by R.F. Delderfield.
[Starring] Thora Hird
The action of the play takes place in the Brixton branch of Carter Brooke's Drapery Emporium at the time of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
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One could hardly call the staff of Sir Oswald Carter Brooke's Drapery Emporium (the Brixton branch) in 1897 a contented team. There is Emmie Slee, eldest of the women assistants we meet in the room which is used as dining and rest room for the staff during business hours - Emmie whose courage and kindness does not hide her obvious ill-health; and Esta Muirhead, independent-minded, but already over thirty and wondering whether to make a loveless marriage; and the dragon-like Mrs. Peel who 'has personal access to Sir Oswald', and so terrorises the girls; and Mr. Frisby, the vulgar, bullying manager; and Eustace Wallasy with his quiff and silly drawl and fear of Mr. Frisby; and Roger Higgins, another assistant, shy except when it comes to expressing his 'advanced' political beliefs.

Perhaps the only member of the staff as yet untouched by disillusion is Kitty Tape, seventeen years old and an orphan; and perhaps that is why Roger so clearly loves her. But whether contented or not, the staff must all stand and serve twelve hours a day to the greater glory of Carter Brooke's. Only this is the year of the Diamond Jubilee, and it 'happens that one of the old Queen's processional tours of the suburbs will pass beneath the Emporium's windows; which in turn leads to a window-dressing competition and a situation that sets the staff's collective and individual problems in relief. (Peter Currie)