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- Follows the lives of the Porters; a seemingly average family whose world is frequently turned upside-down, due to bad luck and bizarre occurrence.
- When they learn that they are being under-cut by a rival firm Bill and Rona decide to go over to France and buy cheap wine and provisions for their business. However whilst still on the continent they discover that a fox has crept into the back of their van. After several attempts to get rid of the fox they finally succeed and make their way to customs - where the customs officers find sheep in the back of the van.
- With custom falling Ben has become addicted to the Ninja Badgers video game and Bill makes him go cold turkey to break the addiction. Fortunately watching a goldfish David brings home does the trick. Rona attends her old Catholic school to drum up trade for the catering business,lying to an old school-mate about being a respectable charity worker. When the formidable Sister Virtue tells her that liars will burn in Hell she fears she may have unleashed a curse. And she is right. A man dressed as a giant badger to advertise a pet shop has his car stolen from outside the Porters' house and when he arrives at the door it so flusters Ben he accidentally kills the goldfish.
- Ben's hears that his biggest rival in the plumbing trade,Jake the Klingon,has died and with no family has charged Ben with being the executor of his will and planning a lavish funeral with a Star Trek theme. At the same time Bill gets a visit from a health inspector who tells her that her kitchen is not up to standard so she and Rona go to see personal banker Dawn,who - in her irritating sing-song voice - once more tells Bill that no loan will be forthcoming. After a disastrous funeral Ben learns that Jake is actually alive and had made the demands to humiliate him. He decides that the family needs a holiday and,putting the Chevy up as collateral,books a flight to Miami.
- Already bored with her new job Bill also has to look after Ben,down with flu,and has taken in next door's dog,the elderly and flatulent Bonzo. When Bonzo falls ill rather than let him suffer Bill puts him out of his misery with Ben's tablets. Ben is shocked that his wife went behind his back to put Bonzo down and,given that he is also ill,asks whether she would do the same for him. The whole episode brings out a morbid curiosity with death in David,who gives his teddy bear a ritual burial in the back garden.
- Rona is preparing for her wedding to Gordon and the Porters' house is in chaos as Auntie Pearl takes charge. David complains of feeling ill and he and Ben escape to sit in the car whilst Bill goes to see Rona. Through the kitchen window she sees her friend,in her bridal dress,dangling from the ceiling - Rona was changing a light bulb when the ladder fell away. Bill tries to help her by crawling in through a cat flap but gets stuck and eventually both women are rescued by a door-to-door salesman. On returning home Bill finds David has collapsed and Rona lets the Porters take him in her wedding car to the hospital where Dr Brook tells them that the boy has tetanus.
- On Hallowe'en a social worker approves the Porters fostering Declan but tells Bill he has an uncle,Lon,whom he has never heard of. Bill and Ben visit him at the cemetery lodge where he lives and note he has a lot of facial whiskers. When Lon tells Ben that there is a 'curse of the Porters' Ben fears the worst and assumes that the male members of the family are all likely to become werewolves. However,on opening the box of family photos given him by Lon he discovers that in fact he is Jewish.
- Bill is laid up with flu,aware that the household cannot function without her and biding her time by listening in on Jenny's phone calls and spying on Rona in her renewed attempt to get pregnant by Tony - which results in a paranoid Rona believing Tony's ex-wife is stalking him. Ben is looking after Snowball, the Grimes' cat, whilst they are on holiday and ends up crossing town and getting very dirty and dishevelled in pursuit of the wandering feline. He gets it back to the house - but is it Snowball? And if not why is a muffled mewing coming from somewhere in the newly decorated kitchen?
- 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.
- On a Saturday afternoon Jenny comes into the house evidently upset and it becomes apparent that something has happened between herself and Clive. Bill and Rona compete with Ben and David to find out what has happened,Bill ringing Laura to discover that Clive is going to buy a ring. Bill assumes that he is buying Jenny an engagement ring against her wishes but when the family arrives at the shop they find that the ring is for Clive's recent piercing.
- Bill is upset when she learns that the other family members have put the porters forward as subjects for a fly-on-the-wall television documentary as she fears it could harm their application to foster Declan. She thus goes out of the way when the crew arrives to put them off the idea of using the Porters,sending Ben on a silly wild goose chase 'emergency ' call and serving unpalatable food. Eventually she gets her way though the Porters are shocked to find that the family chosen to replace them,the Bakers, are just like them with similar names and a neighbour called Rhoda. Bill believes her brush with fame is over but had reckoned without Ben putting the house forward for 'Changing Rooms'.
- Bill receives a chain letter threatening bad luck if not sent on to others. Against Ben's advice she rips it up but then bad things happen. The builders are involved in a road accident,a client dies,David loses his trunks at the swimming pool and Bill falls out with Rona after accusing her of sending the letter. Eventually the newly-divorced Tina arrives and confesses to sending the letter as she was feeling down and knew that sensible Bill would tear it up as she did not believe in superstition. However Ben is about to make a parachute jump and the woman race to the air base to ensure his safety - only for a different sort of calamity to happen.
- The new kitchen is now complete but Bill is too busy working to listen to Jenny,worried that her performance at the school concert will be overshadowed by the buxom Charlene and her Madonna impression. Fortunately Ben and David come to her rescue as the trio wow the audience with their Blues Brothers number. Bill meanwhile goes to visit Rona and finds two escaped snakes in the living-room. With Tony worn out by Rona and asleep upstairs the two women are trapped against the wall until Bill looks out of the window and sees that her house is on fire. She takes drastic action to escape into the street.
- Unlike the rest of the family Bill is opposed to the National Lottery and only wants to do her paperwork whilst the rest of the Porters watch the live draw and speculate on what they would do with their winnings. She suddenly realizes that she must have washed Ben's jeans without taking the ticket out of the pocket and rushes off with Rona to buy a replacement - which inadvertently causes Clive's parents to get arrested. It seems that Christine actually had Ben's ticket all along but Bill gets a shock when she hears the numbers called.
- Bill is concerned that David's interest in death is not helped by Ben,who,on his way to the school parents' evening,imagines himself to be the Terminator and cuts up a Ford Escort. Discovering that the driver is disabled he feels ashamed but later accepts a challenge to race him - and loses. Bill fears that she may be pregnant again and buys a home testing kit but when one of the testers goes missing and Jenny acts oddly it looks as if Jenny is the one who is expecting. Rona has a talk with her and discovers she is bulimic whilst Ben,who actually took the test for a laugh,finds that he tested as being pregnant.
- Now unemployed, Bill is late for her signing-on appointment thanks to a phone call from Bette, and the car breaks down on the way to the DHSS office. She gets a mechanic to fix it, but he is whisked away by Anneka Rice for her 'Challenge Anneka' television show and Bill gets pulled over by the police pushing the car through a red light. Finally she makes her appointment to be interviewed by the infantile Janice, but eventually agrees to take a job with Rona at a factory supplying catering packs. Meanwhile, Ben takes on an assistant, abrasive Christine, who soon falls out with an arrogant female customer. Back home after her trying day, Bill falls asleep on the settee--missing the local TV news bulletin which reports Angelo's death in a road accident.
- 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.
- 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.
- Tired of being taken for granted by the family Bill agrees to spend a weekend in Scotland with old flame Malcolm,now a big name in Hollywood. Rona covers for her,saying that she is staying with a former school-friend but Ben,watching a golf tournament in Scotland on television,sees Bill and Malcolm in the crowd. He tracks them down and travels to their hotel in Scotland,head-butting Malcolm. Then Malcolm's wife turns up and Bill,unaware that he was married,pushes Malcolm into a fountain.
- On Bank Holiday Monday Bill is looking forward to hosting Clive,Laura and Laura's German mother Sophie. Unfortunately Bette pays a surprise visit with her talk of VE Day street parties and The Sound of Music video and when Rona brings Pearl in to divert her the pair do nothing but talk about the Blitz. Fortunately both are shuffled off to Rona's before Sophie arrives and,apart from Christine dressing as Hitler for the street party, the whole day goes swimmingly. Of course the women had reckoned without Ben's clumsy attempts to mend the bedroom wall...
- Tina tells Ben that their estranged father Frank is coming home from Thailand but when Bill and Ben go to meet him are amazed to find that he has a much younger Thai bride Darrani. Ben argues with Frank over his constant absenteeism and the Porters leave but Rona persuades Bill,Darrani and Tina to go with her to see a male stripper. Even though he is masked Rona recognizes him when he is fully frontally nude as Gordon,an ex-boyfriend,who invites the women backstage,Tina's prim persona taking a knock. In the meantime Frank comes to see Ben and apologizes leading to a reconciliation, and bringing a magic set which wins the children over. Bill arrives home very late to find the others waiting up for her.
- On Christmas Eve - having ended up with four trees - Bill is amazed when the message 'Is That You,Bill?' appears on David's computer and cannot be switched off. In reply to cryptic messages Bill cripples the country's television transmission and causes bad weather,discovering to her horror that she has the power to make anything she wants happen. After Rona has got in on the act by summoning three scantily-clad and extremely puzzled young marines it suddenly dawns on the family who the 'Bill' is whose wires have inadvertently crossed with David's computer. Before anything else can happen the family flees to a French chateau for a rendition of the song Relaxez-Vous.
- 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.
- David is hoping his parents will come and see him in his school drama performance and they promise to be there but.... Ben,as retaliation for sending Jake the Klingon on a wild goose chase,is knocked unconscious and wakes up in Port Meirion,the village used as the location for TV show 'The Prisoner' and has to escape a giant white ball. Bill and Rona break into potential premises and find it is where singer Shirley Bassey stores her stage gowns. They dress up and Camcorder each other. Needless to say they miss David's performance though he does win and Shirley Bassey also rings to ask Bill if she wants the Camcorder back.
- Jenny comes home for the week-end with new boyfriend Keith. Bill is quite happy that they sleep together but Ben is disapproving and plans to wear Keith out before he can do anything. This takes the form of getting him to help Ben lay the floor tiles at Bill and Rona's new catering centre and also by getting him to push home a piano Ben has recently bought with Ben,feigning a twisted ankle,sitting on top of it. However the piano rolls down a hill and Ben genuinely ends up in casualty. Declan is mistakenly accused of shop-lifting and the police escort him to Bill and Rona's catering centre,only to find the two women have been accidentally inhaling the tiling adhesive and are high on solvents.