Pauline Paradise retires from her lollipop-lady job, but only teacher Peter Bachman seems to miss her. Her selfish, lazy husband Ken is as negative as ever, while elder son Kevin, a firefighter, is obsessed with his daughter's christening and his pub-quiz team, roping in sister Heather and her spouse Charlie for the latter. When not preparing for her flamenco contest, Heather is more concerned with getting pregnant, while her brother Martin and his wife Michelle are overrun with offspring. Kevin's conceit loses his team the quiz and its prize money, so he steals from the pub till to fund his son Nathan's rugby trip to France, ashamed to tell wife Sarah he is to be made redundant, though she finds out anyway. After Pauline's father Frank dies in an accident, Ken's blank reaction propels her, inspired by a Dylan Thomas poem in a book given her by Peter, to move in with her sister Rowan and her married lover Tommy.
Stars: Alison Steadman, Duncan Preston, David Ryall
Director(s): Debbie Isitt
Writer(s): Stewart Harcourt