The preparations for Liz Merrick's and Ben Norton's wedding are in full swing and her replacement as the local GP, Dr. Helen Trent, arrives and immediately has clash with Jenny. Speaking of Jenny Sergeant Merton is very worried about her and talks to Dr. Merrick about her, but the beautiful doctor assures him that there is nothing wrong with Jenny. For once Dr. Merrick is wrong and Jenny leaves the surgery unattended and unlocked. When Dr. Merrick returns she finds the surgery in a mess and some dangerous pills missing. When Jenny is confronted with she gets angry again. Her husband tries to help her, but only manages to convince her sick mind that everybody is against her. And he almost gets arrested for assaulting her when she runs away.

The day of the wedding between Dr. Liz Merrick and Ben Norton is growing near, but the happy event is overshadowed by Jenny's mental illness and Sergeant Merton seriously considers getting a transfer to be near her and able to support her. PC Walker finds an abandoned car on the moor. It is registered to Angela Price, who has been kidnapped and the kidnappers have told her husband not to involve the police. But Sergeant Merton knows Price and finds out anyway and he suspects that the kidnappers hide out in a farm they have rented from Lord Ashfordly. Ben Norton nearly misses his wedding when he is asked to assist the police because he knows the premises.

The Frankie Rio Trio once belonged at the top of the charts, but popularity has dropped and now they are struggling for a comeback. Now finances are so low they have to skip a hotel bill. They are on their way to Aidensfield, where they will stay with their old friend Vernon Scripps until an important gig in Whitby. On the way pick up a young woman, Rachel Godwin, and her baby and give her a lift to Aidensfield where her parents live. She has run away from a maternity hospital because she does not want to give up the baby for adoption and is now on her way to her parent's house in the village. While she calls her mother to prepare her Frankie is scared off by the sight of PC Walker and the trio drives off without knowing they have an extra passenger.

Rosie does the shopping for Miss Edgar. One morning she finds the old woman tied to a chair when she comes to deliver the groceries. Miss Edgar says the assailant posed as a representative from the Council and drove a grey van. It may have been the same van that forced Louise Parry off the road and nearly did the same to David in the brown lorry. David sees to the needs of Miss Parry getting her to the Aidensfield Arms and has Bernie pick up her car. She also asks him to deliver a letter to Dr. Trent's husband Matthew personally. He soon becomes their secret messenger. Meanwhile more victims of the man in the grey van are discovered. PC Walker believes he has information vital to the case, but when Sergeant Nokes refuses to listen to him he does a little investigating of his own among his father's old friends. There is a new constable at the Ashfordly police station. His name is Geoff Younger and this is his very first posting.

The police are on the lookout for stolen Russian icons which have been unloaded in or around Whitby from a fishing boat owned by Ingmar Larsen who is currently in prison for smuggling and violence. The captain of the boat claims he thought they were smuggling cigarettes and that they were ambushed by pirates just off shore. They recover one of the icons at an antique shop, and the owner tells PC Walker that he bought it from a blonde woman in her thirties. Lord Ashfordly is having a banquet for true gourmets. Vernon Scripps quite the right idea when he learns about truffles from the Italian Giovanni Viora, but he thinks the price is somewhat on the high side and decides to go looking for them himself. To find them you need a pig, but in lack one of those Alfred will have to do. And then of course you also need a truffle...

The future has arrived at the Ashfordly police station in the form of the new sergeant George Miller and a state-of-the-art Ford Zephyr police car. He also has plans to close down the police house in Aidensfield and move PC Walker to Ashfordly permanently. Apart from that Sergeant Miller is very old-fashioned and extremely narrow-minded. His first case in charge of the Ashfordly police is a series of wage snatches. After yet another snatch PC Bellamy and the Zephyr's regular driver PC Yates give chase to two suspects in a Mini Cooper, but they are shaken off when the robbers go where the big police car cannot follow them, and only PC Walker on his motorcycle is able to keep up the pursuit, but crashes when the robbers block the road. The villagers of Aidensfield are not taking the possible loss of their police house lightly of course and organize a protest.

A couple walking their dog on the beach discovers a dead man by the water's edge. The only thing they can find out about him is that he died of a fall from a cliff. PC Walker is contacted by his old friend Jackie Pointer. Her brother Tony is in jail and he has picked up some information on a robbery being planned and is willing to share this information for an early release. Walker contacts Sergeant Miller, who will have nothing to do with the matter. Walker decides to see Tony anyway and maybe get some more information. Bernie Scripps is having one of those days where nothing goes right. As a matter of fact he has had a lot of those lately and Rosie is afraid he is seriously ill. Speaking of Rosie she has a date and asks Gina for makeup advice. She looks really hot when she is dressed up as a girl.

PC Bellamy takes over one of Alf Ventress' old contacts, Vic Smalley. From him he learns about Ray Craven, who is flush with money and it is not through taking sheep to market, which is his official business. But Bellamy does not exactly make the top of Sergeant Miller's charts when the police make a raid on one of Craven's lorries and find only sheep. When Gina tidies up in her guest Derek Ford's room she discovers that he works for the Inland Revenue. He is "on tour" in the area and Vernon Scripps is next on his list. In fact Scripps owes so much in back tax that he will never be able to pay it and he decides to do something drastic. Too late for him Oscar Blaketon discovers that Ford is a fraud with no connection at all to the Inland Revenue.

Sergeant Miller is "off to learn the patch" as he calls it when he spots a speeding car and give chase, but the driver, David's Aunt Peggy, easily manage to lose him, ruining his day completely. It will not be the last time she does that and their relation will soon be just like the one between Oscar Blaketon and good old Claude Jeremiah Greengrass. Rob Walker has been dating the nurse Clare Owen since she took care of him after he crashed on his motorcycle. They are both invited to a party celebrating the arrival of a new doctor at the hospital, Gavin Kennedy, who coincidentally also Clare's former lover. During the party another of Clare's colleagues does the high wire under the influence of drugs and alcohol and is seriously injured when he falls to the ground although Walker tries to stop him.

Lots of different things have been stolen in Aidensfield over the years, but an entire train loaded with crates of wine must be a novelty. Whoever stole the wagons had access to a locomotive and enough space to hide the whole train. They must also have enough knowledge about railways to operate a train. When a wagon load of tobacco is coming through the police decide to use a similar wagon full of police officers as a decoy. Helen Trent has started the proceedings to get divorced from her husband and Gina invites her to a girl's night out to cheer her up. Phil also invites Rob out to a boy's night out to cheer him up after the break between him and Clare. They all end up at the same nightclub and decide to make it a foursome. The annual green bowling tournament is coming up. Bernie has his heart set on winning, but his main rival Bickerstaff will stop at nothing to get the trophy. Aunt Peggy takes over the catering and she needs a blackboard for the menu (yeah, right).

Like many girls Pattie and Sheila Reilly likes horses. One day Pattie takes a ride on a stray pony. An unknown man surprises them and very unwisely fires a shot in the air. The sudden bang startles the horse and makes it bolt. Pattie is thrown off and her scared kid sister flags down PC Walker, who gets both of them to Dr. Trent's surgery. He also has his own, more romantic reason to see the attractive doctor. When Walker tries to find both the owner of the pony and the shooter he suddenly finds himself investigating a series of horse thefts. His life is not made any easier by Joyce Jowett, who complains to the police about a bad smell and noisy lorries from the house at the end of her road. Sergeant Miller has referred her to the town hall because it is not a police matter, but the battleaxe pesters the life out of Walker instead. Aunt Peggy gets mad at Oscar Blaketon for barring her and David from the Aidensfield Arms for playing poker.

Young Denny gets hurt in a hunting accident at the Ashfordly estate. Luckily he sustains only a flesh wound. The police interview all the members of the hunting party to get a clear picture and also collect their guns for testing. But the estate manager Richard Bentham for some reason does not want them to talk to the beaters Gary and Colin, whom he tells to scarper. Bentham also fails to report an accident he has with his Land Rover because the brakes were sabotaged. Furthermore when PC Bellamy questions Denny the boy says that the shooting was no accident. That Bentham did it deliberately!

PC Walker and PC Bellamy are investigating a break-in at Lionel Morris' off license and general store when they spot an old friend of the police, Colin Sneddon. Sneddon has a history of confessing to just about every crime in town and soon he is at the police station to confess to this one too. When the police do not believe him he confesses to the unsolved murder of a little girl eleven years back. His confession makes quite a stir in Aidensfield and this time he is harder to dismiss, because human remains are found at the spot where he said he buried the girl's body. Aunt Peggy learns that the unfortunate store owner Mr. Morris is a wealthy widower and decides to make at move on him - and his wallet.

Lord Ashfordly plays host to a group of ex-offenders, who will be working on the estate under the supervision of Eric Grey as part of a rehabilitation programme. But not all of the young men are that keen on getting rehabilitated and only want to make trouble. For starters they steal Oscar Blaketon's car when he refuses to serve them at the pub. Dorothy Plum is complaining that someone is disturbing her little dog Marigold, but a search of her garden and the road outside turns up nothing. The old lady gets really worried when the dog disappears and she offers a big reward to get it back. Aunt Peggy is not a woman to let such an opportunity pass. She gets a similar dog with the help of an old friend and tries to return it to its "rightful owner" after a small makeover.

Albert Wilson witnesses how Peter Roberts is hit by a hit-an-run car. Wilson is sure it was no accident and is able to give a full description of the car. It belongs to Derek Wallis, who claims that it was stolen. He also has an alibi which is corroborated by his employer Elsa Jenner, but Albert Wilson is almost positive that it was Wallis, who drove the car. Aunt Peggy "happens to come across" a lot of cheap cigarettes, but they seem to contain something with a little more kick than ordinary tobacco. The cigarettes also come from different supplier and he wants them back - badly!

Gina discovers a cut off left hand in her dustbin. The police immediately start searching for more body parts in other dustbins in Aidensfield with no luck. The hand was in a box and in that box the police find a note in Bernie Scripps' handwriting. Bernie does not remember writing the note, but from its contents he reckons it is from a rough invoice he wrote to Ashfordly Hall. And it dates five years back. The discovery of a torso the next day leads to the conclusion that the body had been frozen until recently - and that it is murder! Speaking of freezing Aunt Peggy has bought a cheap freezer at a sale. She intends to use it for storing rabbits and pheasants, which she can sell in a store.

Three hooligans steal a brand new Aston Martin and drive through Ashfordly in an attempt make as much vandalism as possible. They crash into a car belonging to George Adams. Adams has moved from the big city to make a fresh start in the country and does not want to get involved in anything. And with good reason. His real name is Terence Molloy and he has just been released from prison for safe cracking. Sergeant Miller warns him that he will keep an eye on him, but it does not seem to help because soon afterwards a safe is blown. Aunt Peggy's latest venture is miracle chicken food which makes chicken lay more eggs. She ensures this with cheap surplus eggs from the Common Market. Rob Walker has needed a lot of attention from Dr. Trent lately. Not that he is ill or anything. He and the attractive doctor have fallen heavily in love with each other.

PC Walker arrests Ken Rawson for driving dangerously and violating just about any traffic regulation there is. Despite resisting arrest he accuses Walker of using excessive force. He also claims that he knows Sergeant Miller and that Miller soon will get him out. Christmas comes early to David when Enid Bakewell gives him her late husband's model railway. Lord Ashfordly is looking for a new housekeeper and Aunt Peggy thinks that is just the job for her. To be taken into consideration she needs a lot of references. Fabricated if necessary.

A gang of poachers is at work at the Ashfordly estate. Sergeant Miller is in pursuit, but crashes in his police car and is knocked unconscious. At the crash site the police also find a tramp, who appears to have been hit. The incident requires an official investigation, and while Sergeant Miller is not suspended he is prohibited to drive. His case is not improved when the tramp dies from his injuries. Aunt Peggy has been doing a little poaching as well, and she lands in a ditch, when she is trying to get away. She is detained by his lordship himself and sues him for pain and suffering in return. Gina gets accepted at the Art College in York. Her teacher Jack Hollins is very impressed with her - for more reasons than one obviously.

There is a police charity soccer match between Ashfordly and Richmond, but PC Bellamy has to appear in court the same day and may not make it back in time although he is the Ashfordly coach. Albert Hallows helps Gina to sell tickets for the match, but not out of his good heart or to help a pretty girl. He is the head of a gang of old timer robbers and he plans to hit on Aidensfield during the match. David has been called for jury duty in the same case as Bellamy is to appear in. The accused is a friend of one of Aunt Peggy's acquaintances and she tries to influence him to vote for an acquittal. Not an easy position when the other eleven jurors are in favour of conviction.

Betty Hackett is terminally ill and is not afraid to die. Dr. Trent promises her that she will not suffer unnecessarily. Teresa, Betty's daughter-in-law, overhears their conversation, and when the old lady suddenly dies Dr. Trent is accused of euthanasia. Rosie's brothers Luke and Matt report that somebody has stolen half a field of their strawberry crop during the night. PC Younger makes a little fun of it and suddenly has his very own case to solve.

The convicted murderer Billy Andrews escapes from prison. He turns up at his parents' house despite road blocks and everything and gets mad when they cannot help him. Unfortunately Dr. Trent is worried about old Mr. Andrews' heart and she gets kidnapped when she wants to check on him. Alfred is getting old and David is afraid the dog will die. Bernie tries to cheer him up, and when Alfred dies David seems strangely unaffected by it.

Oscar Blaketon finds Dieter Dressler walking on the moors after he had had an accident and gets him to a hospital. It turns out that Dressler was forced off the road by another car. Furthermore a valuable painting has been stolen from his cottage. As if that was not enough Lord Ashfordly's Land Rover has been stolen and he is down on Sergeant Miller to get it back. When Aunt Peggy learns that the ornithologist Alan Phelps wants to see a golden eagle she promises to show him one even though there have been no golden eagles in the area for years. But trifles like that have never stopped her before.

Adam Lee surprises a burglar and is knocked unconscious in the subsequent struggle. When he comes to he identifies his attacker as his brother Joe. Apart from money Joe also stole Adam's car. Joe lives in Whitby and on his way to interview him PC Walker finds the car smeared with blood in a ditch and no sign of Joe. Alice and John Boaden's baby daughter has been born with a heart problem. The little girl may die if she does not get an operation, but operations like that are not performed in Great Britain so they try to raise money for a trip to America. Rumour has it that Wharton Place is haunted and Aunt Peggy does not hesitate to try and make money on that story even if she has to create a ghost or two.

Malcolm Fairchild has just had his car checked and MOT-tested at Bernie's garage when he loses control over the vehicle and plunges into a garden. Luckily nobody gets seriously hurt, but Bernie gets into serious trouble because the tyres are bald. The next morning he is nowhere to be found and David fears the worst.. Helen Trent's estranged husband finds out about her affair with Rob Walker and makes a complaint to Sergeant Miller, who takes the matter very seriously.

Ashfordly Hall is locked up over Christmas. PC Walker discovers that someone has broken into the estate. Nothing seems to be missing, but in the library he encounters a man calling himself Ray Hallam and quietly sipping his lordship's whisky. Hallam claims to be a friend of Lord Ashfordly, who is conveniently away on holiday. Hallam is arrested, but can return to Ashfordly Hall when his lordship confirms his identity by cable. Aunt Peggy buys a lot of stuff at a fire sale including a lot of Christmas presents for Santa to - meaning David - to hand out in his grotto. Unfortunately for her Oscar Blaketon has had the same bright idea and with considerably more success.

Henry Stoddard is released after 15 years in prison for killing a police constable from Ashfordly police station and moves in with his brother Jack. Stoddard has always claimed his innocence although the evidence against him was overwhelming. He says that Oscar Blaketon and Alf Ventress tricked him into confessing to avoid getting hanged. Now somebody is out to get back at both of them. And Peter, the son of the dead constable, has sworn to revenge his father's killing. Aunt Peggy comes across her birth certificate when she has to produce her driver's license after a traffic incident and discovers that she is related to Lord Ashfordly. Phil Bellamy surprises everybody by marrying Debbie Black.

Someone sets fire to Bill Galloway's barn and he suspects Barry Dyson as a revenge for being sacked. Dyson even has a previous conviction for arson. But Dyson has an alibi. Dyson also says that he was sacked because he is seeing Galloway's daughter Sylvia. Then there is a fire at Jim Hobson's farm only hours after Dyson had been refused a job there. And this time Dyson has no alibi. Aunt Peggy is visited by an old friend, Denzil Witty. He has a plan on how to put advertising posters up wherever you want without permission from the council. But not everybody is keen on his idea and they take matters in their own hands.

The Provincial Bank in Ashfordly gets robbed by a young woman and her boyfriend. When the pair strikes again against a grocer's shop a customer resists them and the woman gets shot in the leg. Her boyfriend kidnaps Dr. Trent and forces her to treat the wound. The doctor believes she has seen the woman, called Lucy, before. Bernie is away and has left a thorough list of to-dos for David. Aunt Peggy thinks that Bernie should give him more responsibility. She even takes it upon herself to organize a funeral.

Sir Richard Lonsdale and his driver run a man on a scooter off the road without even stopping. The man returns the "favour" by vandalizing their car outside the Aidensfield. But the man does not stop at that. He even tries to blackmail Sir Richard, but the next morning he is found dead in his home. Murdered! David buys a used radio and by chance it also tunes in to the police channels. Aunt Peggy figures it is a good way to earn a little extra money if they listen to police radio and sell the stories to the local newspaper.

PC Walker and PC Bellamy give Malcolm Stainsby a lift to his home because of his bad legs. Stainsby has been away since the war, but his wife - or rather ex-wife - Diane says that her husband Malcolm is dead. She even has his death certificate to prove it. Stainsby claims that he has only recently regained his memory after a cinema he was in was hit by a flying bomb. David and Aunt Peggy surprises a mushroom collector on their land and Aunt Peggy discovers that some people will pay good money for mushrooms. And while all mushrooms are eatable their effect may differ quite a bit. Sergeant Miller books PC Younger on a driving course. But Younger only has a provisional driver's license and needs a lot of driving experience. He gets Rosie to give him driving lessons and soon the whole village puts more into their relationship than there actually is.

Caroline Farr has trained the horse Lucifer's Revenge for the Gold Cup race, but her estranged husband Simon wants to take all the credit. The question is will he knock down her uncle Lord Ashfordly and steal the horse to get it? Well, somebody does just that. Aidensfield is invaded by a lot of bikers, who stop at the Aidensfield Arms for a drink, but Oscar Blaketon reckons they will be trouble and refuse to serve them. Rosie thinks differently and joins them for a ride. In fact she is so impressed with their leader Jamie that she takes a few days holiday to be with him. But Blaketon may be right because suddenly the church silver is missing. Phil Bellamy experiences the downside of married life when Debbie accompanies her sister to the hospital for a week and leaves him in charge of her two daughters.

Colin Judd's father has died and according to his will his farm must be sold lock, stock and barrel at a dispersal sale and proceeds split between Colin and his good-for-nothing brother Andy. Aunt Peggy thinks a thing like that should not be happening, but is on the lookout for a bargain nonetheless. In her case "a bargain" is a horse and carriage, which she plans to use for sight seeings around the countryside. Well, the horse has its own ideas about that. Andy is an old friend of Debbie Bellamy's, but she is not particularly happy to see him and drives home under the influence of a little wine. Andy is also very interested in a box of rubbish, which David buys by mistake and sells to Gina with a little profit.

Somebody sets fire to Bernie Scripps and his hearse one night he is on his way back to Aidensfield. Luckily he escapes with burns on his right arm, but the car is a write-off. Rosie gets really worried about him, when he checks himself out of the hospital and disappears. Meg Sawyer gives birth to her first baby, but her father-in-law Ed causes nothing but trouble. Dr. Trent gets a visit from her father Maxwell Hamilton, but is not particularly happy to see him, because he left her and her mother when she was 10. But he just wants to see her again because he is terminally ill with lung cancer. Aunt Peggy enters David in a fishing competition after he catches a giant salmon.

Ronald Headley is found dead in the river and PC Bellamy is excluded from the investigation when it turns out that his wife Debbie may be involved. Headley was a bank manager who got into prison for embezzlement, and in his wallet the police find photos of the assistant manager of his old bank, Sheryl Cooper. The case leads to Phil discovering that Debbie has a drinking problem. Aunt Peggy is far from happy when a group of squatters makes camp at David's and her farm and demands police action, but she has come to an understanding with them when PC Younger arrives. Counsellor Jowett is not prepared to leave it like that.

Miller's ex army pal arrives. Peggy takes Phil's daughters poaching.

Helen and Rob's wedding. Noisy neighbours.

The honeymoon is over for Rob and Helen Walker. A car with an unconscious man in it is found in a ditch at Long Lane. And somebody has stolen all the sheep from Len Hallett's farm. Since it happened only a few hundred yards apart PC Walker suspects that the two cases are connected and that the unconscious man, Frank Mirfield, may have seen something he should not. Terry Parsons' grandmother has become senile dementia, and Dr. Walker suggests that they lock her in to keep her from wandering off, but the next morning the old lady has disappeared. Norman and Kath Harrison have bought a farm and necessity forces them to live off the land and Aunt Peggy decides to become self-sufficient too, but that idea really stinks.

On her way home from night class Sandra Proctor is forced off the road by a hit-and-run driver. Alan Seddon's car was stolen outside the dance hall in Ashfordly. Alan is the son of Roy Seddon, the councillor on the police committee, and Sergeant Miller gives the case top priority. The car is found abandoned, and it turns out to be the car that hit Sandra Proctor. Alan is known for his wild driving and neither his girlfriend Hayley nor his best friend Paul can give him an alibi for the entire evening, so he may have caused the accident and reported the car stolen to cover his tracks. David is fed up with being ordered around by Aunt Peggy and accepts a job with the window cleaner Topsy Turner instead. But Peggy is not prepared to give up on him that easy.

Things are quiet at the police station in Ashfordly. Almost too quiet. And it is not going to last. Suddenly two armed men hold up PC Younger and Alf Ventress and lock them up in a cell, while they free a single "guest" without Sergeant Miller noticing anything from behind his desk at the sergeant's office. With PC Walker and PC Bellamy in hot pursuit through Aidensfield they kill a dog and seriously injure a pedestrian. To top it all the police do not even know the identity of the escaped prisoner, who was just detained overnight for being drunk. One more thing bothers Phil Bellamy. He is sure he saw Debbie's late husband Barry in Ashfordly when the pursuit began.

Frances Elliott has just moved to Aidensfield, but is not very popular with her neighbours because she very much keeps herself to herself. When Joyce Jowett wants to talk to her about a sale she is organizing in aid of the Aidensfield toddler group she suspects that Miss Elliott is hiding a baby. Jowett also puts Aunt Peggy on the jumble stall of the sale without asking her first. Peggy rather wants so sell pictures of local sights - with a "small" share for herself of course to cover the costs. PC Walker has passed his sergeant's exam and has been accepted at a special training course with an automatic promotion. But he still has his doubts because it means that he will have to leave his colleagues and friends and especially a certain pretty district nurse with blonde hair and blue eyes.