- Date First Aired: 31/01/1991
- Alternative Name: "Happy and Fulfilled"
We open on Brittas conducting a job interview with a young 17-year-old named Beverly. Brittas tells Beverly about his desire to fix a divided world through the power ofsport. He also tells Beverly that the pool is being used for a wedding, with a man from the scuba team having it. However, he is distracted by Colin. Apparently, the best man dropped the ring and has gotten stuck trying to pick it up. Whilst Brittas tries to fix the problem, Helen has a chat with Pam. Pam asks how she and Brittas met. Helen responds that she met him on the hard shoulder of the M6. Apparently, he cleaned out her car engine and was beaten up by Terry when he annoyed him. She ended up falling in love whilst he was drifting in and out of a coma with his jaw wired shut. She also reveals that it's her wedding anniversary today.
Brittas tries to continue the interview but has to head off. After he annoys the wedding group, he comes across Laura herding a man in an electric wheelchair out of the centre. Unfortunately, he thinks she's discriminating based on his disability and sends him deeper into the centre, not knowing he's drunk. Colin recommends setting a trap and they consider setting a barricade of cardboard boxes.
A wall of cardboard boxes is set up and he crashes through it. In the ensuing confusion, Gavin is shot in the shoulder with a harpoon. Even worse, the boxes contained sodium hydrochloride and it ends up creating chlorine gas.
Brittas evacuates the building and Beverly decides to not take the job, after all, a decision which she sticks firmly by after Appleby barges out the window, and runs over Brittas' hand. Brittas and Helen head home, having decided to forgo the anniversary dinner (as per usual) in favour of Chinese takeaway. Unfortunately, Brittas forgets the best man at the bottom of the pool, leading to him (presumably) finally drowning.
Tropes featured in this episode:
- The Alcoholic: Mr. Appleby, who races through the centre in his electric wheelchair in an alcoholic stupor.
- Banana in the Tailpipe: Someone tries to shove a potato into the exhaust pipe of Brittas' car. It turns out to be a young child, which a Priest allows to do again (this time with dog poop) when Brittas proves to be an annoying git.
- Bowdlerise: The Drama airing of the episode cuts out Brittas calling Mr. Appleby a bastard after he crashes through the cardboard boxes.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: When Gavin is harpooned to the door, Tim loses it and starts shrieking at the other members of staff.
- Deadpan Snarker: Angie to Brittas when using a leisure centre door to carry out Mrs. Farris (who is going into labour) as seen in the page quote.
- Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Mr. Appleby, a man in an electric wheelchair who uses his allowance to get drunk and ogle women whilst he's in that state.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Patrick makes his first appearance, but he isn't played by his regular actor John Carrigan, a change which won't occur until Series 4.
- Fainting: Gavin passes out from blood loss.
- Fingore: Appleby runs over Brittas' hand as he drives out of the window in his office.
- Funny Background Event: As Brittas is talking about the effects of chlorine gas on the phone, Carole (who is knitting in reception) slowly begins choking on it.
- The Ghost: Helen mentions once being with a brute of a man named Terry when she first met Brittas in 1983, but we never see him.
- Harpoon Gun: Colin wields a harpoon gun whilst trying to stop Mr. Appleby, which backfires when he accidentally shoots Gavin with it.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Colin harpoons Gavin to a door when he sets off his harpoon gun in surprise.
- It Was a Gift: It's revealed that Brittas' image of General Gordon's Last Stand, which hangs on his wall until the end of Series 5, is a gift from the staff from Aldershot.
- Ironic Juxtaposition: The leisure centre has a Pretentious Latin Motto standing for "Open To All", which is placed on top of signs banning people wearing certain footwear or leather jackets from entering the centre.
- Last Resort Takeout: It's revealed that every wedding anniversary, Brittas tries to take Helen to a dinner and a show in London, but ends up being so occupied with his latest disaster that they have to resort to a Chinese takeaway instead.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Brittas redirects Mr. Appleby as Laura is trying to remove him, not realising that he's drunk. This ends up causing trouble when Appleby goes on a drunken rampage through the centre.
- Colin forgets to empty out the boxes of chemicals he used to block off the corridor which turns into chlorine gas when they mix together on the floor.
- After Gavin is harpooned to the door, Brittas completely forgets about the best man stuck in the pool and the episode ends on a shot of him finally drowning.
- Noodle Incident:
- Helen mentions recovering from a messy divorce when she first met Brittas, although why she divorced from her previous husband and how it came to be messy is never explained.
- Brittas is wary of calling the police to deal with Mr. Appleby as he doesn't want to become a laughing stock at the police station for the second time that week, although he doesn't elaborate further on this.
- Mention is made of the ambulances boycotting the leisure centre, although what happened to provoke it is never explained.
- One-Shot Character: Beverley Pearson, Mr. Appleby, Mrs. Farris, Bill, Ian, Ronnie, Phil and Debbie.
- Precision F-Strike: Brittas shouts out "You Bastard!" at Mr. Appleby after he crashes through the cardboard boxes.
- Saw It in a Movie Once: The idea of slowing Mr. Appleby down with cardboard boxes is suggested by Beverly, who mentions having seen it being done in movies.
- Skewed Priorities: Brittas is more worried about a removed door than Mrs. Farris going into stress-related labour.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: It's revealed that the reason Helen first met Brittas in the first place when he helped her with some car issues and showed a willingness to stand up for her against a brute of a man who didn't appreciate her called Terry. This, plus the fact that their dating period was spent with Brittas in a coma and with his jaws wired shut, helped convince Helen to marry him.
- Something We Forgot: At the end of the episode, as Brittas and Helen prepare to return home, Brittas thinks he's forgotten something but Helen tells him that it's probably nothing. Cue the best man, who's still stuck at the bottom of the pool.
- Stealth Insult: When the staff at Aldershot gave Brittas a copy of General Gordon's Last Stand, they wrote along the side of the spear "From All the Staff at Aldershot". Brittas doesn't get that this is meant to be an insult and thought they were too shy to write it properly.
- Summer Romance: It's revealed that Helen first met and grew fond of Brittas throughout the Summer of 1983, having spent that time visiting him in hospital after he was hit over the head by a tyre lever. It was not long after that Summer that they got married.
- Super Window Jump: Appleby is last seen driving out of the window in Brittas' office, running over his hand in the process.
- Uncertain Doom:
- Mr. Appleby is last seen driving his wheelchair out of the window of Brittas' main office. Notably, whilst the wheelchair is seen being towed away at the end of the episode, Appleby is nowhere to be seen, suggesting that he might have died.
- The best man is last seen still stuck at the end of the pool. Whilst it's possible that Brittas remembered and rescued him, it's very likely that he drowned.
- Wedding Episode: This episode begins at the end of a wedding conducted in the centre's pool, and one of the plotlines revolves around the staff's attempts to free the best man, who has gotten stuck in the pool and is slowly drowning.
- You, Get Me Coffee: Occurs as Brittas is sorting out the casualties:Mr. Brittas: Right, Bill, I want you to help Ian and Ronnie get those injured people down the fire escape and into the ambulances, alright? Phil, organise breathing masks and check the rest of the building. Laura, set up a first aid station outside the emergency exit.Laura: Right.Mr. Brittas: Linda, get me a full list of names and addresses of people leaving. Don’t forget compensation forms and damage claims, alright?Linda: Yes, Mr. Brittas.Mr. Brittas: Patrick, make sure the carpark's clear for the fire brigade. Debbie, get onto the hospital. Get me a full list of casualties, alright? Colin?Colin: Yo?Mr. Brittas: Put the kettle on.
- You Remind Me of X: Brittas tells Helen that Beverly reminded him of himself from ten years ago.
