Barbara

Abrasive doctor's receptionist Barbara is preparing for her sister Jean's birthday when daughter Linda rings to say she is ill. Barbara takes over her job as a market researcher but gets so many complaints she has to take drastic action to prevent Linda from getting the sack. Fellow receptionist Doreen decides that, at fifty-eight, she wants a baby but is put off after a traumatic experience, whilst Barbara's husband Ted is relieved to discover he was not responsible for killing the man next door and Linda's journalist husband Martin's job as an investigative reporter...

Barbara and Doreen find themselves competing for the attention of handsome young Dr Brown but when he clearly prefers to spend time with pretty computer operator Sandra they gang up on him. Martin,who now has his own TV spot Pondlife,finds himself an unwilling love object due to besotted weather girl Karen's obsession with his thumbs whilst Jean,though humiliated when boyfriend Phil gets into a public fight with a rival lollipop man,relents when he proposes to her. Taxi driver Ted gets his vehicle stolen by a Mr Spock impersonator but picks him out at the identity ...

Having been sacked as a hospital visitor for failing to notice when a patient passed out, Barbara is not in the best of moods, especially as Ted is out clubbing with his new young friends, so she is ready to take on the builders across the road who have been waking her up at unearthly hours. Meanwhile Doreen and her husband are cautioned for dogging, Martin gets stripped and tied to a parking meter on a friend's stag night and Jean's romance with Phil continues to run anything but smoothly.