Birds of a Feather

- Season 2

(1990)

When Tracey's central heating system breaks down, she gets in touch with a few male plumbers who don't fit the bill so, on Dorien's recommendation, she hires a female duo. Unfortunately, after they have completed the work and left, the tank starts to leak and, to add to Tracey's woes, Gareth has had a fight at school and she has to pay for half the damage.

Tracey decides to raise cash by selling Darryl's Jaguar but, after a buyer has taken it, she learns from Darryl not only that it was due for repossession as he had failed to keep up the payments but that £25,000 was hidden in the spare wheel. To save Tracey embarrassment, Dorien buys it back for her.

Garth brings home a handsome friend, Richard, to stay. They seem very keen to do things together and Tracey gets it into her head that they are a gay couple. Darryl is annoyed with her for jumping to conclusions and ultimately she is proved to be mistaken. Garth is not gay and Richard certainly is not as Dorien knows first hand.

In order to understand what it must be like for Darryl to live in a prison cell, Tracey simulates conditions by living in the spare room for the weekend and Sharon joins her. Dorien, locked out of her house, acts as a warder, locking and unlocking them but when her house is burgled she has to leave in a hurry, with the sisters still locked in the bedroom. They climb through the window and throw tiles to attract her attention but one hits the police car attending her burglary and the sisters end up in a real cell.

Sharon, Tracey and Dorien witness Vinny Hutchins, a petty crook known to Darryl, as he robs a building society. The sisters argue about the morality of grassing him up for the reward but, after speaking to Darryl, Tracey is about to, only to find Dorien got in first to buy a new kitchen from her young lover, Luke, a kitchen fitter who needs the business to stop him being transferred.

Tracey has an infestation of mice and blames Sharon for being sloppy and dropping crumbs to attract them. They get a cat but it's useless and wees on the carpet when Tracey is attempting to have a perfume-selling party. Eventually they find out that it's all Dorien's fault, the mice have come in from her house.

Sharon goes to the aid of a middle-aged man, Don, after he is mugged and robbed of his wallet and they go on a few dates and sleep together, even though she is aware that he is married. He tells her he is a financial advisor, who has come to Chigwell to help Marcus out of a jam. They decide to re-live the sixties and take drugs together but when the police come to return the wallet he flushes them down the toilet.

It's the local elections and Tracy isn't sure who to vote for. Who better than Dorien to offer political advice?

Tracey is having psycho-therapy for her depression and falls for Gerald, the smooth therapist. Forbidden by Darryl to carry on the sessions she meets Gerald in a bar where she declares her feelings for him but he believes that she is becoming too dependent on him and suggests they end the treatment. Sharon and Dorien agree to keep this from Darryl.

As she approaches thirty Sharon feels she has wasted her life and wants to do something positive. She considers buying her old council flat, inspired by the fact that the boyfriend of neighbor Lisa is in the property business. Tracey is against the idea, which is as well because Lisa's boyfriend gets sent down for dodgy dealings and Sharon takes his place with Lisa on a Club 18 - 30 holiday in Spain.

Darryl is in hospital and, helped by a sympathetic nurse, drugs the guard and escapes for a night of passion with Tracey in a hotel. All goes according to plan until next day when the taxi-driver returning Darryl to hospital is stopped for drink driving. This requires a call to Sharon - who has just exhausted a young artist who came to sell her a painting - and a mercy dash with Dorien to collect Darryl and get him back before the guard comes round.

Tracey meets up with Trish, her old bridesmaid, who has just left her husband. Tracey invites her to stay, which annoys Sharon, making her wonder how secure she will be when Daryl comes home. Dorien encourages her to befriend Trish and in fact the two women get on very well. Now it is Tracey's turn to be annoyed as Trish never stops banging on about the past and she is relieved when Trish goes back to her husband.

Sharon decides that it is time to move on. She doesn't love Chris and he doesn't love her so it's time for the parting of the ways. Unfortunately her plan to tell him it's over coincides with his needing an operation to remove a malignant tumour from one of his testicles and he says he needs her support. Despite opposition from Tracey, Sharon goes through with her plan though she agrees she will still visit from time to time.

With Christmas looming the sisters decide to get jobs to make money - Sharon advertises her services as a dog-walker, only to find that she has competition in the form of the 13-year-old son of one of Dorien's friends. Tracey agrees to type up a novel Dorien has written, which turns out to be a rip-off of 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'.

With 'The Antiques Road Show' coming to town Tracey looks in her attic for heirlooms but finds a series of letters from her mother suggesting that either she or Sharon was adopted and asks Auntie Sylvie round to clear up the matter - which she does to the sisters' surprise. Dorien, meanwhile, is in for a similarly rude awakening when she takes her nineteenth century Russian silver samovar to the Roadshow.

Chris owes money to fellow cons the McCarthys and risks a beating unless he can raise the cash. If Sharon can get to Germany and ship over a collectible car he once owned there the problem is solved. Miraculously Sharon wins a German trip on a game show and, along with fellow winner Barry - whom she can't stand - and Tracey, goes to Germany where they locate the car and bring it home, Tracey falling for a sweet mechanic, Manfred, in the process. Dorien discovers that, when it comes to having affairs, Marcus can play her at her own game.