2point4 Children

- Season 2

(1992)

Now unemployed, Bill is late for her signing-on appointment thanks to a phone call from Bette, and the car breaks down on the way to the DHSS office. She gets a mechanic to fix it, but he is whisked away by Anneka Rice for her 'Challenge Anneka' television show and Bill gets pulled over by the police pushing the car through a red light. Finally she makes her appointment to be interviewed by the infantile Janice, but eventually agrees to take a job with Rona at a factory supplying catering packs. Meanwhile, Ben takes on an assistant, abrasive Christine, who soon falls ...

Already bored with her new job Bill also has to look after Ben,down with flu,and has taken in next door's dog,the elderly and flatulent Bonzo. When Bonzo falls ill rather than let him suffer Bill puts him out of his misery with Ben's tablets. Ben is shocked that his wife went behind his back to put Bonzo down and,given that he is also ill,asks whether she would do the same for him. The whole episode brings out a morbid curiosity with death in David,who gives his teddy bear a ritual burial in the back garden.

Bill is concerned that David's interest in death is not helped by Ben,who,on his way to the school parents' evening,imagines himself to be the Terminator and cuts up a Ford Escort. Discovering that the driver is disabled he feels ashamed but later accepts a challenge to race him - and loses. Bill fears that she may be pregnant again and buys a home testing kit but when one of the testers goes missing and Jenny acts oddly it looks as if Jenny is the one who is expecting. Rona has a talk with her and discovers she is bulimic whilst Ben,who actually took the test for a ...

Tina tells Ben that their estranged father Frank is coming home from Thailand but when Bill and Ben go to meet him are amazed to find that he has a much younger Thai bride Darrani. Ben argues with Frank over his constant absenteeism and the Porters leave but Rona persuades Bill,Darrani and Tina to go with her to see a male stripper. Even though he is masked Rona recognizes him when he is fully frontally nude as Gordon,an ex-boyfriend,who invites the women backstage,Tina's prim persona taking a knock. In the meantime Frank comes to see Ben and apologizes leading to a ...

Ben gets a camcorder to film the family with a view to sending a video to 'You've Been Framed' but Bill,sick of her job and having learnt about Angelo,is not in the mood. The kids' attitude does not help so Bill reverses the roles by putting them in charge and then disobeying them. She goes for a job interview with another bakery,loses her shoe on the bus and gets caught in the rain. However on arriving at the interview she is confronted by a nude man who thinks he is a dog after having a breakdown on being told he is being made redundant. A nurse leads him away and ...

Rona is preparing for her wedding to Gordon and the Porters' house is in chaos as Auntie Pearl takes charge. David complains of feeling ill and he and Ben escape to sit in the car whilst Bill goes to see Rona. Through the kitchen window she sees her friend,in her bridal dress,dangling from the ceiling - Rona was changing a light bulb when the ladder fell away. Bill tries to help her by crawling in through a cat flap but gets stuck and eventually both women are rescued by a door-to-door salesman. On returning home Bill finds David has collapsed and Rona lets the ...

Rona takes the bus to her wedding and gets into conversation with a garrulous old lady,Peggy. The more Peggy talks to her the more Rona feels she should not be getting married and,on arrival at the church,finds so many of her ex-boyfriends in the congregation that she cannot go through with it and runs out on Gordon. David meanwhile lies unconscious,Bill blaming herself for not listening when he said he was ill and Ben feeling guilty for not taking him for his tetanus shot. David imagines that Angelo appears to him telling him it is his decision whether to live or die...

Whilst Rona spends Christmas alone,all her ex-boyfriends being otherwise engaged, the Porters spend the season with Bette and they hate it, Bill recalls painful childhood Christmas times whilst Ben imagines himself in a scene from 'Misery' with Bette breaking his legs and tying him to a bed to make him stay at her house. They have to watch TV shows they hate,play Consequences - which only David finds funny - and suffer the heating on full blast. Bill tries to explain to her mother her feelings but things start to look up when Bette,hypnotized by the tree lights,falls ...