It's Frank's 50th. Uncharacteristically, he snubs the chance for a party and opts to dwell in his own lonely loveless existence - until librarian Libby falls into his life.

Having served a short prison term for inciting a riot over the library closure Libby is back,driving a mobile library van and,after some misgivings,Frank agrees they should make a go of it. Lilian buys a HD television whose white noise leads her to believe that she has a link to the after-life and conducts a seance but it turns out to be a technical fault. After Karen accuses him of infidelity Jamie quits working as a male escort and Carl willingly takes his place.

As Libby and Patty move in Frank offers to paint Patty's room but,when he falls over absconding with the paint,he feigns injury to get out of the task before buying cheap road marker paint from the workmen. Karen improves but Kelly,ashamed of her session with Paddy,repeatedly turns down Shane's marriage proposals until Paddy tells his son the truth and the couple wed. Chesney and Carl go on the run after seeing the ultra-violent Jimmy beat to death a boy who has sex with his sister and threaten to claim that Chesney was the killer.

The council ask the residents to make a film to improve the estate's image though Micky's violent take on 'Taxi Driver' is not what they expected. Meanwhile the Gallaghers use the filming to shadow Jimmy but when Ian confronts him he gets a severe beating. Chesney and Carl hole up with the free-spirited Hazel on her cannabis farm in Wales but she is also hiding a deadly secret and Carl decides to return home. Mimi joins the W.I. to soften her image and gets her revenge when the others look down on her.

Chesney and Carl return to the estate,hiding out with Joe,who dissuades Carl from shooting Jimmy. Eventually Shane,increasingly angry at how the cocky Jimmy and his gang see themselves as beyond the law whilst terrorising the Gallaghers,persuades his family to take them on and teach them a lesson. Maxine persuades Jimmy's sister to tell the police the truth and the fugitives are cleared though Maxine still aborts Carl's child. Shane also finds that he is infertile,leading to his family offering to be sperm donors though Kelly declines their offer as she and Shane continue to be surrogate parents to Liam.

When Liam befriends a World War II veteran to help him with his school project, he finds solace in the old man's company, but Libby spies on them and jumps to all the wrong conclusions.

Libby makes it clear to Frank she wants a child but she and Liam do reconcile. However,at the Jockey's Talent Contest night it's Liam's new friend Dean who helps him win - approval. Ian is involved with the local boxing club and discovers that its owner Jock and Paddy have ill-feeling which goes back a long way. Jock owes Paddy money and to prevent him taking his gym he torches it. Fortunately Micky,recently accepted as a fireman,is on hand to act and to save Paddy - at long last gaining his father's respect.

When Kelly's fifteen year old sister Tonya arrives to stay her child has been taken into care but she has a chance of reclaiming it if she proves she can look after a robotic baby. However she dumps it on the Maguires whilst she goes out on the lash and Micky sadly acknowledges that her child would be better off without her though he rallies the family to scare off her father Homer,who is also the father of her baby. Frank accompanies Patty to Lourdes,where they masquerade as clerics to steal the altar wine and Frank appears to be on the receiving end of a miracle.

When Paddy plans to move on with new lady friend Rosalita he and Mimi decide to divorce,only to discover their marriage was never legal.so they have to get married again quickly to make the children legitimate. They hope to keep things secret but Micky finds out. After Frank has stolen from her Patty sets him up for benefit fraud,leading to a day in the cells for them both whilst Micky gets picked up by attractive Gary. Unfortunately Gary thinks Micky is Paddy and is only sleeping with him for the status,which he publicly declares.

Bruce,now live-in barman at the Jockey,takes over the football team and enters them in an all gay football contest,much to the disgust of Chesney. Maxine meets her old art teacher,Marc,recently widowed,and agrees to pose topless for his class. However she turns down a relationship with him so as not to betray Ian. Joe learns of his father's death on his birthday and determines to run away with Karen and Connor. However Ian follows and,when Joe violently attacks Karen,who wants to return to Jamie,he brains him.

Helped by his friend Anto Joe flees the estate with Karen and Connor but when Karen expresses a desire to return to Jamie,Joe gets violent,trying to strangle her. Fortunately Ian has followed and kills him. Back at the Jockey,the scene for a weapons amnesty,Roscoe,whom the Maguires scammed out of counterfeit money,bursts in with his gang and takes everybody hostage,threatening to shoot Shane and Jamie. However Frank,Bruce and Micky,who are in the cellar,access the handed in guns and succeed in saving the day by arming everybody... except Mimi,who is upstairs. The pains she thought were menopausal were in fact a sign of pregnancy and she gives birth to a little girl.

Karen returns and tries to patch things up with Jamie whilst Mimi,who has called her baby Cilla,tries in vain to find out who the father is. Libby and Frank's wedding plans are interrupted by news of Debbie's death and the arrival of Monica,who in fact had put a friend up to falsely reporting the non-existent death to hurt Frank. Frank enjoys himself at his stag night but then disappears whilst new resident Avril Powell organizes a hen party for Libby,at which Mimi collapses and is rushed to hospital.

Frank is still AWOL and Libby is distraught that Monica is demanding custody of Stella and Liam, while Karen is keen to move forward as a family in counseling.

Frank is in a mental ward at the mercy of Monica's lover ,nurse Mildred,but Libby believes he has deserted her and spends the wedding money on a new kitchen. Avril sets out to look after Mimi,causing Mimi to temporarily have 'impure' thoughts about her whilst Shane takes over security at the school where Jackson works. He helps young Jude overcome bullying by his twin but there is still competition between him and Jamie over business. Micky attempts to help his ex-con pen-pal come out to his family but just stops short of outing himself to Mimi and his brothers.

Chesney's cousin Sita fails her exams but her tutor John Cromer agrees to pass her if they have sex,which leads to his being set up and filmed by Carl to compromise him into passing Sita. Patty's great nephew Aidan,an aggressive little brat,comes to stay after his single mother,a drug addict and prostitute,has been jailed. He soon gets into a fight with Jackson and uses Libby's credit card to access Interner porn. Karen and Jamie reconcile,Karen agreeing to out-patient treatment at the local psychiatric hospital,where she sees Frank and tells Libby.

Monica informs Libby that she has twenty-four hours to marry Frank or else she will nullify the divorce and reclaim the house. Recognizing Mildred Fletcher as Monica's lover Frank steals her keys and escapes with a girl called Carly,putting Mildred wise as to Monica's true nature. However,as Libby has broken into the unit he has to recruit the Maguire boys to go back with him to rescue her. At the Jockey the wedding is about to take place,Liam sending a letter to say he will stay with Monica to try and make her a better person. Monica is beaten but Libby and Frank decide not to marry but live together instead.

Kelly is angry with Shane for taking money from their joint account for the business and helps herself to two grand,an act which spells danger for Carl on his first day as a courier for the Maguires and though Jamie ensures he has a memorable twenty-first Shane warns him against doing business with his brother. Micky meanwhile persuades a reluctant Chesney to help him set up a gay chat-line and comments about football by Mimi mistakenly lead Jackson to believe she is racist.

Kelly and Shane start a business satisfying people's sexual fantasies. However,whilst helping MP's wife Sandra Brown enact her fantasy of being kidnapped they attract police attention and are soon besieged on the estate. Fortunately Shane has an elaborate plan which will return Sandra without any arrests and make him a pile of money. Sita discovers Chesney's Muslim driving school is a front for wild parties and teaches him a lesson by calling in the anti-terrorist squad,at the same time securing compensation for their ailing shop.

To get money for Cilla and do his bit for morals Micky creates a fake child porn site Skool Dreamz,with no nude photos,to get the credit card details of would-be punters and bankrupt them. Unfortunately the family is arrested for fraud but Micky gives a rousing speech in court which has no bearing on the case being dismissed. Working on a help line Patty meets and marries depressive Trevor but finds he only wants her for a suicide pact,which she is not about to fulfil. Sita gets one over on Aidan,who has been sexually harassing her.

After sleepless nights with Cilla Mimi is starting to feel bad and believes that she is going mad,as one of her relatives did,and that the house is haunted. Finally she believes that Kelly and Shane are trying to kill her and locks them out of the house though she recovers after seeing a vision of Mandy,who tells her what to do. Kelly is suspicious of the power new girl Bonnie exerts over Lillian in the brothel and Avril and Jackson's continuing efforts to spice up their sex life leads daughter Letitia to believe that her father is having an affair.

Micky gets a cat,Dusty,from the pet shelter and,wrongly believing it has Feline AIDs consults elderly gay Lulu,who is HIV positive. When Lulu dies Mimi appears sympathetic to gays but adds that she would feel she had done something wrong if she had a gay child. After Carl is injured minding the shop in Chesney's absence Sita drives the car Jamie wanted him to deliver,only for them to discover it was stolen and a knicker-thief,stealing Mimi's pants off the washing line,brings fear to the estate.

Kelly is appalled to find that Lillian has formally adopted Bonnie and given her the brothel,which she sets about altering. However Bonnie is a very mixed up young woman and,unable to face up to Lilian's love for her,kills herself. Also disturbed is Jennie,the carer Libby hires to look after Patty because Jennie has a pathological hatred of old people,stemming from her childhood,and Libby has to save her mother from her. Carl is upset when Sita tells him she is returning to Pakistan for an arranged marriage though he has a new,unwanted admirer in Letitia.

Mimi is surprised when her brother Bobbi turns up to announce he's soon to become her sister! Meanwhile, Jackson dabbles in local politics while Shane's new clamping business causes mayhem.

Following a charity evening at the Jockey Shane resists the advances of wheelchair-bound teenager Tilly Pucker,who consequently accuses him of stealing her chair and the charity collection. When her minders pursue Shane however the entire Maguire clan ,including Jamie,close ranks and family harmony is restored. Increasingly disheartened at Frank's lack of romance,especially after hearing he had oral sex with Letitia's headmistress, Libby invents a fictional lover to make him jealous. He sees through the ruse but she decides to leave him anyway,despite his accidental torching of her library van.

Paddy returns to the Chatsworth in a coffin. Karen sets up a children's entertainment business, but when a catfight with a sexy rival is popular with the dads, she finds a new way to make extra cash.

Handsome,charismatic lay preacher Jesue (real name Eric) O'Toole and his busload of acolytes invade the estate,picketing 'immoral'businesses and leading the Maguires to consider violence to get rid of them,only Aidan finding romance with young disciple Grace. However Kelly and Micky have a better solution,tempting Jesus with the flesh and causing him to renounce his faith. Patty,having fallen downstairs and been genuinely invalided,does a deal with Frank to stay in his house whilst Marty Fisher,on the run from the CSA,causes discord between Kelly and Shane.

Mickey gives Mimi an ultimatum: either the new boiler goes or he does. And there's uproar in The Jockey when Frank pockets Cynthia's scratch card.

Aidan's bad behaviour has landed him in court, but it's Patty who'll decide the outcome. Cilla's abduction forces Mimi to face her past and her family, and Mickey helps Marty do up the flat

When the Maguires see CCTV footage of Marty's inept attempted robbery Shane realises the robber is using his clothes and gun and calls the police,sending Marty on the run. Kelly's affections are torn and when Shane tells her that Marty's wife and children died in a mysterious fire in Spain and the arsonist has yet to be caught she is unsure what to believe. Billy tries to get back into Mimi's good books but very nearly fails when he attempts to kill the annoying local priest who is conducting Cilla's christening.

Micky has landed in court and been given community service,helping supervise a social group for people with Downs Syndrome and autism. He notes that one group member Ray is brilliant with numbers and takes him to hit the casino but he is rubbish there and only interested in Kelly - who admits to Karen she is pregnant by Marty. When the unpopular group leader Michelle gets pushed downstairs Micky takes over organizing the annual play,a Nativity,which he stages at the Jockey and it is a huge success. Mimi gets Billy to 'man up' by joining her on a burglary. Escaping the law they hide in a church,where he proposes to her.

Kelly admits her pregnancy,telling a heart-broken Shane that she no longer loves him. After doing nothing while witnessing a mugging in a park Carl finally champions old school mate,constable Simon Wexford,accused of injuring a robber,and ends up being accepted for police training. Despite her sons' efforts to scare Billy off Mimi proves her devotion to him by turning down an offer to join Paddy in Bangkok and soon Mimi has become Mrs. Billy Tutton.

Kelly moves in with Marty,asking Micky to leave. Jackson celebrates qualifying as a teacher but festivities are short-lived,due to Operation New Start,a multi-agency based crackdown on the benefit culture of the estate led by hard as nails Carmen Kenaway and her adoring assistant Daniella Feeney. Soon they are evicting dozens of residents,who take refuge at the Jockey but,since over-night stays breach its licence,Kenaway demands its closure. Having unsuccessfully tried to save himself by turning super-grass Frank is made to become a double agent,discovering that Operation New Start wants nothing less than to obliterate the estate as it is seen as an example of throwing good money after bad.

His teaching job withdrawn Jackson is in the same boat as the others as the estate risks becoming a ghost town but the residents fight back,playing 'musical houses' by taking over each others' homes and claiming squatters' rights. Kenaway responds with fire bombs but the Maguires play to her greed,kidnapping her and making her an offer she does not refuse,which makes her rich and saves the estate. Frank is reconciled with new police recruit Carl but Kelly suffers a miscarriage.

Despite an awkward interview Avril gets a job in a hospital pharmacy but Marty is concerned that Kelly,rather than grieve for her dead child,throws herself into partying. Given their age gap Mimi insists she and Billy should have an open marriage,having other sex partners. Shane takes Billy to a club whilst Mimi goes on the pull with her friend Gloria. Both pull but do not enjoy it. Patty attends a friend's funeral and hopes to make money when the deceased's son,Alan,who never knew his mother,attaches himself to her but he becomes obsessive and Patty has to let him down gently,eschewing any rewards.

On a lads' night out, Mickey looks for love in the wrong places and is savagely attacked. Meanwhile, Carl falls for the beautiful Clem and Mimi's sexy, challenging niece turns up at the Maguire house.

Aidan feels guilty that he stood by and let Kane rape Lara,especially when Kane turns his attentions to Letitia. After letting Lara stay with him and Patty Aidan agrees to testify and Kane is arrested. Jamie is almost tricked into doing the dirty work of a discredited policeman,Brooksy,to whom he owes a favour,but Karen stops him in time and Brooksy is sent packing after trying to knife Jamie. Micky ends up with a baby instead of a debt he was sent to collect and decides to move on,becoming a single father. As he leaves he is about to come out but Mimi,already aware of his sexuality,prevents him.

Shane recruits Jackson to help him rob a cigarette delivery at a local supermarket though the plan goes wrong and they have to flee. They do however come up with a lucrative alternative,selling food discarded by the supermarket. Gloria's brother Dom,a priest suspended for his drinking and womanizing,arrives,pursued by two angry husbands whilst Carl leaves for his police training,after a less than cordial farewell with Frank,now the proud owner of Terry the terrapin. Chesney takes drastic measures to avoid being the live-in boyfriend of the buxom Lise,alias Toploader.

Avril takes matters into her own hands on discovering her colleague Callum is addicted to the pills they are dispensing and Kelly,rejecting advice from those around her,flees the estate and ends up at a drugs rave. However,after passing out she imagines a conversation with a concerned Marty and returns to him. Dom bets Karen that if he successfully beds Ruby he can have her too but Karen tells Ruby,who leads Dom on but loses him the bet. Frank nonetheless suspects that Karen is attracted to Dom.

Marty's efforts to redirect the power supply to get free electricity plunges the estate in darkness though he believes that,having had so many volts pass through him and still survived,he is chosen for something. It still fails to prevent the looters from giving him a kicking. Whilst Jamie holds a lock-in at the Jockey - where Frank loses his coat - the women gather for drinks at Mimi's. Here Gloria confesses that her parents kept Dom but put her up for adoption and,on going to the pub for more drinks,she ends up in bed with Jamie. Chesney passes out whilst demonstrating to Billy his fitness regime for protecting the shop against thieves.

Following his collapse Chesney comes out of hospital to find that his cousin Toof wants to take him back to Bradford,where he can be offered a more affluent life-style. However Chesney realises that this this will place him under the thumb of his grandfather,the shop owner,and,encouraged by Patti,decides to stay on the estate and build the shop up on his own terms. Ruby and Kelly are recruited onto Lillian's panel to recruit new girls for the brothel. They do not get on though the brothel certainly ends up with a new look. Jamie continues his affair with Gloria,who,unlike him,seems to have no guilt feelings.

When Frank tells the Maguire brothers that Manchester's former war rooms have been taken over by the NAtional Lottery and are now home to thousands of scratch cards the boys,along with Frank,Ruby and Aidan,hatch a plan to tunnel underneath the main hall and steal the cards. Unnfortunately Frank's stupidity and a general falling out among thieves leads to the tunnel collapsing and trapping them. In Jamie's absence Karen sets out to prove to Mimi that she can replace him as the collector for the family's business whilst Letitia and her friends Keisha and Heaven post a girl band video online but suffer from a hacker.

Jamie, Shane, Frank, Aidan and Ruby are trapped underground where the pressure is building and truths, lies and confessions are abound.

Frank is having a terrible nightmare - he has been sentenced to life imprisonment and subject to the taunts of a sarcastic warder. But the reality,from Frank's viewpoint,is just as horrendous. The Department of Work and Pensions has finally caught up with him and considered him fit for work. His attempts to get Patty to injure him go wrong and he ends up working for World of Burgers. Shane and Jackson set up their own still,selling hooch to the pub and Mimi bribes them to employ Billy,who turns out to be more professional than imagined until he gets the mix wrong. Avril goes into business selling tablets to Patty,which has an odd effect on her.

Calling himself Danny McKenzie Shane continues to befriend Ruthie,agreeing to help her choose a headstone for her dead husband Eddie. However not only does he face opposition from Ruthie's teen-aged son Sean,who masturbates in public,but is haunted by Eddie's abusive ghost. Finally,rather than admit the truth to Ruthie,he takes Kelly's advice and roughly breaks things off with her. Kelly herself and Lilian face opposition when the super-efficient Louise opens a rival brothel at knock-down prices,stealing away some of Lilian's regulars,including Frank. When Louise offers Kelly a job she takes the opportunity to spy on her rival and,having obtained the details of all of Louise's clients,uses a little blackmail to see off the opposition.

After seeing a fatal road accident Marty decides that life is fleeting and eventually proposes to Kelly,who accepts. However when he receives a letter from his supposedly dead children in Spain,he is anxious to fly out to see what has happened. He does assure Kelly that he still wants to marry her so the engagement party goes ahead without him. Karen suspects Jamie of infidelity,initially with Ruby,but,convinced she is wrong,tries to set a honey trap with Gloria. Jamie tries to cover himself by claiming that Gloria came on to him but she sees it as prudent to end the affair. Lilian has a vision in which a talking dog warns her of imminent calamity on the estate. However the dog later returns to tell her that she was unable to prevent either of the lovers' tiffs.

Jackson and Shane are flourishing as wheeler dealers with stolen solar panels and food past its sell-by date. However when Shane,to Jackson's annoyance,starts to give away some left-overs to the homeless he has a queue of unemployed in the yard seeking hand-outs and agrees to donate food to the local Catholic priest. But the priest goes behind his back to steal his business,leaving Shane to resort to blackmail to get his livelihood back. Patty organizes coffee mornings for other elderly folk but is exposed as having played on their absent-mindedness to win money and jewellery from them by gambling. Soon she is reviled all over the estate but Kelly detects that she is cranking up the abuse to gain sympathy and forces her into a deal. Meanwhile Billy is having problems in the bedroom department which Lilian,Dominic and a little plain talking soon cure.

Following the suicide of his old flame Alice, Dominic loses both his faith and the will to live and asks Frank to help him to kill himself. Frank,however,does his best to sabotage every attempt until eventually Dominic has an epiphany whilst sitting on the roof of a high building and decides to return to the land of the living,seeing it as his business to stop Avril's attempt to help her daughter Letitia lose her cherry. Meanwhile Lillian gets her own back on magistrate Malcolm,a client who has passed her off as his life coach to justify his expenses.

Jamie is receiving death threats by letter and text and,after his lock-up is torched and Karen's blouse nailed to the door,suspects that one of the pub regulars is in league with his tormenters. After Karen is attacked he agrees to meet the gang responsible and give them two hundred thousand pounds to back off but is shocked when he discovers who is behind the threats. Whilst Frank,now sacked,claims he has had sex by proxy with all the estate through 'Sex Degrees of Separation' Avril wrongly diagnoses Patty with terminal leukaemia,which gives Patty the opportunity to insult the whole estate. However Avril has cause to think again when the real results come through.

Frank is delegated to tell Patty she is terminally ill but she already knows and asks that he help her see Ireland before she dies. With no funds for the ferry trip he takes her to the beach at Waterloo,where she swears she can see the old country. At her request he leaves her alone and,on return,finds she has taken matters into her own hands. As Mimi prepares for her wedding anniversary her constant criticisms of Ruby's father lead Ruby to taking her hostage at knife-point with tragic consequences. Dominic takes brotherly love to a whole new level with Gloria but Jackson,aware of Avril's fling with young Calum from work,walks out on her.

Frank is delegated to tell Patty she is terminally ill but she already knows and asks that he help her see Ireland before she dies. With no funds for the ferry trip he takes her to the beach at Waterloo,where she swears she can see the old country. At her request he leaves her alone and,on return,finds she has taken matters into her own hands. As Mimi prepares for her wedding anniversary her constant criticisms of Ruby's father lead Ruby to taking her hostage at knife-point with tragic consequences. Dominic takes brotherly love to a whole new level with Gloria but Jackson,aware of Avril's fling with young Calum from work,walks out on her.

Despite an awkward interview Avril gets a job in a hospital pharmacy but Marty is concerned that Kelly,rather than grieve for her dead child,throws herself into partying. Given their age gap Mimi insists she and Billy should have an open marriage,having other sex partners. Shane takes Billy to a club whilst Mimi goes on the pull with her friend Gloria. Both pull but do not enjoy it. Patty attends a friend's funeral and hopes to make money when the deceased's son,Alan,who never knew his mother,attaches himself to her but he becomes obsessive and Patty has to let him down gently,eschewing any rewards.

To get money for Cilla and do his bit for morals Micky creates a fake child porn site Skool Dreamz,with no nude photos,to get the credit card details of would-be punters and bankrupt them. Unfortunately the family is arrested for fraud but Micky gives a rousing speech in court which has no bearing on the case being dismissed. Working on a help line Patty meets and marries depressive Trevor but finds he only wants her for a suicide pact,which she is not about to fulfil. Sita gets one over on Aidan,who has been sexually harassing her.

Aidan's bad behaviour has landed him in court, but it's Patty who'll decide the outcome. Cilla's abduction forces Mimi to face her past and her family, and Mickey helps Marty do up the flat

Jamie is receiving death threats by letter and text and,after his lock-up is torched and Karen's blouse nailed to the door,suspects that one of the pub regulars is in league with his tormenters. After Karen is attacked he agrees to meet the gang responsible and give them two hundred thousand pounds to back off but is shocked when he discovers who is behind the threats. Whilst Frank,now sacked,claims he has had sex by proxy with all the estate through 'Sex Degrees of Separation' Avril wrongly diagnoses Patty with terminal leukaemia,which gives Patty the opportunity to insult the whole estate. However Avril has cause to think again when the real results come through.

When Kelly's fifteen year old sister Tonya arrives to stay her child has been taken into care but she has a chance of reclaiming it if she proves she can look after a robotic baby. However she dumps it on the Maguires whilst she goes out on the lash and Micky sadly acknowledges that her child would be better off without her though he rallies the family to scare off her father Homer,who is also the father of her baby. Frank accompanies Patty to Lourdes,where they masquerade as clerics to steal the altar wine and Frank appears to be on the receiving end of a miracle.