The T-Room
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Wonders in Letterland

Episode 10 (Back to Square One)

First transmitted 6.6.1985



 

 

 

 

Still in the Land of E, we see Debbie break the T-Plant and throw it away and then then cliffhanger from the last episode.

T-Bag appears and threatens the pair of them. T-Bag orders T-Shirt to grab Debbie and snatch the letters. T-Shirt tells he will do a deal with her, but T-Bag refuses. T-Shirt then tells her that she is standing on an ants nest, and T-Bag starts panicking. Whilst she is reacting, the children run off. T-Bag then realises that it was a trick and decides to beat them to the first square. She tries to magic herself there, but her powers have gone. She hitches up her skirts and runs after them.

We then see Debbie and T-Shirt running back though the board game. They are accosted again in the Land of R by Rascally Roger, who demands that they hand him back his gold, but they tell him that they have a stamp for him that is far more valuable. He demands that instead, so T-Shirt stamps on his foot and they scoot off past him.

They finally arrive back at the first square and run straight into the Gardener. He panics when he sees T-Shirt, but Debbie reassures him. She tells him that T-Bag is right behind them, so they hide in the bushes. T-Bag arrives and then goes off in search of them to get the letters.

The trio come back out from the bushes. Debbie gets the letters out of her bag, and she asks the Gardener what to do with them. The Gardener doesn't know and they all get downhearted. The Gardener reaches for his hanky, but he pulls out his picturebook that he ran off to get in the first episode (when he wanted a picture of T-Bag). Debbie asks if she could have a look and it turns out to be the rules of "Wonders in Letterland". They read the bit that tells them what to do with all the letters:

Once you've found the missing letters

You're almost home and dry.

Just one more test;

Stand close to the chest,

And throw the letters to the sky.

 

Debbie does this, but the letters come raining back down on her. They are all puzzled as to why the chest doesn't work. As they are gathering them back up, they hear a tutting. They look up and see T-Bag standing there. T-Bag announces that they will never complete the legend. She turns to T-Shirt and offers him one last chance to come and work for her, but he refuses. Debbie crows that T-Bag is on her own now and nobody wants to help her.

T-Bag admits that it may be true that she hasn't got any friends, but she does have five golden letter T's which she brandishes at Debbie. Debbie is dismayed that she hasn't found and isn't likely to get all the letters. She admits that T-Bag has won and tells the others that she is going to give T-Bag all the letters. T-Shirt tells her not to be daft, but Debbie says that she has come to her senses at long last. The others plead with her, but she hands over the letters to T-Bag. She then gets herself accepted by T-Bag as her new T-Caddy. She starts ordeing the others around and being really evil. Eventually, T-Bag says that they should go back to the T-Room to begin her training. Debbie offers to carry the "heavy" bag of gold letters, as a delicate lady like T-Bag should not be allowed to carry such a heavy load. T-Bag obliges and the pair head off back through the tree roots to find the T-Room. Debbie turns back and dashes back to the chest. T-Bag comes back, demanding that she follows her, but then she realises that Debbie has tricked her again.

Debbie stands close to the chest and throws the bag of letters into the sky. The bag vanishes and the letters appear on the chest to complete the legend. It reads:

 

THE ANSWER'S PLAIN FOR IT SHALL BE

FIVE AND TWENTY IS THE KEY

 

Debbie is disappointed that they have another puzzle to solve. The gardener suggest adding 5 and 20 to give 25. Debbie says that there are 26 letters in the alphabet, so T-Shirt asks what the 25th one is. Debbie tells him that it is Y. She then says that she thinks they are on the wrong track.

T-Shirt then suggests that 5 and 20 might be separate and make up the key. Debbie goes through the alphabet and finds that the numbers in the clue refer to E and T. She takes the letters off the chest and sticks them together to find that it makes a key. She puts the key in the lock under the I in "PLAIN" and it turns.

The chest flies open and smoke and red light stream out of it. The sky fills with fireworks, which in turn dissolve into a cartoon of various flying leters spelling out words (such as cat, dog, truck, apple, ball, fish, ship, etc) which turn into pictures of what they have spelled out. We then see T-Bag crying by the tree because she has been beaten by a "mere slip of a girl". She realises that now everyone will be able to read and she will have no power over them. It makes her feel so ordinary, especially because she has no magic.

T-Shirt then offers to give her one more chance and come back to work for him because he still has his magic. T-Bag thinks this is ridiculous because he is useless at using magic. Whilst she is slagging him off, he makes her lose her voice. He then sends her back to the T-Room where she belongs.

Debbie then thinks back over her adventures, and we see clips from all of the episodes in the series.

She is brought out of her daydream by the voice of Thomas's Grandad telling her that it is time to shut the shop. Debbie asks him how much it would be to buy the game, but the shopkeeper tells her that it is not for sale. He tells her that he is more than welcome to come in and play it any time.

We then hear Thomas's voice calling to his Grandad and he comes rushing in in his school uniform having just arrived home. Debbie is amazed to see him, but when she calls him T-Shirt, he doesn't know what she's talking about.

The Shopkeeper tells her to hurry along because it is time to close, so she bids them all farewell and leaves.

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