Toast

Toast is the 16th and final episode of Dinnerladies. It is also the 10th and final episode of the second series. This episode is set on 29th February 2000.

Synopsis
The staff have new uniforms and feel stupid. Bren is nervous about her going on Totally Trivial to try to win £10,000 to the point that she thinks about taking different pills offered to her by her friends. When everyone but Bren finds out about the shutting of the canteen, the dream of moving to Scotland makes Tony rant at her. What will happen to the others when the canteen closes? Will Bren win £10,000? All we know is that an even bigger shock is in store for Bren and hope can be found in the least likely places.

Plot
After trying on the new uniforms, Bren tries to reassure Tony about the new uniform but he is still not impressed. At that very moment, Norman the breadman enters to deliver the bread and claims that bowties make you infertile and states that it works the other way around and that a side-effect of a vasectomy is laryngitis. Tony tells him that it doesn't matter due to him being infertile anyway. Norman then states that he has worse problems due to him having fallen off a diving board in Guernsey, leading Bren to tell him to stop repeating it.

Tony tells Norman that Bren is going to try to win £10,000 later on and that Bren's special topic is Film. At that moment, Jean and Dolly arrive. Norman tests Brenda with "Which Monroe was a baker?" to which Bren answers "Marilyn Monroe" as Baker was her surname. Norman tells her that she is wrong and that the answer is Matt Monroe but is soon corrected by Jean when she tells him that Matt Monroe was a bus driver. Norman concedes and tells them that he might come back to watch, depending on his pancreas before leaving.

Jean states how hideous the new uniforms are says that she'll look like "an orthopedic mattress" and Tony tells them to try them on. Dolly is disturbed by the idea of wearing dungarees. While the two of them are getting changed, Tony tests Bren again and after getting it right, she reveals how she feels nervous after he told her the night before, whilst drunk, that if she doesn't win, their future looks grim. Stan then enters slightly late after a watch that Jean gave him is faulty but he daren't change it because he thinks it's a romantic gesture.

Stan then says that he feels so strongly for Jean that he wants to marry her but also because he'd like to reorganise her garage, to which Tony asks him whether it's a euphemism. He enquires about Bren's mum to which Bren reveals that she's on a drip in hospital. Twinkle and Anita then appear to both test Bren even though Anita looks at the wrong answer in the back of the quiz book.

Then Jean and Dolly reveal themselves in the new uniforms and after Stan asks whether she knows what day it is, she says "It's big bum day." to which Stan decides to disinfect his drains after asking Bren a totally unrelated quiz question.

Time passes and they're busy working away before shutters going up. A dispute opens up about whether Bren should take the bus with Tony offering to take her. The conversation moves to Stars in their Eyes. When asked about whether getting her yoghurts out by Tony, Anita confuses the meaning for breasts. Tony responds that he really was referring to yoghurt but also if she wanted to get her breasts out that it would be welcomed.

Jane pops her head under the shutters so they open them early and tells her that she dislikes the new uniforms before telling Bren how amazingly she did on the show last time. Tony goes for a cigarette while Jane and Bren talk about winning the money and possibly having to save up for Scotland. Jane nearly releases a secret but stops herself by moving the topic to possible quiz questions. Jane then gives Bren some tranquilisers to calm her down. After telling Jane that there's no toast, Bren is told to give the tranquilisers back so that she can make it through the rest of the day but she forgets as she gets the phone.

Twink comes to Jane and Jane reveals to the rest of them about the closing of the canteen. More time passes and the canteen workers bar Bren contemplate being jobless. Phillippa enters and asks him for the video and TV equipment, contrary to what she said the day before. Meanwhile Bren tells Twink that she's nervous and Twink tells her that she was disappointed with the lap dancing auditions after being told that she had to smile at the same time.

Tony rushes in to tell Bren that the hospital has just rung up to say that her mother thinks that she is dying but Bren tells him that she says that every time she rings up. She decides that she has a few minutes before going to Totally Trivial to visit her. Tony stops her from worrying by stating that it's just a stupid quiz. Tony is called over by Phillippa who reveals the plans to build offices in the canteen. Meanwhile Stan gives Bren his cat's pills used to calm it down.

With this news, Tony goes straight back to Bren in the kitchen and tells her in a stressed voice that she has to win that money, which makes her think that he's shouting at her. Time passes again and Stan pushes the TV into the kitchen so that they can watch the show, along with Phillippa, Norman, Big Glenda and Jane. When the programme starts they find out that Bren wasn't on. It appears that she has chickened out. They then realise that she could have reacted to the many medications that she took and Tony thinks that it could be his fault for shouting at her.

When everyone seperates, Bren walks in with a bag of dirty laundry and a tape. She tells them that she never got to the studios in the first place and that she was busy at the hospital, getting her mother a drink. She revealed that her mother had passed away. She allows Dolly to throw away the dirty laundry and she puts in the skip. Bren reveals that the doctors told her that her mother's real name was in fact the same as hers. They realise that Bren was named after her mother.

They decide to play the video of Petula's last wishes. The tape is crudely recorded over a wildlife documentary and shows her in her hospital bed just before death. She apologises to Bren for being a poor mother and she gives her some useless information about her father. She tells her that an old flame of hers who was arrested for murder had died and could not, therefore, reclaim a little "package" that he had asked her to take care of.

After finding out that she folded the "package"- which she revealed is a considerable amount of money- inside her blanket, they rushed to fetch the bag from the bin truck but Stan says that it's too late. It's then that Bren is told that the canteen is closing. Suddenly, Twink spots that Stan's watch is wrong and they rush to the skip just in time to find the bag. They take a look inside and find £50 notes in wads in the blanket and she starts to hand it out to help her co-workers. Her and Tony decide to make a go of it in Scotland and Jean agrees to marry Stan.