When the Boat Comes In — Season 1, Episode 10: King for a Day

Episode synopsis

Dolly is pregnant and Jack jobless so he agrees to a proposition from Manners, who wants to buy a house from Lord Calderbeck. Jack, posing as a parvenu car parts tycoon, will act as front man. At the house, he meets Freddy, Calderbeck's nephew and heir, though His Lordship resents him as he survived the war, unlike Calderbeck's sons. Freddy is suspicious of Jack but the merry widow Jane Cromer, Freddy's fiancée, is partial to a bit of rough and climbs into Jack's bed. Ultimately, Jack persuades her to marry Freddy and, thanks to inside information from Billy, working on His Lordship's land, gets a good sale for the house with a healthy commission for himself.

About When the Boat Comes In

When the Boat Comes In is a British television period drama produced by the BBC between 8 January 1976 and 21 April 1981. Taking place between 1919 to 1937, Jack Ford is a veteran of The Great War who returns to his poverty-stricken (fictional) town of Gallowshield in the North East of England. It dramatises the interwar political struggles of the 1920s and 1930s, and explores the impact of national and international politics upon Ford and those around him.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1A Land Fit for Heroes and Idiots
• E2Say Hello... Say Tirra
• E3Fish in Woolly Jumpers
• E4Swords and Pick Handles
• E5Coal Comfort
• E6Empire Day on the Slag Heap
• E7A First Time for Everything
• E8Paddy Boyle's Discharge
• E9Angel on Horseback
• E11Happy New Year, Some Say
• E12Heads You Win, Tails I Lose
• E13Kind Hearted Rat with a Lifebelt