- Date First Aired: 30/10/1989
We begin this episode with Sharon preparing her breakfast, which she performs messily, much to Tracey's annoyance, especially since she used the wrong cloth. Making matters worse is when Sharon destroys Darryl's favorite mug and eats his favourite food - king prawn. Tracey notices that Sharon has been wasting a lot of money calling up intimate phone numbers. However, she brushes off Tracey's concerns, believing that Tracey is rolling in the dough. Tracey suggests to Sharon that she go back to her old job at the "Low Price" supermarket to make a contribution.
Whilst Tracey is watching a Happier Home Movie of Darryl, Dorien comes to visit. She's collecting for Greenpeace. Specifically, she's collecting for charity shops. Whilst Tracey rounds up her clothes, Dorien reveals that Luke has left her. Tracey convinces Dorien to fight for him.
Sharon heads back to her old job, but she is regarded with suspicion by the other employees and shunted off to cold meats. She is also abused by Lisa, a past fling of Chris, and ends up being called up to the manager's office. Tracey and Dorien go off to buy some clothes (to be more specific, some clothes for her and Garth and some clothes for Dorien) but trouble strikes when it turns out that she no longer has money.
As Sharon talks about how she was able to convince her manager to let her off with a month's pay and a notice, Tracey rips one on Sharon to contribute to the running of the house, culminating with an argument. She also owes Dorien money.
Whilst Sharon heads down to the wine bar, the police come around. They're apparently looking for something, which turns out to have something to do with Tracey's bank account having been frozen. To be more specific, they believe that her house had been bought with money obtained through illegal money. It turns out that the illegal money, which was gotten from a robbery in 1987, was likely used to fund a diamond ring - one that was taken by Sharon.
Tropes In This Episode:
- Alliterative Name: Sexy Sadie, a phone sex worker who Tracey once caught Garth calling.
- Accidental Hero: By "borrowing" Tracey's diamond ring, Sharon ensured that she can stay in Dalentrace.
- Basement-Dweller: According to Dorien, before she married Marcus, she lived with her parents in the top half of their house, a fact which she notes with deep shame.
- Brutal Honesty: When Tracey asks how Dalentrace could be bought with the proceeds of crime when Darryl's conservatory business was bringing in a good wage, Ranjith explains that the profits were not enough to pay for not only their £1 million house, but also two annually new cars and Garth's school funds.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: When "Logistics (Full Mix)" plays on the radio in the first scene on the DVD release, it is replacing "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode as Sharon's lines, the sound effects and the audience laughter start up suddenly in a choppily edited way, and the original song can still be heard in the Clip Show "The Chigwell Years".
- Continuity Nod: Sharon brings up Chris' affair with Lisa in "Nicked" to embarrass her.
- Crocodile Tears: Sharon mentions she faked cried to keep her job after insulting Lisa.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sharon's reaction to Tracey's dishcloth lecture.Tracey: Wha' are you cleanin' up with? That's a dishcloth, not a floorcloth, that was new yesterday.Sharon: Oh dear me, that's a J-Cloth ruined. Tuppence down the drain. Quick, put the house up for sale!
- Sharon's response to Tracey complaining that she broke Darryl's mug :
Tracey: You've bust his special West Ham mug! His 1980 FA Cup Winners one!Sharon: So? I'll go down to Upton Park and get him a new one! Course, it'll have to be the 1989 relegation one. - Gold Digger: Dorien wants to leave Marcus so she can be with Luke. Only problem is no Marcus means no money.
- Happier Home Movie: Tracey watches a home video of Darryl to relive her loneliness and remind her of the good times they had before his incarceration.
- Hidden Depths: Dorien is involved with Greenpeace, only she doesn't like to ruin her clothes with badges.
- Irony: Tracey's situation at the ATM.Tracey: No money? 'Ow can I 'ave no money? My husband's a bloody bank robber!
- Intimate Telecommunications: Sharon's racked up quite a phone bill calling these numbers.
- Musical Chores: Sharon listens to the radio while she messily makes breakfast.
- Noodle Incident:
- Tracey once caught Garth using Darryl's car phone to talk to a phone sex worker called Sexy Sadie.
- Lisa once put up postcards in every sweetshop window in Edmonton offering people a "Swedish message".
- Nosy Neighbour: Dorien goes through Darryl's wardrobe without Tracey's permission when looking for things for the charity shop.
- One-Shot Character: Andrew and Detective Inspector Monk.
- One-Word Title: The title of the episode is "Shift".
- Pun: Sharon compares a king prawn's sell-by date to Darryl's out of his cell-by date.
- Radio Contest: Sharon gets involved in one involving Jason Donovan. However, it ends just as quickly when she fails to hear the important question.
- Sexless Marriage: Dorien compares her sex life with Marcus to Tracey lying in bed with one of Darryl's suits (although apparently the suit would probably move more than Marcus.
- Shirtless Scene: Darryl is shirtless in the Happier Home Movie Tracey watches.
- Shout-Out:
- Sharon brings up the Three Billy Goats Gruff when winding up Tracey.Tracey: The point is the cloth lives in the sink tidy, and the floor cloth lives under the sink, alright?Sharon: And the wicked troll lives under the rickety old bridge, and he wants to eat the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
- Darryl's favourite mug is a West Ham mug.
- Sharon remarks she'd have been happy to watch Chris go off with Salman Rushdie.
- Tracey asks Dorien if she thinks she been watching Blankety Blank after she's been caught watching a Happier Home Movie of Darryl.
- Sharon uses Down and Out in Beverly Hills as an Unusual Euphemism.
- Sharon fails to answer a question about Jason Donovan.
- Sharon brings up the Three Billy Goats Gruff when winding up Tracey.
- Take That!: According to Dorien, the only people who shop at charity shops are down-and-outs, abandoned wives and Michael Foot.
- Unusual Euphemism: Sharon uses Down and Out in Beverly Hills to describe Tracey being broke.
