Court Calamities

## Summary

Fred and Bobby are sent to court for a crime they didn't know they commited.

## Plot

The episode begins at The Grand High Court Of Smileton County's court building, where people are already filing in to watch the court case. Everyone stands up for the entrance of Judge Wendyville, who hurries haphazardly in and interrupts the announcing of his lengthy title to get the case over with.

As the judge is declaring what they are here to discuss in court, he is interrupted by a disorderly lawyer running in and demanding if the court is for a burglary. After a conversation with the judge, he finds that the court he was looking for, court four, should be this one, but he is interrupted by a policeman who is tries to get him to leave. They argue further, while Bobby asks Fred why the judge is wearing a dress. The judge calls for order in the court, and demands everyone be seated. This involves the lawyer too, so the policeman tries to sit him down as well, preceding a short argument from the lawyer that is silence by the judge again.

Judge Wendyville then carries on with explaining the case: the defendants Fred and Bobby are charged with the criminal act of knocking down Miss Cheshire's shopping trolley and causing damage. According to an act passed in 1723, this is a serious offence and should be punished severely for the cause of attempted burglary. Fred and Bobby both plead innocent, Bobby comparing the situation with a 'banana on stilts' and the judge getting all confused. After questioning to do so, Fred explains his part of the story in the case.

The day before, Ted had been preparing to go out with a presumably new hat, but in doing so, had been discouraged by a bump on the head with Bobby's homemade hot-air balloon, flown from the roof by Fred and Bobby. After lamenting the failure of the balloon, Fred gets out a 'Saturday Fun List' with items of fun written by each of the brothers. Fred reads to the bottom and finds that the second-to-last fun item was to listen to Bobby's new clarinet song. Bobby gets out his clarinet and immediately begins, but the song is so bad and painful to hear, Fred stops him half-way and goes onto the next item; a bicycle race. They both get on their bicycles, and begin the race.

As the flashback ends, Fred tells the judge how fun it was, Bobby agreeing with him. However, when the judge asks them whether they are guilty or not of purposely knocking down Miss Cheshire's shopping trolley, Fred is confused. Ted then appears in the case as their attorney and pleads to the judge that his brothers would never do anything like that because he knows them very well. The judge then asks him if he has any evidence to back his point up, of which Ted has none unfortunately. The judge summons the witnesses, one of which who is Mrs Oldham. She explains how she saw 'Wilton and Bobert Somethingrather' purposely cycle into Miss Cheshire's shopping trolley with her own two eyes, but is silenced by the judge when she begins to excessively describe the cake Miss Cheshire was going to make. The judge then summons the next witness; Charlie the Spider. Charlie describes the events of what he suspected to be a burglary across the road, but is interrupted by the judge who states that his point is an abstraction to the case they are discussing.

The lawyer then starts arguing again, since Charlie is describing the case the lawyer was actually meant to be going to. The court then spirals into a big argument again, with Mrs Oldham explaining about her garden's blackberries, but they are all quickly silenced again by the judge, who demands if Charlie knows a single thing about the case they are discussing. It turns out that Charlie and the lawyer both went to the wrong Court Four, and the lawyer continues to argue about his presence being needed there. The court goes yet again into a state of disorder and argument, and as the lawyer and the policeman start fighting, the judge calls for order yet again, complaining about how everyone won't shut up. He is quickly irritated again by the lawyer, who begins to argue again, but he is told to 'quiet down' by the policeman, who the judge thanks. He then summons for the jury's verdict on the case, but the only member who answers is a postman, since the other members are a busy businessman and a dog. The postman then explains that he saw all of the events take place, and describes them to the court.

In his flashback, it is the day before again. The postman is delivering his parcels and letters to Sylvester Avenue, when he notices something. In the street, all the soon-to-be members of the court are present, but with Mrs Oldham cleaning her glasses and Miss Cheshire walking down the street with her shopping trolley. As it goes over a stone, however, a banana skin falls out and lands on the road. The postman then hears a bicycle bell, and turns around to see Fred and Bobby cycling rapidly down the street in their bicycle race. Miss Cheshire is trying to open her front door, but when she gets out her key, her shopping trolley falls over and all the shopping falls out, however this is unbeknownst to her because she is too focused on getting the key in her front door's lock. Meanwhile, Fred and Bobby race into the street, but both slip on the banana skin and crash into each other next to the fallen shopping. Miss Cheshire, hearing the noise, turns around and is shocked to find that all her shopping is spilled on her lawn. She immediately blames the nearest people, who are Fred and Bobby, and begins to tell them that she will tell the police about them. As the postman is left shocked at the events, the flashback ends.

The postman, concluding his description, then blames the stone in the road for committing the crime. The judge is left startled, and questions why the postman wasn't enlisted as a witness to the events. Not expecting an answer, he quickly goes on to ask the attorney in defence, Ted, what he has gathered. Ted, using his detective-like intelligence then provides an explanation in the case; Mrs Oldham, the primary witness to the events, was cleaning her glasses, so she could not have seen the events unfold clearly enough. The businessman was too busy working, the dog can't speak and Fred and Bobby did not know they had slipped because they were cycling. Miss Cheshire was unlocking her door and only turned around after the incident occurred, so only the postman is a reliable witness to the events because he had no distractions, therefore concluding that Fred and Bobby must be innocent from his point of view.

Mrs Oldham immediately argues, saying how she really did see everything and that Fred and Bobby are guilty. The lawyer asks if he can leave, but the policeman tells him to be quiet, causing them to argue. The whole courtroom then descends into a catastrophic chaos of arguing and shouting, with the postman shouting through a megaphone and Mrs Oldham waving her umbrella around. This time, not even the judge can silence the court, and giving up on trying to reclaim order, immediately announces that 'Wilfred and Robert Whatstheirname' are declared free of charges, and leaves grumpily to go home. Fred, Ted and Bobby all cheer, and the episode ends.

## Trivia

* This episode was originally written as a musical comedy, but since Owen Steel can’t sing, the music had to be removed, which explains why the episode isn’t as ridden with jokes and puns as usual.
* The brothers and their neighbours' street they live on is revealed to be called Sylvester Avenue, and apparently faces the housing estate park.
* This episode shows the Smileton High Court for the first time and also how unfair the system is.
* Bobby is shown to also have an identical bicycle to Fred's.
* Charlie the Spider's theme song from The Treehouse is used again.
* Harold Poshington, the hotel manager of Hotel De Poshington in Ring For Nonsense, appears again as an audience member in the court.
* The postcode of the brothers' house is '*42 Sylvester Avenue, Pringleton Housing Estate, Smileton County, CT6 10JZ*'.
	+ '*CT6 10JZ*' is not an actual postcode.
* This is the first time an episode's plot has entirely taken place inside a single environment.
* More of the brothers' surname is revealed to be 'Wil', and more evidence about it is shown. Both the judge and Mrs Oldham have trouble remembering the surname, therefore presenting it as quite forgettable and hard to say.
* Charlie the Spider plays another role as a supporting character.
* A packet of 'Smile Vege-Pasta' first seen in the episode In A Jam makes a reappearance in Miss Cheshire's shopping.
* Bobby plays his clarinet again, and is equally bad at it as he was before.
* Mrs Oldham appeared earlier in the episode The Treasure Hunt as the old lady Fred accidentally cycled into and knocked down her shopping. This is similar to the case Fred and Bobby were accused of by Miss Cheshire, but since this might have been interpreted as an accident, Mrs Oldham may not have told the police.
	+ This also might explain why she has a grudge against Fred and Bobby in the court.
* Every member of the court from the neighbourhood is visible in the street during the postman's flashback.
* Ted is shown to have an intelligence for detective skills.
* All of the (official) members of the court's full names are revealed on papers on the judge's desk:
	+ **Officials**
		- Judge - *Judge Augustus Wendyville*
	+ **Defendants/Suspects**
		- Fred - *Wilfred 'Fred' Wil-*
		- Bobby - *Robert 'Bobby' Wil-*
	+ **Witnesses**
		- Granny - *Mrs Emily Oldham*
		- Charlie The Spider - *Charles 'Charlie' Spider*
	+ **Jury**
		- Postman - *Peter Wellington*
		- Businessman - *Roger T. Wilderton*
		- Dog - *Bertie*
	+ **Barristers**
		- ***Defence***
			* Ted - *Theodore 'Ted’ Wil.*

* The opening theme plays again during the court's argument at the end of the episode.
* This episode is the first to use Season 3's new version of the theme song.
* The Smileton Postal Service appears for the first time.

***Mistakes***

* During the lawyer's first appearance, his left arm is not coloured in while he shuffles the papers. This is fixed in the next appearance of his arm.
* In the introductive panorama of the courtroom at the very start of the episode, Mrs Oldham's clothes are coloured as dark green. This is later changed to a pinkish-red.