Pessimistic as ever, Mike is looking for new job opportunities.

Radio Times: Mike is looking for a job.

Characters: Betty, Jennifer, Mike, Pat, Tom, Tony

• Mike is quarrelling with his van – it’s leaking oil – and is in the worst of tempers (surprise, surprise…) Betty feels now would be a good time to get a new one but Mike is very gloomy about his future job prospects and grizzles relentlessly.
• Tony and Pat are eulogising over Venice – the glow still hasn’t worn off. Talking of birthdays, Pat is going to take Kathy out for hers next week. They wonder if she has any faith left in men, and if she really is looking for another one after seeing off two husbands! As Pat points out, there aren’t any eligible males in Ambridge at present.
• Tony is worried about Helen, he has a funny feeling she and Greg have fallen out. Pat is resolute however – she is refusing to worry about the two of them any more. Oh! Oh! Tony has thought of someone for Kathy…Jean-Paul, or maybe, at a pinch, Higgs!
• Jennifer calls to see the photos of Venice; she’s at a loose end as Brian is ‘very busy’. She admires the photos but spends most of her time singing the praises of Brian, who has been most attentive since she got home from the Health Farm. (does anyone feel the SWs have the net closing in on him?)
• Tony and Tom are fixing Helen’s precious plastic walls. Tom has quite forthright, and unusually for him, logical comments about the Greg / Helen situation. She has been bending Kirsty’s ear about Greg’s French trip all week. She is jealous, of the ex-wife, plain and simple.
• In the Bull, Mike and Betty are having a quick break from the final preparations for Brenda’s 21^st Birthday party in the function room. Mike takes the opportunity to moan about Tony’s muddy veg boxes and the flak he’s getting from customers. On a more serious note is his genuine concern for his long term job prospects. Tony is sympathetic when Tom arrives to drag his dad upstairs. The decorations are ‘fantastic’; he must come and see. (do we smell a new job opportunity? …. well, um……stranger things have happened.)