Tim: Oh, yes. "World Peace and Hunger". We're supporting peace, and hunger, are we?
Mr. Brittas: What?
Tim: So we're on the side of both, yeah?
Mr. Brittas: Naturally.
Tim: No you don't understand-
Gavin: Oh, I see what he means Mr. Brittas. It should be "Peace and Plenty and We're For It".
Linda: Or... "War and Hunger and We're Against It".
— Tim Whistler, Gavin Featherly and Linda Perkin trying to explain to Gordon Brittas that celebrating "World Peace and Hunger" doesn't make much sense.
- Date First Aired: 09/04/1996
It's World Peace and Hunger Week at the leisure centre, and Brittas is preparing for a ceremony that plans to utilize all the traditional signs of peace - doves, chain of children, Eternal Flame, you name it. Whilst preparing for the ceremony, Tim finds out that he gets paid much less than the rest of the employees. He proceeds to lock the Colin, Tim, and Gavin into the staff meeting room. Colin is able to contact Brittas but thanks to an effigy of Saddam Hussein left in the meeting room, Brittas believes that the real deal is holding his staff hostage. The mix-up is quickly resolved but Brittas still has to deal with Tim holding the staff hostage. Helen, in an attempt to get Brittas checkbook is able to break down Tim mentally by bonding over their shared experiences of parents and get the door open
In the episode's B-Plot, Helen becomes depressed when her twins fail the audition for a nappy commercial. In a bid for revenge, she decides to poison the blackcurrant juice with laxatives in a bid to hurt the parent company, United Nappies. However, Carole and Penny convince her that she would be hurting the reputation of the corner shop that she got the juice from. This makes her incredibly guilty, leading her to buy off all of the affected bottles from the corner shop.
Cut to the ceremony. Tim is still trying to argue for better pay - by putting up a sign which will be seen on live TV. Colin notices and fights with him. The ceremony ends up going wrong and an entire line of children (and Helen, and a bunch of doves) are electrocuted. Cut to the hospital, where we find that whilst the children are in intensive care, they're not dead at least. Of course, Brittas decides to bring over the laxative-drugged blackcurrant juice, which will probably make their recovery difficult.
Tropes featured in this episode:
- Acquainted with Emergency Services: Carole mentions that the police, the army and the ambulance all refuse to come to the centre.Carole: Yes Mr. Brittas, I've called the police, the army, and the ambulance.Mr. Brittas: We don't need them now Carole, it's only Tim.Carole: Oh good, because they said they're not coming, and Sergeant Curtis said if it was the Iraqis, he'd hoped they'd kill you.
- Ambiguous Syntax: As noted by the staff in the page quote, being for "World Peace and Hunger" makes it sound like they're on the side of hunger as well.
- Based on a True Story: The doves getting roasted by the Eternal Flame was inspired by a similar event at the 1988 Olympic Games.
- Batter Up!:
- Tim intends to beat up Brittas with a baseball bat when he finds that he gets paid less than the others. He ends up beating Colin with it when he catches him with the telephone.
- Colin later gets Linda to hit him with a cricket bat in a Deliberate Injury Gambit.
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty:
- Colin casually reveals to Brittas that he wrung the necks of some doves that kept tagging on at a rehearsal for the World Peace and Hunger Ceremony.
- Some black humour is mined from a flock of doves getting electrocuted to death in front of a large line of children.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Carole's children have now become The Dreaded amongst other children thanks to their new habit of biting them. Ben in particular forces his mother to fly a kite indoors and puts his head down in his sleeping bag for weeks if anyone even mentions the word "out".
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Brittas asks what they have at children's parties to Colin:Mr. Brittas: What do we have at children's parties, Colin?Colin: Ice creams, jelly, crisps, being sick.
- Censorship by Spelling: Carole would rather have it that Ben does not hear the word "out".Penny: Are you sure you wouldn't like that outside?Carole: Please, Mrs Bidmead, don't mention O-U-T. Ben's happy. If he thinks he has to go O-U-T, he'll put his head down his sleeping bag for weeks.
- Break Them by Talking: Helen manages to get Tim, who is holding Linda, Colin, and Gavin hostage, away from them and out of the staff restroom by talking to him about his mother, causing him to have a breakdown and convincing him to put his finger in a piece of rope which Helen pulls on to give the others the chance to grab the key off him and unlock the room.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Early on, Colin mentions lowering a power line and installing a pilot light for the Eternal Flame ceremony. Both come into play at the end of the episode when the pilot light turns into a flamethrower, burns through the power line and electrocutes all the children in attendance.
- The string from Ben's kite, initially taken by Helen so that she can try to hang herself, is later used by her as part of a scheme to get Tim out of the restroom and free everyone from a Hostage Situation engineered by him.
- Closed Door Rapport: Helen manages to give Tim an emotional breakdown from the other side of a locked door. She even suggests tying some knots on a kite string and putting it through the door so that they can be together in a way. Of course, it's all a scheme to get the door open, as shown when she pulls on it to hurt him.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Brittas believes Saddam Hussein is holding his staff hostage, Carole gets annoyed he didn't pay for a ticket to use the facilities.
- Continuity Nod: Carole tries to convince Brittas to invite her children to World Peace and Hunger Week by saying that she'll confiscate Ben's knife that he used in "High Noon". She also tells Brittas that she will ask her children to promise not to bite anyone - Ben at the very least having an issue with nipping others was first established back in "Not a Good Day..."
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: Colin asks Linda to hit him with a cricket bat so that he can get to a telephone in the ensuing confusion.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Helen's response to her twins not getting picked for the commercial is to try to poison everyone.
- Doves Mean Peace: Colin procures a flock of doves, with the flock being intended to be released for the Eternal Flame ceremony celebrating "World Peace and Hunger" week. The ceremony ends up going awry, however, and the doves are electrocuted and burned to death as a result.
- Driven to Suicide: When Helen learns that her twins haven't been picked for a commercial, she takes some of the string from Ben's kite with the apparent intention of hanging herself, although she seems to have snapped out of this mindset after she talks to Penny about it.
- Faking Another Person's Illness: Gavin mentions having to tell Brittas that Tim is suffering from the flu when Tim skipped a meeting to buy a new pair of trousers.
- Filching Food for Fun: Julie tells Brittas that the Cubs are not allowed to join hands with the Brownies following an incident where the Brownies were caught taking iced fancies by the scoutmaster, who also happens to run the bread shop where this incident occurred.
- Foreshadowing: Helen successfully manages to get Tim to open up to her about his issues, and reveals that she has learned some tricks from time spent with the Samaritans, opening up the route for her eventual training as a psychiatrist in Series 7.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The camera cuts away before we see Linda's cricket bat make contact with Colin.
- The Ghost: Sargent Curtis, who hopes that the Iraqis kill Brittas.
- Harmful to Minors: An entire line of children watch a bunch of doves burn and electrocute to death in spite of Brittas' attempts to get them to look away. There is also the matter of said children soon being electrocuted severely enough to go to intensive care followed by them presumably consuming juice off-screen which contains laxatives...Mr. Brittas: Don't look, children! Close your eyes and hold hands!
- Harmless Electrocution: Helen is electrocuted alongside several children by a fallen powerline, but aside from a few burns, she is mostly okay and feeling better than ever. Subverted for the children however, who are sent to intensive care as a result of the electrocutions.
- Hospital Epilogue: The episode ends with Brittas visiting Helen in the hospital and dropping off some blackcurrant juice for the electrocuted children in intensive care, not knowing that Helen had drugged the juice with laxatives earlier in the episode.
- Hostage Situation: Tim holds Gavin, Linda, and Colin hostage until Brittas can give him the pay rise he wants.
- Hyperaffixation: Brittas is really fond of putting the suffix "thon" onto each of the events of the day - there's the charity swimathon, the squashathon, the trampolinathon, and the badminthon. Penny also notes that she's been put down for a solariumathon and a saunathon.
- Karma Houdini: Tim holds several people hostage, fights Colin on the roof, and intended to show a sign demanding that his boss Brittas leave on live TV, but the most punishment he gets is being made to do counselling sessions with Brittas.
- Laughing Mad: Helen apparently after her twins failed to get picked for a nappies advertisement. Of course, Brittas doesn't quite figure out that there is something wrong with her, even considering the fact that she was eating burnt toast as she was laughing.
- Laxative Prank: Helen, in revenge for her twins not getting picked for a nappies advertisement, decides to put laxatives in a supply of blackcurrant juice (which is owned by the same company) to sully their reputation. When she is told that said action would sully the reputation of the shop she purchased the juice from, however, she proceeds to purchase it all in a bid to not have it used by anyone. This turns out to be pointless, however, when a line of children are electrocuted and Brittas, unaware of her actions, takes the juices over to intensive care for them.
- Madness-Induced Omnivore: Downplayed. When Helen's twins fail to be picked for a nappy advertisement, Brittas mentions her going Laughing Mad whilst eating burnt toast.
- Mama Bear: At least part of the reason why Helen is so revenge-bent on United Nappies is that she believes that, in not choosing her twins to be part of their advertisements, the company thinks that her twins are ugly.
- Man Bites Man: Carole's children have gained a new habit.Carole: Why haven't Ben and the twins been invited, Mr. Brittas?Mr. Brittas: I think you know why, Carole...Carole: If I can make them promise not to bite anyone, Mr. Brittas?Mr. Brittas: Carole...Carole: I will confiscate Ben's knife.Mr. Brittas: Carole, I do not want another situation where the coaches turn up and the children are too frightened to de-bus, do you?
- Mistaken Identity: Brittas mistakes an effigy for Saddam Hussein and believes it to be the real deal.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Helen is horrified when she realizes that she may have sullied the corner shop's reputation by tainting their blackcurrant juice with laxatives and tries to desperately reverse her mistake before anyone finds out.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Brittas' attempts to rush the Eternal Flame ceremony accidentally kills several peace doves and electrocutes Helen and countless children.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Eternal Flame used for the ceremony is only meant to last until Friday.
- Noodle Incident:
- Brittas mentions a previous situation where a group of children were afraid to leave the coaches due to Carole's children. He doesn't elaborate on this, although Carole's reaction implies it might have something to do with the children's habit of biting and Ben's knife.
- Tim once missed an important staff meeting because he was off buying leather trousers, much to Gavin's displeasure.
- Something happened between Tim and his mother which Tim feels hurt about years later, but all that the viewer can assume is that it most likely involved his mother getting angry over him making a mess cooking in the kitchen.Helen: My mother was exactly the same. They never realise, do they? Even years later, you still feel that hurt, don't you?Tim: I don't know why I am telling you all this, Mrs. Brittas, but you're right, and if anyone is ever angry, it's like my mother all over again, and I'm in the kitchen making a mess trying to cook...
- Helen reveals that she learned a few tricks from The Samaritans, but she doesn't elaborate on this, although it may be connected to Brittas' short-lived tenure with the organization.
- One-Shot Character: Kevin Scott, Monica Evans, and Mrs Normans.
- Red Alert: The centre is shown to have a couple of these:
- Green Alert is Bubonic Plague.
- Orange Alert refers to someone without a verruca sock.
- Yellow Alert refers to a hostage situation.
- There's also a reference to a Brown Alert, although no further detail is given on this over than the fact that it's less serious than a Yellow Alert.
- Rooftop Confrontation: Colin encounters Tim up on the roof making a sign reading "Brittas Must Go" and fights him, with the squabble being seen by everyone attending the ceremony.
- Sanity Slippage: When Tim discovers everyone gets paid more than him, he holds the other staff members hostage in the staff room, plans to beat up Brittas, and has an emotional breakdown to Helen.
- Shout-Out: The title comes from a line of the nursery rhyme "Ring a Ring o' Roses".
- Sore Loser: Helen takes the fact that her twins did not get picked for a nappy commercial very, very poorly. As in "try to ruin the company selling the nappies' reputation through a Laxative Prank" poorly.
- Swallow the Key: Colin locks the door to reception from the staff meeting room and threatens to swallow the key after Tim learns that he gets paid less than the other members of staff. Tim just takes the key from Colin and locks the other doors.
- Take That!: Colin plans to burn effigies of Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, and Attila the Hun.
- Temporarily a Villain: The main villain of the episode is none other than Tim, who has discovered that he gets paid less than the other members of staff and thus forces them into a Hostage Situation, even intending to beat up Brittas with a baseball bat. Oddly enough, whilst his main motives aren't resolved by the end, he's back to normal by the next episode.
- Toilet Humour: Colin has apparently been finding "traces of nuisance" from people coming home from the Wheat Sheaf. He wants a bigger Eternal Flame so the lads are forced out of range, the implication being that they are pissing in the Eternal Flame.
- Toy-Based Characterization: Ben plays with a kite, normally a toy to be played with outdoors, from his cupboard in the leisure centre, highlighting his dislike for open spaces - to emphasize this, Carole reveals that if Ben gets the idea that he has to go outside, he will put his head down his sleeping bag for weeks.
