Fri, Sep 1, 1989
Nigel's wife Emma left him a week ago, and is staying with her parents on their Wiltshire farm. Nigel is very unhappy and has been neglecting his work. Nigel's partner Max turns up and insists that Nigel return to work. He has little sympathy and reminds Nigel that Emma left because he thwarted her plans to run her own café. This involved corruption, treachery and blackmail. Nigel argues it was in her own interest and that she does still love him. Meanwhile Emma is clay pigeon shooting with her Dad. Emma names the "pigeons" Nigel. In a road near Peckham Square Sean and Alan are returning from the airport. Hannah has left for San Francisco to show baby Rainbow off to her folks. Sean reminds Alan that Nigel is about to be their landlord. Sean is wondering where Emma is - her last words to him were "back in a tic". Nigel gets a message at work that Emma is coming back to him. When she returns she gives him a letter from her solicitor about divorce. Nigel disagrees to a divorce. The next day Emma tells Sean why they musn't see each other again. Nigel is angry and challenges Sean to a boxing match after catching him and Emma saying goodbye to one another. Sean accepts the challenge. Emma is horrified and asks if Sean knows that Nigel was the captain of the school boxing team. Not yet, replies Nigel.
Fri, Sep 15, 1989
Emma is very worried about Nigel's enthusiasm for the boxing match (still a few weeks away). She threatens to expose Nigel's illegal multiple share applications. But Nigel threatens to grass on her father who's been operating an EEC milk quota subsidy tax dodge on his farm. So it's stalemate. At the Snakepit Sean is getting propositions from numerous groupies. Alan, a feminist, is unimpressed and maintains he'd be appalled if buxom bimbos started hurling themselves at him. Sean puts this rash promise to the test, and has a good laugh at Alan's expense. Nigel tells Emma that if she doesn't drop the divorce, he'll have her arrested for attempted murder. This relates to a time in the past when she threw a wok at him. Emma begs Nigel to take their divorce seriously. Alan is angry with Sean, rightly claiming that the bimbo incident humiliated him. Sean repents, but unknowingly provides further temptation for Alan by cooking bacon. Alan is a vegetarian and is finding life difficult without Hannah. Nigel sees a solicitor. It's Julian Pickford - the man who helped Nigel thwart Emma's cafe plans by gazumping her. Julian promises to delay the divorce as long as possible. Nigel decides to be really nice to Emma, and resolves to surprise her with flowers and champagne. Meanwhile Sean has bumped into Emma in the Square. They are getting quite passionate until Emma breaks away and explains that her life's too complicated for another relationship. Once again they agree not to see each other anymore. They have a final passionate goodbye kiss. Nigel enters, bearing flowers and champagne. He's very hurt. And seeing them kiss makes him keener than ever to mash Sean to a pulp in the boxing ring. Nigel is impressed with sketches Emma has done for their new kitchen. He compliments her extravagantly, but adds that if it hadn't been for him thwarting her café plans, she wouldn't have found her true vocation. Nigel retires to bed leaving Emma feeling guilty and miserable.
Fri, Sep 22, 1989
Nigel's new policy of being unrelentingly nice to Emma makes him prepare breakfast in bed for her. He pinches the roses from next door's garden, unaware he has been spotted by the neighbour Geraldine Gunter-Forbes. Sean decides to check whether Nigel really was captain of boxing. He discovers that he wasn't. At Barrington & Grout Max gets a call from an important property developer callexd Colonel Drake. He plans to vists B&G to see whether they are fit to handle his classy 18 unit conversion on Peckham Rye. Colonel Drake has heard good things of Max and Max regards this as a personal coup, but refuses to tell Nigel about it. Meanwhile Nigel, to Max's despair, treats an aggrieved client very badly. Geraldine vists Emma, and complains about the roses that Nigel pinched. Geraldine has a husband, Rodney, but he's overseas in the Gulf. Geraldine is very impressed with Emma's sketches, and commissions her to do her bathroom. Emma is thrilled. Meanwhile, Sean discovers that vegetarian Alan seems to be a closet carnivore. Nigel pops home unexpectedly bearing Emma's favourite chocolates. Nigel meets Geraldine for the first time. He then returns to work to pinch Colonel Drake's parking space. Max is devastated. Sean confronts Nigel with the news that he wasn't a boxing captain. But he had rung the wrong school. Nigel was a boxing captain!
Fri, Sep 29, 1989
Nigel and Sean still plan for their fight. Nigel says that Sean is a loser and will never become a rock star. He says that the day Sean becomes a rock star will be the day he stands naked in the square. Nigel also intends to seduce Geraldine next door and bumps into her whilst only wearing a towel. He suggests a no-strings affair and has a grope. Geraldine is not amused. Nigel then tells Emma that it was Geraldine who tried to seduce him. Emma does not believe him. Nor does she care if he has an affair. Alan is finding life without Hannah so stressful that he's taken to impersonating a lizard to try to achieve reptilian tranquility. Sean visits Emma with the exciting news that he's been summoned to meet a top record producer called Howard Clancy. Geraldine tells Emma about what Nigel had done and Emma apologizes and promises to punish him. They decide to fulfill Sean's dare of Nigel standing in the square naked. Geralidine writes a letter to Nigel asking him to come to her house in nothing but a towel. Nigel warns Emma that if she doesn't welcome him back to her bed he will go. Emma refuses. Nigel steps out the door just as Emma grabs the towel and leaves him standing outside naked. Sean turns up and makes Nigel confess that Sean is a rock star.
Fri, Oct 6, 1989
Nigel is jogging. He suspects a Dalmation of fouling the pavement. Nigel has a confrontation with the dog's owner, a mild-mannered man called Brian. Nigel tells Brian that if this happens again he'll have him and his dog put down. Brian accuses Nigel of issuing a death threat, and tells him that his brother Colin is a policeman. Nigel propositions Geraldine in front of Emma. She promises hideous reprisals. Sean challenges Nigel to a race around the square, Nigel accepts. Meanwhile Nigel has placed a bugging device in Sean's kitchen, but Alan has spotted it. The race - Nigel bumps into Brian and brother Colin, who is a policeman. Emma hears of the bugging device and decides to get her own back on Nigel. She and Sean have a conversation, that is bugged, about Nigel wearing women's underwear. Nigel listens to the conversation and and is appalled. He knows if he confronts Emma he will have to admit the bugging. Emma realises his discomfort. When Nigel finally talks about it, Emma plays her ace. She tells him that she is appalled by the rumour, as he is. In fact she is so appalled she's taken out ads in the personal column of the posher newspapers - "To whom it may concern. Contrary to poular belief, Nigel Barrington of Peckham Square does not wear women's underwear". We know she is joking, but Nigel doesn't.
Fri, Oct 13, 1989
It's the evening before the boxing match between Nigel and Sean. Emma is in despair. Nigel relents and agrees to call off the match. But he first plans to have one last workout on his punchbag. He's aiming for catharsis. But Sean is unaware of Nigel's intention to call off the fight. Sean is busy working on his ultimate bluff. He has pre-split a paving stone, and glued it together again. Sean is now eager to show Nigel the power of the Tai-Pendo Punch which he claims he learnt from a certain Wang Chong Lu. Nigel has a last workout, and undergoes catharsis. He changes for the better and goes downstairs to call the fight off. But Sean is unaware of Nigel's good intentions and shows him the punch. But Nigel notices the glue. Emma arrives and begs Sean to walk away - and gets Nigel to promise not to do his chicken impersonation. Emma leaves, and Nigel tells a chicken joke. The fight is back on again. Nigel has hired solicitor Julian to be his second. Julian is looking forward to getting Sean back for pouring beer over his head. Sean's second is Alan, who is convinced he will soon be dead. Max is the unwilling referee who fails to convince Nigel that the dispute can be settled over a decent claret. THE FIGHT - Nigel is knocked out by Sean, and claims an unfair fight. Then he leaves Emma and Sean together. They argue as Emma says she can't have a relationship. Sean goes to have a shower and Emma remembers the first time they met and decides to join him.