About this season
James Shelley, an educated, sardonic, permanently unemployed "professional freelance layabout," has many battles with authority, the tax-man, his landlady, and his girlfriend Fran.
Episodes (6)
1. Owner Occupiers
Aired 8 May 1980 • 30 min
Shelley, now in work, looks for somewhere to live with wife-to-be Fran and their impending child. A visit to the local Bank leads them nowhere to getting a mortgage as they don't have a bank account.
2. Expletive Deleted
Aired 15 May 1980 • 30 min
Shelley has to come up with a sales campaign for a new range of Instant Paella. The stuff proves hard to market as it is virtually tasteless.
3. Tea and Sympathy
Aired 22 May 1980 • 30 min
Shelley is working on an ad campaign for striped pyjamas when a crisis interrupts his train of thought. A fellow lodger, Miss Landis, is so lonely and depressed in the big city she takes an overdose of sleeping pills.
4. Hearth and Home
Aired 29 May 1980 • 30 min
Shelley and Fran are in their bed-sit as usual. She is engrossed in a dog-eared copy of George Orwell's 'Keep The Aspidistra Flying' while he tries to strike up a conversation with her.
5. Fully Furnished
Aired 5 June 1980 • 30 min
Shelley wants to buy an old book in a junk shop but the dealer tries to make him think it is worth far more than it really is. After a protracted debate, the dealer agrees to let him have it for nothing.
6. Dearly Beloved
Aired 18 June 1980 • 30 min
Mrs.H and Shelley's mother spend the night at Fran's Dad's palatial house in Shropshire. Isobel's liberal attitude to life and free use of language clearly embarrass the host.