Beef Encounter

An unscrupulous businessman, Eddie Allen, who owns the Fast Eddie chain of fast-food restaurants, is exploiting his teenage staff. When they start picketing all his shops for better working conditions, Eddie calls in Ken to find out who is organising them. Ken infiltrates the protesters’ gang but soon sides with them. He discovers that their leader is an elderly widow, Barbara Drake, whose husband was killed in an industrial accident at a waste-disposal plant that Eddie had run. Against Ken’s advice, Barbara poisons Eddie’s food to give his shops a bad reputation. There is a local epidemic of food poisoning. Barbara gives herself up to the police.

Harry is organising an American pageant and square dance at the Plaza Suite. He employs the Vortex Players, a troupe of actors and dancers. He is stunned to discover that one of them is Yvonne Higgins, “the first girl I ever proposed to”. Harry realises that he still fancies her, but she admits to Margaret that she thinks of him “as a brother”. Now married and called Yvonne Temple, she tells Harry that she is thinking of leaving her overbearing and bullying husband, Brian, who is always belittling her. Harry encourages her to confront Brian, thinking that if they split up, he might be in with a chance. Unfortunately when Yvonne does confront Brian, they end up closer together – not at all what Harry had planned! However Harry has the last laugh: before the Pageant, Brian had eaten a hamburger at Fast Eddies that Barbara had poisoned and in the middle of the performance he suffers the humiliation of being violently sick.

Notes and episode list © Martin Underwood, 1999

Page last modified: 24 December 2008, 01:29