- Date First Aired: 21/11/1994
After the events of the previous episode, a group of builders has come to rebuild the kitchen. It's not too long however before Brittas ends up putting their lives in danger. Meanwhile, Michael T. Farrell III has come into the centre to an exhausted Carole. Apparently, her birthday was recently, and nobody bothered to do anything about it.
Michael comes to Brittas' office, much to his annoyance. Michael wants to take a job at the leisure centre to prove to Laura that he's serious about their relationship, but Brittas tries everything in his power to not let him do so. During this, Helen comes in, and Julie remembers seeing her at a restaurant, a factoid that she would rather not have spoken in front of Brittas, for she had Rawlinson with her and had claimed to Brittas that she was away with her mother in Manchester. Michael claims that she went with him instead and was celebrating Carole's birthday.
Whilst tending to a worker who had his hair catch on fire, Brittas asks Colin about the birthday. However, Colin, who's unaware of the lie, states that he did not go to the party. Regardless, Julie gets everyone to state that they were at Carole's birthday party. Unfortunately, the lie gets more complicated when Brittas' asks about the presents and who organized them.
Whilst Michael goes through a 243 question long questionnaire, Tim finds out from Brittas that Gavin is seeking a promotion, much to his anger. At the same time, the lie has been intricately planned out, but Colin feels pretty left out. During this, Laura comes in and finds out that Michael has appeared. Meanwhile, Tim confronts Gavin and the two have a fight. As this is going on, the builders are electrocuted (possibly fatally) by a loose wire coming into contact with their van.
After the fight is broken up, Helen accidentally reveals that the party is a lie in front of Brittas. Thankfully, the vagueness of the events leads to Brittas believing that Michael was at the restaurant and that Helen was completely innocent. Although Michael loses out of the job, Laura is impressed and reveals to him that she's pregnant.
Tropes featured in this episode:
- Big Stupid Doo Doo Head: Ben calls Carole a "poo-head" in his birthday card to her because she didn't get him an air rifle.Michael: No presents, cards?Carole: One. From Ben.Michael: "Happy birthday, poo-head".Carole: I won't buy him an air rifle, you see.
- Birthday Episode: Carole's birthday dinner becomes a massive plot point in a web of lies cooked up to prevent Brittas from discovering Helen's affair.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: No one actually did anything for Carole's birthday, they just lied to cover up Helen's affair, much to Carole's disappointment.
- Call-Back: The reason the builders are in the centre is to fix the explosion damage in the kitchen from the previous episode ("Brussels Calling"). Helen's affair from the same episode also has to be covered up to stop Brittas from realizing.
- Clothing Damage: Gavin and Tim's clothes are basically destroyed after their brawl. With Tim especially, one ends up getting a good view of his chest.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Julie is happy enough to watch Tim and Gavin fight rather than do anything to break it up.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Michael T. Farrell manages to get Laura pregnant and fully wins her back, much to the detriment of Brittas' feelings towards her.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Brittas figures out that everyone had been lying to him relating to the restaurant and concludes that they were hiding an affair between... Michael T. Farrell and a mysterious blonde (it's actually Helen and John Rawlinson).
- "Fawlty Towers" Plot: Michael lies to Brittas that Helen was at Carole's birthday, which ends up leading to everyone (except Colin, Brittas himself, and Laura) being part of the birthday party and an actual plan being made up to get away with it. It all comes crashing down when Helen reveals the truth just as Brittas walks in behind her (although he had already figured it out anyway).
- Fictional Document: The books that Gavin has been reading whilst getting management training, including Leadership in Modern Management, Mobilising Resources in the Leisure Industry, and Say Hello to Success.
- Forgotten Birthday: The only person who bothered to do anything for Carole's birthday was Ben, and even then, he called her a poo-head in her birthday card.Michael: It's your birthday?Carole: Was. Yesterday.Michael: I had no idea.Carole: Nobody did.
- Fun with Acronyms: Think, Identify, Tell, or, as Tim points out, T.I.T.Mr. Brittas: Think, identify, tell.Tim: Tit!Mr. Brittas: Pardon?Tim: I said "tit", Mr. Brittas.Mr. Brittas: Timothy...Gavin: It's a mnemonic, Mr. Brittas.Mr. Brittas: What?Gavin: Think, identify, tell. T-I-T...Gavin/Tim: Tit!
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Farrell’s motivation for getting a job in the leisure centre is to prove to Laura that he’s changed and convince her to fall pregnant. She’s pleased upon hearing it and reveals that she’s fallen pregnant already.
- Groin Attack:
- One of the builders is given one courtesy of an extremely hot lunchbox being applied to his crotch.
- Tim knees Gavin in the balls at the end of their brawl.
- High-Voltage Death: Whilst it is never explicitly said, it is very heavily implied that the workers were killed by a dangling live cable coming into contact with their van and electrocuting them.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Gavin's motivation for getting into management - he feels like he isn't doing enough in life being a common pool attendant and wants to be more.
- Indian Burial Ground: The builders believe that the cause of all of the burnings and injuries sustained by them is a result of disturbing an ancient burial ground. Of course, it's actually due more to Brittas' ineptness than anything else.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Brittas intercepts Colin first about Carole's party before the word that it was simply a lie spreads to almost everyone, leading to him being marked down as absent from it. He's actually rather hurt by this. Laura may count as well, as she doesn't show up until the lie is already underway and is marked down as absent. Granted, she does eventually find out that it was a lie engineered by Michael, but not why he did it.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Brittas concludes that Michael was out having an affair with a blonde woman at a restaurant. In truth, there was an affair but it was actually between his own wife and John Rawlinson.
- Mistaken for Racist: Invoked by Michael, who plays up the fact that he has Irish grandparents to accuse Brittas of being racist to him, even though Brittas had other personal reasons to not consider hiring Michael, and force his hand in giving Michael an application form by suggesting that the Equal Opportunities Board won't see Brittas' side.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If it weren't for Julie saying out loud that she saw Helen at the restaurant in front of Brittas, the whole snowball of lies would not have happened in the first place.
- One-Shot Character: Mr. Donaldson.
- Overworked Sleep: Poor Carole is extremely tired following an ear infection that Jessica has, to the point of sleeping on the job.
- Pun-Based Title: The episode title is a play on the phrase "The ayes have it" (generally used in Parliament when the affirmative votes are in the majority).
- Retcon: This episode is the first one to identify Carole as having a daughter named Jessica, the child having previously been a son named Tom.
- Smithical Marriage: Apparently, Helen and John Rawlinson went to the restaurant under the alias of "Smith".
- Speak in Unison: Gavin and Tim both say "Tit" to Brittas when talking about the mnemonic for "Think, identify, tell".
- Spotting the Thread: Even after Helen reveals the truth, Brittas figures the lie out in the end after he was told that Carole's gift could not have been seen by Michael as he was around the corner according to Tim... even though everyone was seated at a circular table. Then there was Linda describing the gift as being wrapped in a small box... even though they were meant to be bath towels, which wouldn't quite fit.
- Story Arc: This episode starts the running plot of Gavin's ascent to management and the beginnings of his relationship troubles with Tim.
- Tempting Fate: Mr. Donaldson assures the other builders that if they stay in the van there'll be no more shocks and surprises. Less than ten seconds after this a power cable comes loose and electrocutes them all to death.
- Worth It: Helen briefly wonders if all the lying was worth the moments of illicit pleasure that she got at the restaurant. She decides it was.
