To celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary Ted takes Barbara to Scarborough,where they spent their original honeymoon. Unfortunately he also takes her to the run-down B & B where they spent the honeymoon,rather than the luxury hotel for which Barbara was hoping. In revenge she decides to party the night away with a visiting football team but next morning she and Ted end up in hospital when part of the hotel slides down the cliff in subsidence,taking them with it.

Christmas is coming but due to Barbara's abrasive manner the Liversidges are not getting many cards. Then Barbara gets it into her head that cheery new neighbours Angela and Norman are stealing her Christmas tree and poinsettia and her efforts to retrieve them lead to friction with Ted. Martin and Linda turn up as Martin's surfeit of Christmas lights has blown all the fuses in the house and left them in the dark. Thus there are two quarrelling couples spending Christmas under the same roof.

Barbara and Ted return from holiday,Ted having broken his leg retrieving their luggage from the airport carousel. They find Neil head over heels in love with pizza delivery girl Kirsty,even though she is bossy and - to Barbara's mind - dirty. Martin has been having a run of bad luck and is surprised to meet his ex-girlfriend,who just happens to be Kirsty. Kirsty is still very much in love with Martin and decides that she cannot love another so she dumps Neil - much to Barbara's relief.

To celebrate Barbara's sixtieth birthday the family,with Doreen,head off for a country cottage for the weekend,only to find it double-booked and somebody else in residence. At Martin's suggestion they decide to go to a nearby hotel but the van breaks down in the dark in the middle of nowhere. Ted and Martin go for help but,after Martin has fallen into a ditch,get robbed by Bazza and Oz,two locals with whom they hitched a lift. If only Doreen had remembered to tell everybody that she had her mobile phone in her bag all the time.

Barbara rows with Ted,accusing him of spending too much time doing DIY for Neil's girlfriend's mother,an old flame of his. She also falls out with Linda and Martin after she baby-sits for them and accidentally sets their kitchen on fire. Neil is unhappy with her when she frightens his girlfriend off and,needless to say,she is not popular with the patients at the surgery or anybody in the street. So...who shot her in the bottom with an air-rifle?