JOYCE   (hardly able to believe her ears) What would we like, Mother? Steak?
Mother nods eagerly.

BARRACLOUGH   Certainly.
Lifting a large flank of steak onto the counter, he proceeds to cut them a thick juicy slice.
All right?
Joyce and Mother cannot believe their luck. Parcelling up the steak, Barraclough pushes it to them across the counter. Then suddenly Wormold strides into the shop, his parcel open in his hand.

WORMOLD   Right. That’s it. Cease trading. Would you all kindly leave the premises?

JOYCE   Why?

WORMOLD   Horse, madam. Horse.

JOYCE   Horse!
Joyce is horrified. Not so Mother.

MOTHER   I don’t mind.

WORMOLD   Out, everybody. Out.
Wormold is shoving them out, when Mother slips past and tries to take their parcel off the counter.
Touch that, madam, and you’re an accessory.

JOYCE   She’s seventy-four. Horse!
As chaos grows, Joyce pushes Mother out through the mêlée.

INT. BARRACLOUGH’S SHOP. DAY.

Wormold and Barraclough, both somewhat white-faced, are alone in the shop, the doors of which are now locked. Outside, pressing their faces against the windows, are the angry housewives. They are in a very ugly mood, shouting and banging on the glass. The housewives break a window. Wormold rattles the phone up and down, trying to get a line. He sighs and drops it back onto its cradle as he sees the police car draw up, and Inspector Noble and PC Penny get out.

INT. BARRACLOUGH’S SHOP. DAY.

Once in, Inspector Noble and PC Penny experience the same fear of the angry, shouting crowd banging and pressing against the glass.

WORMOLD   (definitively) It’s horsemeat!

BARRACLOUGH   They eat it in Belgium.

WORMOLD   We’re not in Belgium.

BARRACLOUGH   They ate rats in Stalingrad.
They prepare to force their way out.

INSPECTOR NOBLE   (looking accusingly at Wormold) These used to be ordinary decent people.
They begin to force their way to the police car.

INT. ALLARDYCE’S OFFICE. DAY.

Standing at the window with a cup of coffee, Allardyce is watching Gilbert on the Parade below. Gilbert is standing in the middle of the road, waving his arms about. Finishing his coffee, Allardyce glances at his watch, then takes his coat from the stand and puts it on.

Slightly surreptitiously, he takes a parcel wrapped in newspaper and puts it in his attaché case. Then, taking his empty coffee cup with a biscuit in the saucer, he goes into the outer office.

His secretary Dorothy is sitting there, also watching Gilbert. Allardyce puts his cup and saucer down.

ALLARDYCE   Should the telephone ring, Dorothy, I’ve gone to see a client. (He is going out.)

DOROTHY   Mr Allardyce.
Allardyce stops.
Are you not eating this ginger nut?
Allardyce shakes his head. He goes out and closes the door. Dorothy has just taken the ginger nut and is about to dunk it in her coffee when the door opens.