Walkout

Walkout is about loyalty, and it starts with a burglary that did not quite happen. Mrs Van Bueren, a widow, arrives home to find her house broken into, though the thieves have not taken her jewels. She asks Ken to guard them, and he puts the jewellery box, full of tiaras and necklaces, in the CBS safe. That afternoon Mr Fraser, a salesman for a security firm, shows Harry a mugger-proof briefcase and a safe alarm. Harry is not impressed, and sends him off, but not before Fraser has seen the jewels.

Rocky is behaving strangely. His heart is not in the job, he has taken to aftershave, and he has bought a clapped-out Ford Capri with a musical horn. The reason is Melanie King, a demure cashier at his bank. Harry gives him an easy task to keep him out of trouble: guarding an exhibition of sculpture made of bin-bags.

Late one night Alex, phoning a friend in Australia from the office, sees Rocky leaving with a bag. The next morning the jewels are missing. Rocky has money for the car and for expensive dinners, and Harry follows him to a jeweller's where he asks about lockets. When Harry accuses him of theft, Rocky resigns and Harry sacks him, and Alex overhears.

Ken finds a gold locket in Rocky's car, and learns that Rocky is deep in debt. Alex goes to the CBS guards, and when Harry denies having sacked Rocky, she organises a walkout. The guards go on strike, leaving Harry in charge of Jaws, the company's Alsatian.

Harry then subcontracts his work to a rival firm and discovers that its chief investigator is Fraser, the man who sold him the alarm. Fraser admits he cracked Harry's safe by recording the clicks of the lock. The rival firm is working for Mr Van Bueren. Mrs Van Bueren is his ex-wife, not a poor widow, and her story that the jewels came from her mother is a lie.

Harry, ashamed, goes with Ken to find Rocky and Melanie in a tent by a lake. Melanie nags Rocky all the way home, and he begs Harry to get him out of this. Harry gives him his job back, pays his rent and offers to clear his overdraft, and Alex shows Rocky the apology Harry had half written. At the sculpture park, someone has scattered the bags, and Ken and Charlie rearrange them into a smiling face and a ship. The critics love it.

Jane Hollowood wrote the episode and John Stroud directs. Deborah Norton plays Mrs Van Bueren, Debra Beaumont is Melanie, and David Beames plays Fraser.

The strength is the strike. It is the guards, led by Alex, who show Harry that loyalty is owed to a colleague, and the half-written apology that Alex finds is a nice touch. The weakness is the theft, which is solved by the other side's confession. It is still a warm episode about Rocky.