Guests are missing at Rob and Helen’s dinner party.

Radio Times: Helen is on tenterhooks, and Pat and Tony begin to wonder.

Characters: Helen, Pat, Rob, Tony

• A tense Helen puts the final touches to the long-awaited meal for Rob’s parents. Rob tells her to calm down, but tells her she looks wonderful.
• Pat and Tony arrive bearing gifts for Bruce and Ursula plus a bottle of wine. Rob thinks they should sit on the terrace, and soon Tony is talking about his bull again; he will be called Otto, at Helen’s suggestion. As the evening wears on, they all wonder where Rob’s parents have got to. Helen thinks Rob should ring them in case they have encountered a problem, but he refuses. They are just rude, he says.
• Rob goes inside to help Helen, and soon a row breaks out, to the discomfiture of Pat and Tony. Helen insists Rob should ring them, but he puts up endless reasons not to. Eventually he goes, with bad grace, to ring them upstairs.
• Pat and Tony wonder if they should leave, but Helen begs them to stay. She says that Rob does not get on with his parents and had not even told them he was engaged to Helen. She thought this evening might bring them together.
• Rob soon comes downstairs and announces that his parents will not be coming. They cannot be bothered – and Rob does not want to talk about it. When Pat and Tony leave, glad to be away from the atmosphere at Blossom Hill, Helen tries to get an explanation from Rob, who claims that his father is a nasty bully, which is why he went to Canada, to get away from him. He was even pushed into marrying Jess. Rob’s mother is no better, and the two of them have made him look a complete fool. Helen, of course, melts, believing every word, and apologises for even asking Rob about it. Rob has her and Henry; they are Rob’s family and they have no need of anyone else.