1991

S1.E1 ∙ Leader of the Pack

Mon, Sep 02, 1991

Harassed Bill Porter juggles working in a bakery with her sex-mad friend Rona with looking after lazy husband Ben, a plumber and their children Jenny and David. Bill is called to Jenny's school where the headmaster - in costume for a Gilbert and Sullivan show - tells her that Jenny has been truanting. It turns out that Jenny has been seeing a biker called Spin. However Bill herself keeps running into - literally - an attractive biker,Angelo,who suggests they go away together. She declines as her family comes first and feels it would be hypocritical to chastise Jenny in the circumstances.

7.3 /10

S1.E2 ∙ Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Mon, Sep 09, 1991

Bill is fed up as Ben is too tired for sex and keeps nodding off whilst watching television, noone helps with the housework and she confides in Rona her feelings for Angelo the biker. Ben decides that as a break for Bill they have Sunday dinner at his sister Tina's house but Tina's husband drags Ben off to the pub leaving the women to do the cooking and Bill has a row with Tina, who accuses her of being a bad parent by going out to work and hitting David for bringing his pet rat into the house. Bill drives off in anger, only to realize she cannot technically drive. Fortunately Angelo appears and guides her home.

7.5 /10

S1.E3 ∙ When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping

Mon, Sep 16, 1991

Ben is concerned when he has to visit the tax inspector but is delighted to find he has been granted a rebate. Bill goes to the supermarket to shop for Ben's barbecue but,after giving chase to a thief,is mistakenly arrested herself. However seeing Angelo on the CCTV system she is given the strength to stand up to the rude store detective and is allowed to go. The barbecue is nonetheless a disaster,leading Jenny to declare that she is going to be a vegetarian whilst Bill and Rona phone a number left on Ben's van,which they hope will be Angelo but it is only one of Ben's clients.

7.3 /10

S1.E4 ∙ Love and Marriage

Mon, Sep 23, 1991

Bill's mother Bette comes on one of her dreaded visits,bringing Jenny a taffeta dress and a video nasty for David. To their annoyance Bill and Ben are ordered out of their bedroom and when Bill comes home from work early she discovers why. Bette is in bed with an old flame. After the initial row the two women have a heart-to-heart with Bill wondering if she is turning into her mother. Whilst the prospect of eloping with Angelo again comes up Ben finds his latest customer is a former girlfriend.

7.7 /10

S1.E5 ∙ Dirty Bowling

Mon, Sep 30, 1991

Bill is feeling harassed again and Ben is no help with his frequent visits to his work-shop. Stressed out by work at the bakery and her efforts to pass her driving test she misses the signs when an unhappy Jenny splits with her boyfriend. Fortunately Rona is on hand to cheer Jenny up with her considerable experiences with men whilst Ben takes Bill bowling. However Bill is shocked to find that Ben has blown his rebate on a 1960 Chevrolet,not the best vehicle in which to take her test after being used to an Austin.

7.4 /10

S1.E6 ∙ Young at Heart

Mon, Oct 07, 1991

After Ben's spending the rebate on the car money is tight. Bill's seedy boss Rory Castell will not give her an advance and her grinning personal banker Dawn refuses a loan. Whilst parked at the bank she gets boxed in and again Angelo comes to rescue her. She goes to visit the family of a boy who has befriended David and seeing that they live on a poor housing estate comes to count her blessings whilst Ben's efforts to teach David the facts of life with a girlie magazine fail as David knows them already. After Castell makes slimy advances to Bill and Rona they persuade him to strip and leave him tied up in the bakery,giving their notice. When Bill tells Ben she is jobless he offers to sell the car but she sees how much it means to him and dissuades him.

7.7 /10