A Hard Day's Night

"A Hard Day's Night" is the sixth episode of the second season of Mind Your Language. It was first broadcast on the 11th of November 1978.

Plot
The students are playing games of darts and Scrabble while Mr. Brown is not around. Juan accidentally throws a dart at Sid as Jamila enters the classroom. Miss Courtney tells the students to stop the games and to go back to their seats; she takes Mr. Brown's class and gets many wrong answers from his students. Mr. Brown arrives late, explaining that he had to get his stuff out of his flat as he's having it painted and doesn't like the smell of paint, and many students offer to let Mr. Brown stay with them. He chooses to stay with Max and Giovanni, who plan to throw a party and have the entire class bring drinks and foods from their home countries: pizza, chicken curry, fried rice, chapati and papadams, taramasalata, goulash, German sausage, paella valenciana, Bombay duck, quiche Lorraine, smörgåsbord and sukiyaki. When Mr. Brown arrives at their flat, he discovers it's right next to a train station, but Max and Giovanni are used to the noise of the train and can understand each other perfectly well over it.

Max and Giovanni get ready to go and buy supplies for the party while Mr. Brown decides to take a bath. He steps outside first, and Max, not realising that Mr. Brown is on the balcony, locks him out before leaving with Giovanni. Mr. Brown walks to a window and knocks on it, but it's an old woman's flat and she calls the police to report him, thinking there's a burglar. PC Barnes and George show up; Barnes finds Mr. Brown on the balcony trying to pick the lock, arrests him and takes him to the police station.

While the students are searching for Mr. Brown, he is at the police station trying to explain the situation, much to the sergeant's disbelief. Sid is also taken to the police station for drunk and disorderly conduct. Giovanni and Max arrive to explain the mistake, but after they get back to their flat and all the other guests leave, Mr. Brown locks them out by mistake. They knock on Miss Partridge's window, startling her, and get reported to the police. Mr. Brown goes to get the supposed burglar but gets arrested again. He clears up the misunderstanding, but the sergeant insists that he sleep on the bottom bunk of a holding cell for the night. On the top bunk is none other than Sid, who starts singing loudly.

Quotes
(The students are at Giovanni and Max's flat, wondering where Mr. Brown is.)

Giovanni: He said he was gonna have a bath.

Ali: Oh blimey! Maybe he's gone down the plughole.

Taro: (Obviously tipsy.) Japanese philosopher say..."When-o a person-o is not here...he must be somewhere else."

Jamila: We must also be go.

Ali: Yes.

Jamila: Ah, masterji, Ali is be let me watch his television.

Ali: Yes, we are not wanting to miss Starkers & Crutch.

Ranjeet: A thousand apologies.

Mr. Brown: Why? What have you done?

Ranjeet: Nothing. It is what I am going to be doing.

Trivia

 * The sergeant is played by Fraser Kerr, who also voices the commentator at the betting shop in "Many Happy Returns".
 * There is a plot hole at the end of this episode. When Mr. Brown opens the balcony doors and finds Max and Giovanni outside, they tell him that their neighbour mistook them for burglars when they knocked on her window. Max then says he needs to go and get the beer, but Mr. Brown volunteers to get it and gets arrested for climbing through the window of Miss Partridge's flat. Considering that Max and Giovanni never set foot in her flat and Mr. Brown obviously knew there was no burglar after talking to them, there was no reason for him to enter her flat.
 * It's possible that Max and Giovanni entered Miss Partridge's flat through the French window, since she says it was unlocked. This would explain why the beer was in there, but could open another plot hole. Why did they loiter in their neighbour's flat drinking beer after she called the police and went next door? Why didn't they just walk out the front door of her flat and then try to get back into their own flat through its front door?