sex with him (since she was heavily pregnant at the time) on the photocopier at a party.
- Bowdlerise: When Drama first aired the episode in 2023, seeing as it aired pre-watershed, the scene where Derrick calls Carole a bastard was cut.
- Break the Motivational Speaker: Some time with Brittas leads Ken Owen, (who gave talks about overcoming his addictions) to start swallowing every pill and bottle he could get his hands on. Even beforehand, he grabs Brittas by the tie and threatens to set him on fire after his poor receptionist skills holds him up.
- Central Theme: The breakup of the family. Thanks to Brittas, Derrick decides to never get together with his wife ever again, a young boy runs away from home and leads to fighting from his parents, and Ken Owen is implied to have lost his wife and children after his relapse.
- Chocolate Baby: Derrick believes Ben to have been one after a misconception from Colin.
- Continuity Nod: When Carole reveals that Ben is with her, Laura mentions the previous time that she had him with her at the centre.
- Disappeared Dad: Derrick is revealed to have ran away from Carole late into her pregnancy, meaning that he has never seen his son in person. Thanks to this episode, he never will.
- Divorce Is Temporary: Subverted when Derrick has a change of heart and decides to get back together with Carole… until he’s led into thinking that she’s a malicious adulterer.
- Happily Married: The end of the episode reveals that Brittas genuinely believes that his and Helen’s marriage is this. Note that Helen has just gotten back from an affair as he says this, making it a subversion.
- Hypocrite: Derrick gets mad at Carole for appearing to have had an affair behind his back, even though he has cheated on her himself and even ran off with their savings.
- Invented Invalid: Uncle Simon, an allegedly sick uncle who's actually an affair that Helen is having.
- It's All My Fault: Carole blames herself for Derrick's cheating on her and leaving her, believing that if she had not refused to have sex with him on a photocopier, than he wouldn't have left.
- Jerkass: Derrick cheated on Carole with her best friend and moved to Spain all because she wouldn't have sex with him on the photocopier at the office party while eight months pregnant.
- Jerkass Realisation: Derrick realises that he has been a fool in his treatment of Carole and is at the centre to try to earn her forgiveness. Unfortunately, Brittas’ actions mean that this isn’t to be.
- Lingerie Scene: Helen gets one as she gets dressed in the kitchen.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Derrick tried to do this with Carole, wanting to have sex with her on the photocopier at an office party. She refused, and he left in response.
- Malicious Slander: Thanks to a misconception from Brittas, Derrick ends up believing that Carole spreads lies about him being impotent.
- Mama Bear: When Carole thinks that someone took her baby, she starts charging through the corridors wielding a fire axe in a bid to find him.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Thanks to a mix-up, Derrick ends up believing that Carole has had an affair and produced a Chocolate Baby behind his back.
- Mistaken Identity: Thanks to not having ever seen his son Ben in person and a mixup with two babies, Derrick mistakes Mrs. Walsh’s child for him.
- Naughty Nurse Outfit: Helen wears one for Uncle Simon.
- Never My Fault: When Brittas is single-handedly responsible for screwing up Owen's lecture by mishandling the slide projector, he says "I feel slightly responsible here" and lectures Owen on the proper setting up of the slides. Owen has a rage-fueled breakdown.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Brittas ruins any chance of Carole and Derrick getting back together.
- Noodle Incident: When Laura points out that Carole may need some make-up before she sees Derrick, Carole responds that it's "like Minehead all over again!"
- Off the Wagon: Before Brittas, Ken Owen had successfully overcome his addictions with the help of his family. After Brittas, these addictions come back in a big way when he gets his hand on every drug close to him.
- One-Shot Character: Ken Owen, Derrick, Mrs. Walsh, Peter Philips, Rev. Philips and Mrs. Philips.
- One Side of the Story: Derrick is convinced merely from second hand evidence from Brittas that Carole is a malicious adulterer and storms out on her without allowing her to explain the situation or even giving context to his behaviour, leaving her bewildered.
- One-Steve Limit: Patrick, the most-used non-lead member of staff, is briefly mentioned in this episode. However, there was a builder who was also called Patrick an episode ago in "Opening Day".
- Playing Sick: Apparently, the staff have become so annoyed by Brittas, that they've started calling in sick just so that they don't have to deal with him. This includes Patrick and Mrs. Delgado.
- Precision F-Strike:
- Derrick calls Carole a bastard when he believes that she had given birth to a Chocolate Baby.
- Once Ken Owen snaps, he pushes Brittas against a table and uses the word "shit".
- Rage Breaking Point: Ken Owen gets two thanks to Brittas:
- The first is when he arrives to deliver the lecture. Because Brittas is manning the front desk, a huge line has formed. Once he finally reaches the desk, he threatens to set Brittas on fire.
Ken Owen: (grabs Brittas by the collar) I've been invited to give a lecture here, and unless you tell me in the next thirty seconds where I'm supposed to go, I'm going to take you outside and set fire to you! Understand?
Brittas: (calmly) Mr Owen?
Ken Owen: Right!
Brittas: Mr Ken Owen? "Tranquillity Without Drugs"?- The second one is when Brittas ruins Owen's lecture and feels "slightly responsible". Owen wrecks the projector, binges on a handful of the drugs he brought to the lecture and had given up on, and tries to strangle Brittas.
- The Runaway: Thanks to Brittas calling the police over his belief that Peter has taken a tie (although in truth, he just took a random tie to get away from him), Peter ends up running away from home. The audience never does find out whether he returns safe or not.
- Status Quo Is God: Derrick was ready to take Carole back... until a misunderstanding resulted in him believing Carole had cheated and spread rumours about him being impotent.
- Talking in Your Sleep: According to Brittas, Helen has been talking in her sleep, mainly saying "Simon, Simon... let me do it for you".
- Titled After the Song: The title most commonly used for this episode comes from the Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio song "Bye Bye Baby".
- Toilet Seat Divorce:
- Why did Derrick cheat on Carole and leave her in the first place? She wouldn't have sex with him on the photocopier.
- From Carole's side, she thinks the reason why Derrick gave up on the relationship entirely after initially expressing a desire to get back with her was simply that she greeted him the wrong way, although in truth, this was because Brittas had given him the belief that she had spread rumours about his impotence and had an affair behind his back.
- Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: In-Universe, Angie asks this of Carole, asking why would she want Derrick back considering the fact that he cheated on her, and ran off to Spain with her savings and her friend. She replies that she believes that it was her fault for refusing to have sex with him at an office party when she was pregnant.
- Wrong Bathroom Incident: Brittas makes Colin go into the woman's changing room to grab Carole's baby. Colin tries keeping his eyes closed so that he doesn't see any female nudity and ends up with the wrong baby.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Carole's husband wants to get back together with her and she is given the opportunity to leave her job, give Ben a father, and be able to keep her house. Too bad Brittas sabotages it, leading to him storming out whilst shouting that he never wants to see her again and leaving her heartbroken.
- You Know What You Did: Thanks to Brittas, Derrick is led to believe that Carole has had an affair and spreads malicious rumours behind his back. When she appears, he calls her a bastard and tells her that he is never seeing her again... without giving a reason why he's acting this way to her, leaving a bewildered Carole to believe that it was the way she greeted him.
- You Monster!: When Derrick is led to believe that Carole cheated behind his back and spread malicious rumours, he says "You Bastard!" as she comes in to greet him.
