The Tap and the Plug Old Jack's Boat

Good day to you.

# This is the place to be

# For Salty Dog and me

# Down by the harbour we'll be there

# Round every corner there's something to share

# Give us a cheer, our friends are here

# Just Salty Dog and me. #

Ha ha! Come on, Salty.

# This is the place to meet

# Down at the end of the street

# Seagulls flying up in the blue

# There's always a cup of tea waiting for you

# Out in the sun, having some fun, just Salty Dog and me

# Haul away, haul away, sing the song of the sea

# Hoist the sail, I'll tell you a tale of Salty Dog and me. #

# This is the place to go

# And these are the people we know

# The village is busy with things to see

# And there's the rainbow down by the quay

# The stories to tell, join us as well, just Salty Dog and me. #

-All right, Ernie, all right?

-Ha ha! I'm fine, thank you, Jack.

-Couldn't be better.

-Good. How's business?

-Oh, buzzing. Sam's sorting me out a new sign.

-Oh, yeah?

Yeah, she's putting up a sign to my stall

so that people will read it and come and buy lots of fish.

-What a good idea.

-She's over there, now.

-What?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Come on, Salty, we'll go and investigate.

-See you later, Jack.

-Ta-ra.

JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS

Hello, Sam. Oh, Jack, good to see you. I must ask you to stand back.

Oh, yeah. Do you need a hand?

No, this is a job for a professional. You're best standing back.

Oh!

-Oh, I'll have this sign up in no time.

-Yeah. It's a nice sign.

Yes, it is.

Do you know, I expect people will be flocking to Ernie's stall

-once you've...

-Put the sign up?

Listen, are you sure you don't need an extra hand?

-Jack, this is a one-woman job.

-Righto.

I'm sure you're doing a splendid job.

-Yes, I'm off to polish my...

-Furniture?

-No, my...

-Knick-knacks?

-No, no, my telescope.

-Oh! Good job.

-Right, back to work.

-I'd better be getting off as well.

-I'll see you later. Come on, Salty.

-See you, Jack.

Oh!

There she is, the Rainbow. But what have you got for us today, my dear?

HORN TOOTS

Hey, hey, come on, Salty.

# De-dee, de-dee. #

Here we are.

JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS

There we are, Salty, in your bed. Good girl. Right, there we are.

Now then. Let's clean that telescope, eh? Yeah.

Oh, I can't even see the sea!

Do you know, there was a day when we couldn't see the sea.

Do you remember? Eh? Let me get comfortable.

See if I can remember it. Yeah. The telescope, yeah, it'll have to wait.

Once upon a twinkly time at low tide,

when the sea had waved goodbye to Staithes,

the Rainbow was perched on the muddy sea bed,

looking like it was having a nap.

"Where's the sea? Where's it gone?" wondered Salty.

"It's all right, it's all right." I reassured her.

"The sea always comes back." Twice a day, the sea goes out.

That's low tide. And then comes back in again. That's high tide.

But on this particular day,

the sea did seem to have disappeared completely.

Gone, vanished into thin...mud. This was serious.

"Come on," I said. "We need to find the sea."

Urgh!

So off we squelched through the mud. Urgh!

"Have you seen the sea?" I asked a passing seagull.

"Not since someone pulled the plug out." he cried.

Salty said, "We should never listen to seagulls."

but I remembered something.

Pulled the plug out. "That's it!" I said.

You see, not everyone knows this.

Somewhere in the middle of the ocean is an enormous plughole,

just like the one in your bath, but huge.

We needed to find the plug and put it back in the plughole and fast.

And as we squelched along, we came across our friend, Bluey.

"All right?" He wasn't happy.

Whales need the sea to swim around and keep cool

and blow bubbles at fish.

"Don't worry." I said. "We're going to put the sea plug back in,

"so the sea can fill up again."

We carried on trudging through the sludge and muddling through the mud

until, in the middle of the vast ocean, we found the sea plughole.

And above it was a huge sea tap.

And there, swinging the massive plug,

twirling it round and round like a toy,

was our old friend, Charlie the squid.

I said, "Hello."

And he looked at me,

then he pulled two bunches of seaweed out of his ears. Pop!

"That's better." he said.

Salty wanted to know why he had pulled the sea's plug out.

"I'm in charge of the tides." said Charlie.

"When I pull the plug out, the sea goes away, that's low tide.

"Then when I put the plug back in the hole, the giant tap

"up there is turned on and whoosh, the sea fills up again.

"That's high tide."

"Well," I said, "Please put the plug back in so the sea can fill up.

"You're upsetting the fish."

So Charlie popped the enormous sea plug back in.

BOING!

Now all we had to do was turn on the giant tap.

"Ah!" grumbled Charlie. "It's Fred you want to speak to, not me."

"Fred?" I said.

"Fred is my brother.

"It's his job to turn on the sea tap to fill the sea up again."

And Charlie started to put the seaweed back in his ears.

Salty wondered why Charlie was doing this and Charlie sighed.

"Hm...it's Fred." he said.

"Whenever he turns that tap on, he sings really loud and really badly.

"It's the same every day.

"It's so annoying that I'm not speaking to him now."

Well, we left Charlie and decided to find Fred.

Well, Fred was perched high on a rock beside the giant tap

but no water was flowing out. Fred was very upset.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Normally I can turn the big sea tap on but today, it's stuck.

"I can't ask my smelly brother to help

"because he never listens to me." he said, crossly.

"That's not very kind of you, to call him smelly."

"Well, he does, he smells of seaweed." said Fred.

"That's probably because of the seaweed in his ears." thought Salty.

But this was no time for complaining.

We needed to fill the sea again.

Salty and I decided to help.

We tried turning the tap.

It really was stuck fast.

And as we tried, Fred started singing too and let me tell you,

it was the worst singing ever.

We tried and we tried, but the tap wouldn't budge.

In the end, Salty had to ask Fred to stop singing

as it was so annoying.

"Sorry!" said Fred.

So I called out to Charlie below,

"Come and help your brother turn his tap."

But Charlie had seaweed in his ears and couldn't hear.

Salty and I realised we needed to sort this out.

"Look," I said to Fred. "You work very well when you're apart,

"but right now you need to work together.

"If you promise to stop your singing, then maybe Charlie

"will take his seaweed out and come and help."

Fred wasn't sure, but he knew that the tap had to get turned.

"All right." he agreed.

So Salty nipped down to ask Charlie to take the seaweed out of his ears.

When he heard that Fred had promised not to sing,

Charlie agreed to help and made his way up to the giant tap.

Now, the four of us attempted to turn the tap together.

It took all our might but after lots of heaving and ho-ing,

there was a trickle

and then a gurgling and a gargling

and a fizzy pop and an almighty splash.

The sea tap was flowing again.

The tide could come back in.

And soon the ocean was filling up and Bluey floated to the surface

and blew a sigh of relief through his blowhole.

The fish swam freely once more and the Rainbow was bobbing up

and down again. Ha ha ha.

"I couldn't have done it without you, Charlie." said Fred.

"You're the best brother in the world."

"Really?" said Charlie. "So are you, Fred."

"I promise I won't sing unless you ask me." said Fred.

"And I promise not to put seaweed in my ears

"and then I'll be able to hear you if you need me." said Charlie.

Then Fred and Charlie gave each other a big squiddy hug.

They were friends again.

HE CHUCKLES

JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS

Did you like that story, Salty?

Eh? All true, of course.

Mind you, my stories always are.

Oh, look!

Dear.

Come on.

JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYS

JACK CHUCKLES

-Jack, Salty!

-Are you still having trouble with the...?

Sign, yes, it's trickier than I thought.

You know, sometimes jobs are much easier done by...

A large team of builders with lots of heavy equipment?

No, done by two people helping each other.

Here, let me hold this up. Just a minute. Here you are.

-I'll hold this up.

-Well, it might just work, I suppose.

Yeah, well, what do you think? Go on.

BOING, BOING, BOING!

-Yeah.

-It's perfect!

Thank you, Jack.

Sam Spinnaker, that sign is perfect.

It's going to get wet though.

CLOCK CHIMES

-The tide's coming in.

-Oh.

-Why don't you put it up on the harbour side?

It shouldn't take you too long.

Yeah, never mind, Sam. I'll help you. Come on.

-You see, two pairs of hands are better than...

-A pig in a poke?

-No.

-A stitch in time?

-No, they are better than one.

Oh, yes. So they are. What would we do without you, Jack?

I don't know, ready? Two, three. Come on then.

-It's a good thing Ernie came down, isn't it?

-Oh, yeah.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd