User Reviews

With his wife Ann (Penelope Wilton) in hospital for a minor operation Martin (Richard Briers) has to take care of himself for a couple of days. He meticulously makes out a chart for his housework, cooking & cleaning routine. After leaving Ann on a hospital visit he plans to have chilli con carne for his evening meal on his first day alone but ends up having to go round to his local fish & chip shop. He had earlier that day declined an offer from his friends Howard & Hilda (Stanley Lebor & Geraldine Newman) inviting him round to their house for dinner. Next day he puts his work schedule into operation but things just go from bad to worse. Much, MUCH worse!. The appliances start ganging up against him, or so he thinks. The hoover won't stop foaming, the washing-machine goes walkabout & he wrecks his electric oven by placing a plastic food container into it, amongst other things. On top of this the telephone hardly stops ringing. He in a state of panic when his next-door-neighbour Paul (Peter Egan) turns up. Martin dislikes Paul because he is everything Martin is not. Relaxed, supercool & seems to be proficient at doing everything!. In an earlier episode he memorably tells his wife Ann, "I bet when he gets up in the morning he doesn't even have to comb his hair. I'll bet it just falls into place!". After a good giggle about the mess Martin has got himself into, Paul helps him sort things out. After this Paul cooks them both a meal in his own house & they share a bottle of wine. With a few glasses of wine inside him him Martin puts his arm round Paul & tells him, "You've got a real mate now mate but not in any funny way if you know what I mean". Martin has had to buy a new oven to replace the one he has damaged & when his wife Ann returns home the next day he tells her it's a coming-home present. The firm from whom Martin bought the new oven ring & Ann answers the phone telling them how delighted she is with it. Ann is then told they couldn't give any discount on the old oven because the inside was too badly damaged by melted plastic. An annoyed Ann now wants to have words with Martin about the oven but he interrupts telling her that he loves her, how much he missed her & he never wants to be parted from her again. "What were you saying, love?", asks Martin. Ann smiles & says, "Nothing!". It is a very touching ending to a very funny episode of an excellent sitcom.