1Episode #4.1
Sandra interrupts a particularly competitive Wii session between Pete,who has rashly resigned his job,and the boys to ask Pete to read the eulogy at his Uncle Bob's funeral. His brief is not to mention Bernard, Bob's gay lover of fourteen years for whom he left his wife. However,flustered by Sue's giggling,Pete pays tribute to Bernard,earning praise from his mother and wife,as well as finding out something about the vicar. Bernard,however,is less pleased.
2Episode #4.2
Now a supply teacher Pete gets grief from his daughter and wife for not helping more about the house. Angered by her menfolk's laziness Sue leaves them to do housework and cook Sunday dinner whilst she takes Karen out for a day at the local shopping mall. Here Karen makes short work of a charity campaigner before asking Sue to buy her clothes to keep up with her shallow school contemporaries. Returning home Sue finds that Ben has broken the washing machine and also has a peculiar idea of the ideal Sunday lunch.
3Episode #4.3
Karen and Jake are both staying the night with friends whilst Ben is at an adventure camp,terrifying his school-mates with ghost stories. Sue and Pete find themselves dog-sitting Archie for friends of friends. He seems cute but nobody warned that he would go after next door's guinea pigs and run up a ninety pound bill. Pete loves having the kids out of the way and muses on a child-free future. Sue cannot wait to have them back again.
4Episode #4.4
When Ben tells them that a boy called Oliver is selling drugs at school they wonder if they should report him. Their dilemma grows at Ben's parents' evening when Oliver's mother and father tell them about the drugs problem at his last school,which has now stopped. However,given Ben's teachers' reports of his bizarre behaviour and the fact that Karen is found wandering in the school playground,they decide against making a formal complaint and leave an anonymous note - in capitals.
5Episode #4.5
Ben is perfecting his ventriloquist act for the school talent contest and annoying everybody as usual but this is the least of his parents' worries. First they find out that Jake is dating a nineteen-year-old pole dancer who,due to fake I.D., believes he is eighteen. Then Angela arrives,having split acrimoniously from Brick and bringing his daughter Misty - whom she claims Brick mentally abused - with her. She is writing a book on surviving families and Sue does not like the references to herself in the sneak peep she takes. With Brick having invalidated Angela's credit cards,it looks as if the family is stuck with her . . . and then Brick's solicitor rings the doorbell.
6Episode #4.6
No sooner has Brick's solicitor served papers on the Brockmans accusing Angela of abducting Misty to bump up her divorce settlement - and them of aiding a felon - than the bell rings again and Ottfried,Jake's German exchange student,whom noone was expecting,turns up. He is understandably perplexed by the whole set-up ,though he does regard Boris Johnson as a wonderful comedian,and offers Sue and Pete advice. Fortunately Angela decides to return to Brick but that still leaves the problem of Jake's nineteen year old pole-dancing girlfriend,who turns out to be only sixteen and therefore an unlawful performer...
7Christmas Special 2011
The Brockmans are planning to fly out to the Canaries on Christmas day,for a week's break but Sue is held up at the emergency dentist with Karen - where Ben has a serious chat with an elderly patient - whilst Pete and Jake visit senile Grandpa in hospital. Scatty friend Jane comes to house-sit but,due to a mix-up,Pete almost breaks her up with her boy-friend. Already running late,the family is stuck in a traffic jam thanks to two brawling Santas. Will they make it to the airport on time or will they spend Christmas singing old songs around Grandpa's bedside?
8Christmas Special 2012
The Brockmans throw a Christmas party with jubilee bunting for decorations but Pete is not happy. Of the kids only Ben wants to help whilst Sandra gets drunk,tactless Norris from next door reminds former TV weather-man Ray of his nervous breakdown and Pete gets shut in the bathroom with neurotic,flu-ridden Jane when the door handle falls off. As the evening progresses Norris's wife runs off with her Lesbian lover, Jane takes an accidental over-dose and is rushed to hospital whilst Jake brings the police to the house. This will certainly be one party for everybody to remember.
1Episode #5.1
Karen has started secondary school but is not settling in as she feels academically inferior, plus she is worried that her missing hamster may be trapped under the floor-boards. Ben on the other hand is over-joyed as he has landed the lead in his school play, a musical version of 'Spartacus' whilst Jake is in disgrace for getting a tattoo which looks like a spider. Sue sends emails to the parents of Karen's school-mates , which does not help but Pete comforts his daughter with a heart to heart.
2Episode #5.2
Karen indulges her competitive instincts, Ben delves into the mysteries of human psychology and Jake appoints himself as a parenting expert. Meanwhile, Mum falls victim to a dysfunctional printer and Dad is hounded by a vigilant Daily Mail reader.
3Episode #5.3
Pete's 21 year old god daughter Stacey from Australia is staying and sets Ben's pulse racing as she walks around the house in only a towel. Pete thinks it time for Ben to have a chat about the facts of life - from Jake but Jake is more interested in persuading his parents to let girlfriend Alex stay over. Everybody except Pete is delighted when Sue agrees to mind a friend's baby - nicknamed the Werewolf - overnight, prompting Karen to ask awkward questions about child-birth and again raise the topic of her lost hamster. Ultimately Jake regrets his decision when other girlfriends get in touch, possibly tipped off by Sue, whilst Pete is happy to give the baby back to his mother and Ben is happy with a final revealing glimpse of Stacey.
4Episode #5.4
Pete takes Ben on a camping weekend but is shocked to find that Ben has left all their food behind as he intends to catch their meals using traps - though in the event he only catches a pair of doggers. Sue meanwhile is angry with Stacey for encouraging Karen to worry about her body image and resolves the situation with a one way ticket to Scotland for Stacey. She also has to take drastic action when Jake claims that he wants to go on a gap year purely because he has lost his university application form and is too lazy to find it.
5Episode #5.5
Sue is trying to organize a conference so it falls to Pete to let Karen in after school but he has to go to buy a central heating pump so rings Jake to come home. Jake has lost his Oyster card and has no cash so this requires a call to Ben, only for Pete to find himself speaking to a Chinese tourist who has found Ben's lost phone. Karen is delayed as the headmistress keeps her back to upbraid her for rubbishing the school rules. Nonetheless she still manages to get in ahead of Pete whilst Ben ends up asking the Chinaman and his wife round for tea.
6Episode #5.6
Grandad is very ill, bringing Angela back from America, with toy boy Tommy, whom she met at Sunday school. Sue is immediately rattled when Angela makes plans for their father as well as claiming that he recognized her when he failed to recognize Sue. After Tommy and Stacey decide to tour Europe Angela returns to the States and the family goes to see Ben in his school musical, 'Spartacus'. Ben is surprisingly nervous but a pep talk from Karen gives him the confidence to put on a good show. Sue and Pete also learn that, thanks to Jake, Angela has been persuaded to write a huge cheque that will solves all their worries about Grandad.
7Christmas Special 2016
The Brockmans are on their way to scatter Grandad's ashes at his favourite seat but following a car accident take refuge in a pub where Jake lands Pete in trouble when he decides to split from girl-friend Kate and Karen exposes the supposedly injured driver of the other car as a fraud. After Pete has also antagonized potential saviour Billy Spaz and Jake has sprung another surprise on the family they manage to get going, thanks to cheery landlord Brian, but when they arrive at the site for the scattering they are in for a shock.
