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1-23 of 23
- Welcome to Candleshoe, a stately English manor where a swashbuckling pirate hid a fortune in Spanish doubloons centuries ago. And that's what young orphan Casey and a sly con man are determined to find.
- While golfing on the Welsh coast, Bobby Jones apparently hits a stranger who falls off the the sea cliff. His enigmatic last words are "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
- Based on the classic children's novel by John Masefield, the story follows the exploits of a young boy, Kay Harker, who finds himself drawn into a world of magic and danger when he encounters an old Punch and Judy man.
- Lady Lawrence's chauffeur informs the staff that her ladyship will be meeting Dr. Beeching off the evening train so they prepare to put on a good show for him. They rehearse how to greet him, with Harry standing in for the V.I.P. Lady Lawrence duly arrives but her guest looks nothing like Dr. Beeching - possibly because he's a different Doctor Beeching - her gynaecologist.
- It's the early 1960s and steam trains are giving way to diesel. Cecil Parkin arrives to take up his post as the new station master at the rural station of Hatley. He is pleased to find that the buffet manageress is May, an old flame of his, although she is now married to Jack, the porter. There is far worse news, however, when Cecil reads that the new transport minister, Beeching, intends to close down rural stations like Hatley as being uneconomical.
- Cecil gets it into his head that he could be Gloria's father and asks May to leave Jack for him. May admits to Ethel that she and Cecil had sex and he could be right. Jack knows none of this but still resents Cecil and sets out to kill him. Cecil discovers that Gloria cannot be his daughter because of their blood groups. Jack decides against killing Cecil, just putting a bucket of sump oil on top of the door to fall on him instead.
- Cecil buys May a set of red undies for the eighteen birthdays she has had since they last met though she is reluctant to accept them. Vera, the station cleaner, tells Jack about them but Ethel saves the situation by telling Jack that May asked Cecil to go and buy them for her to look good for her husband - who gets very frisky as a result. Lady Lawrence is expecting the delivery of her horse but a lion arrives instead. It's feared the lion ate the horse until it is discovered that there were two trucks and the one with the lion in arrived at Hatley whilst the horse was sent down the line.
- Jack and Cecil are down-hearted to learn that May has applied for a better paid job at the larger Loxley station, working for lecherous station master Fred Foster, but their own applications for a transfer and Cecil's refusal to give May a reference bear no fruit. Fred comes to Hatley where Harry names him as the man who broke up his marriage - and thanks him for it. Fortunately Dr. Beeching himself comes to their rescue, by closing down the Loxley line.
- Ethel has found romance with American airman Joe, who took her to see 'West Side Story' and who promises to take her back to the States with him. Wilfred decides that he will then join the army. Unfortunately Joe is recalled home very suddenly, leading to a 'Brief Encounter' moment on the station with Ethel. She is upset but she is very happy when Wilfred tells her he will be staying with her after all as the Army have rejected him on account of his flat feet.
- There is talk of a wild cat strike among drivers and if any Hatley staff join it the station could be closed. Ralph, the trainee engine driver, decides he is unhappy with his job and wants to join the strike. May persuades Gloria to tell him that she will date him if he changes his mind. Jack is unhappy with this but goes along with it when May threatens to deny him his conjugal rights.
- Whilst Ethel struggles with her new 'Position Closed' blind, May has her own problems. Not only has she succumbed to a lingering kiss with Cecil but thieves have stolen the milk cart and she is out of milk - with the Transport Minister arriving for a visit in a couple of hours. Jack's effort to milk a cow is a disaster but he is annoyed when Cecil rings Gloria and asks her to bring a couple of pints. After all that the Minister's train doesn't even stop but runs straight past the reception committee.
- Whilst the staff hide a pig destined for the dinner table from Cecil, tax inspector Edna Taylor arrives at Hatley, claiming that they have been engaged for six years but recently she has heard nothing from him. She is not pleased to find a letter from him ending it all as he has found the 'love of his life.' Fortunately for May he fails to name the woman in question but when the train lurches and Cecil falls on top of May's daughter Gloria, Edna gets the wrong impression and Cecil ends up in the dog-house - or rather the pigsty.
- In the pilot episode of what would subsequently become the first part of a series, Cecil Parkin travels to the small country railway station of Hatley to take over as its station master. He is pleased to find that his old girl-friend May Blanchflower runs the station buffet, less so that she is now married to porter Jack Skinner. Certain aspects of the station's running leave a lot to be desired but this is as nought compared to the news that new transport minister Doctor Beeching intends to close small stations like Hatley.
- After Gloria is locked out of the house Cecil lets her stay the night on his couch, leading to a row with Jack over parenting. The two men fall out again when Cecil feels that Jack should have a medical as to his suitability for the job in the light of his bad leg. However Cecil ultimately back-tracks over the medical so as to impress May. Ethel has a date with skirt-chasing Percy the train guard at the local dance.
- Cecil is jealous when Mr. Orkindale from Head office sends May roses, but he has also been appointed station master at three smaller stations as well as Hatley, and British Railways have given him an ancient van whose doors stick, in which to visit them. After Jack has taken May's fridge in the van to be mended, Arnold the train driver requests everybody's help as he fears his wife has locked herself in the outside toilet, though it proves to be a false alarm.
- The staff discover that the station is a hundred years old and decide to have a street party to celebrate. They dress up in Victorian costume as the mayor cuts a ribbon, a brass band plays and the press covers it for the local paper. Unfortunately, they are let down by the butcher, who refuses to contribute free food, so that the party fare consists chiefly of pea soup, tinned baked beans and rhubarb crumble - with predictably windy results.
- The station staff are competing in a bowls tournament and Cecil is ready to board the train taking them there when, at the last minute Mr. Orkindale asks him to stay behind and let Jack go, because Jack is the star player. In fact he's not but he buys everybody a round. Cecil hauls May off the train claiming it is Fate that they were meant to be together but she is less sure. Ethel stands in for her on the train serving soup but an angry Jack finishes the match and hurries home to confront Cecil. Fortunately May has an excuse ready, claiming that she thought Jack was staying behind at Hatley, rather than Cecil, which is why she got off the train.
- Ethel finally persuades May to admit that she and Cecil dated briefly during the war and relays this back to Jack in garbled form. Everybody pulls together to move Cecil's belongings into the station master's house, after which he buys them a drink and looks forward to their team-work preventing Beeching closing the station. He then has a bath but is interrupted by Ethel and May who bring him hot water and suggest he gets a bigger sponge as he tries to hide his modesty.
- As Jack and May prepare to celebrate their wedding anniversary a tearful May suspects that she might be pregnant. Jack is not pleased. Arnold the train driver, having had an accident learning to drive the new diesel engines, fears that he will be made redundant and the staff, including Cecil, organise a petition as Arnold chains himself to the front of his engine. Fortunately, news of his redundancy, like May's pregnancy, turns out to be a false alarm.
- As the staff read of more of Beeching's cuts, Oscar, the turkey belonging to wheeler-dealer signalman Harry, and ear-marked for the station's Christmas dinner, escapes, halting a train. Cecil is not amused and calls a meeting to discuss the general lax behaviour at Hatley. He complains about the chickens under the platform but relents when he learns that they are kept for her egg sandwiches by May, for whom he still carries a torch. May is disappointed that Cecil has become pompous but he explains that he can no longer be one of the lads now he is station master. Jack suspects that they already know each other but Ethel, the booking clerk, tells him not to be so paranoid.
- Jack finds a hold-all on an embankment, containing hundreds of five pound notes. After being carpeted by Cecil for absenting himself to go to the betting shop, he considers quitting his job and is about to tell Cecil to stuff it when Percy the guard informs him that two men have been arrested for forging five pound notes and probably threw the bag containing the notes out of the window. As Jack apologizes to Cecil, May and the other staff set about burning the evidence.
- Whilst Cecil is out a coffin arrives unexpectedly at the station, of which the local undertaker knows nothing. The staff decide to hide it in Cecil's office but he returns before he is supposed to and the coffin is passed out of the window, flattening Ethel's daft young son, assistant porter Wilf. In fact the coffin should have been sent to Hagley station, not Hatley, as Cecil knew all along.
- Cecil continues to pine for May and Jack continues to be suspicious asking Ethel the booking clerk to spy on them so she learns nothing. To streamline the station and impress an efficiency inspector Cecil plans to use the old public address system for announcements and gets Ethel to read them. However she is very nervous and the experiment is not a success.