It is December 2039, and the Harpers are gathering together to celebrate Christmas. With a "greed gift exchange", a rival cousin and a Nativity play battle, there may not be too much room for peace and goodwill.

When the council assume Ben is disabled and send him cheques he tries to return the money but the clerk won't listen and Rosemary, the gushing welfare visitor who comes to assess him, is too busy saying how brave she thinks he is, to let him get a word in edge ways.

Given that he used to have lots of girl-friends, when Michael comes out as gay, Ben is perplexed but determined to be supportive. Susan is just annoyed that Michael told Ben first.

Ben is appalled to discover that Martin, the benign elderly widower from next door, is besotted with Susan and has built a shrine to her in his kitchen. Whilst Ben has trouble persuading the police, Martin ties Susan to a chair and proposes to her.

Craig, a young Australian, arrives at the house, claiming his mother was at college with Ben and Susan lets him stay in exchange for doing some decorating. Initially irritated by him, Ben starts to worry when it looks as if Craig could be his illegitimate son.

To prove how trendy he is, Ben accompanies an embarrassed Michael to a gay club, where he gets chatted up by the adoring Rupert, who follows him home and sends him flowers. It's down to Susan to rescue her husband - and wangle herself a free holiday at the same time.

Whilst Susan is away Ben takes part in a police identity parade, where he is picked out as being a mugger and remanded in a cell with hard cases Carl and Terry. They hire their brief to get him released but later turn up at his house, wanting to lie low, along with Carl's wife Verity.

When Janey has to sit with a poorly Kenzo, Ben volunteers to look after one of her elderly care clients, Harry, a man who seems to have been around but is not allowed out else he will go walkabout. However Harry encourages Ben to join him for a night on the town; what could possibly go wrong?

Ben is overjoyed when Mark, Kenzo's wealthy, successful father reappears and encourages him to propose to Janey. Susan, on the other hand, believes that Craig's feelings for her daughter are sincere and gives him her blessing. Roger, due to a misunderstanding, also believes that he is in with a chance.

Susan gets an audition as a presenter of a pre-school TV show alongside a puppet monkey after a producer hears her reading to children in the library. There is however one other applicant, Janey, resulting in fierce competition and dirty tricks.

With Ben on a course Susan works late at the art gallery with handsome young Chris, whose advances she spurns. Next day he accuses her of sexual harassment and she has to attend a course. Janey advises her on how to call his bluff but salvation comes via a far more bizarre reason.

Janey and Michael give their parents a Spanish holiday as an anniversary present but Michael has used Ben's credit card to finance it and needs to replace the money quickly so he contacts "Cash In the Attic", finding that the only sale worth a four figure sum is Susan's beloved antique clock.

Ben and Susan go off to a couples' retreat for a weekend - at which they prove to be less than ideal guests - leaving Janey and Michael vying for the affections of Michael's new boyfriend. However, the triangle proves to be more Bermuda than eternal.

With Ben away on a volunteer dental programme in Colombia, Susan is persuaded by Janey to go on the Facebook social network, which leads to her meeting up again with charming ex-boyfriend Paul Tremaine. He turns out to be a large scale drug dealer and Susan is forced to help the police trap him to avoid being charged herself.

At Susan's mother's funeral, Arthur, the father who abandoned the family thirty years earlier, turns up and takes such a dislike to Ben he offers his daughter a million pounds to divorce him. Is she able to refuse such a generous offer?

Ben is approached by a man who remembers his father as a great darts player and asks him to join the local pub team. Ben discovers that he is not quite the darts player his father was and they replace him. When Roger asks him to join his team he is happy to sign up - and uses all means necessary to secure their victory.

An eventful night out is had by all, as Janey and Susan go to a hen night, and Roger goes on a blind date, and Ben, who should be at home looking after Kenzo, spends more time out than he bargained for.