Hard to Swallow is the eighth episode of Series 3 of Shaun the Sheep. It was originally broadcast on 5 December 2012 in Germany, and in the UK on 5 March 2013 on CBBC.
Synopsis[]
The Flock are delighted when a birdwatcher drops his duck call in their field and Shaun uses it to entertain them. But when he swallows it, Bitzer try to think of ways to get it out of his mouth.
Plot[]
The episode begins with a man bird-watching in the pasture. He takes a bite of his sandwich which grabs the attention of Shirley. She walks towards the man to eat his sandwich and soon the whole flock gathers around him while he was still looking through his binoculars. Reaching for his sandwich but instead touching Shirley's face, the man notices the flock surrounding him and he decides to pack up and leave, dropping his duck call when he fell over the fence. Shaun sees and picks up the duck call. He blows on it much to the amusement of the sheep. While playing around with it, the sound from the duck call misled three nearby ducklings. Instead of crossing the street with their actual mother, the ducklings went to Shaun. The mother duck goes up to Shaun and confronts him. Shaun returns her ducklings and mother duck sweeps his legs with her purse making him fall while the pigs laugh. Shaun accidentally swallows the duck call and when he got up to yell at the pigs only quacks came out. Worried, Shaun goes to Bitzer for help. Bitzer tries a variety of methods such as shaking Shaun upside down and performing Heimlich maneuver. Unfortunately, none work and they unintentionally make Shaun quack causing him to attract the ducklings multiple times and as a result get beat up by their mother. Seeing no other way, Bitzer carries Shaun towards the barn where the flock was waiting to cut him open. Terrified, Shaun ran for his life while the flock chased after him. He unknowingly runs towards mother duck who hits him in the stomach with her purse sending the duck call flying out of Shaun's mouth into the pig's slop bucket. The farmer feeds the slop to the pigs and one of them swallows the duck call, making a quack sound while chewing. Bitzer finds a duckling in his beanie and him and Shaun have a laugh. Mother duck approaches the two angry that one of her ducklings is with Bitzer. While she's swinging her purse ready to hit him, the pigs laugh but forget that one of them swallowed the duck call. The quacks from the pigs makes mother duck chase after them instead and they all get beat up. Shaun and Bitzer laugh and the episode ends.