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.

Vince Wain is visiting his ex-wife Brenda and their son Martin. While he is at their house he helps himself to their savings and is very surprised when Brenda goes to the police about it. During the following row Martin decides to run away and asks David to help him. They even become blood brothers and promise each other not to let each other down. Mr. Turner is cleaning windows at Ashfordly Hall when he is bitten by his lordship's dog Jack and demands that the dog is put to sleep. Lord Ashfordly even risks being charged in that he cannot prove that the dog is not a danger to the public - no easy task because Jack has quite a history in the biting department. Luckily for him help is not far away and Aunt Peggy offers to train him - the dog that is, not Lord Ashfordly.

Oscar Blaketon is doing some private investigating for Hetty Bolton, who correctly suspects her husband Arthur of having an affair with the waitress Dolly Forde. The next morning Arthur Bolton is found murdered at his coal yard and Hetty Bolton claims that she and Blaketon were having an affair and that Blaketon was jealous of him. Debbie Black reports her television set stolen. She is a very attractive widow with three children and makes quite an impact on PC Bellamy. And she does not find him particularly unattractive either. Aunt Peggy buys a greyhound for racing, but the dog is not as fast as it was promised to be. As a matter of fact she has seen corpses livelier than that.

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.