Born and Bred

- Season 2

(2003)

Molly, a deaf six-year-old,is found on the hospital steps with a note asking that she be looked after. She is sullen and destructive but eventually Tom locates her single parent mother,who has given up in desperation, and reunites them with Molly's father,who was unaware she existed. Grumpy Alec Rossendale insists that his house is haunted and keeps pestering the vicar for exorcisms. Phyllis believes the ghost is that of his late wife, tormenting him for his adultery and rigs a fake exorcism, which achieves closure - thanks to a supernatural intervention. Helen is ...

Deborah is less than pleased when her over-bearing mother,Dora, turns up unannounced to tell her that she is getting married again and wants to have the wedding in Ormston. After Michael believes he has seen a monster in the local reservoir Eddie investigates. The 'monster' is Wilf in an ancient diving-suit. Ever on the make he has heard that an Italian plane carrying the Papal Bull - which he wrongly assumes to be a statue - crashed in the reservoir in the war. Though disabused of the treasure by the Rev. Brewer his diving suit comes in handy. Shop-keeper Mr. Boynton...

Eddie's uncle Fred, the drayman, has leukaemia and is anxious that Eddie, whose garage is beginning to thrive, should succeed him when he dies. When Rev. Brewer tells him to live his last few months to the full, Fred gets Arthur to help him fulfill his wish list of final acts including a race with Eddie to the top of steep Castle Hill, where he collapses. Eddie saves him with a blood transfusion but he dies next day. Arthur has persuaded him not to make Eddie leave the garage but Eddie is touched when Jean offers to take over driving the dray. Elsewhere a mysterious ...

Edie McClure's eldest daughter Joanne falls pregnant after a one night stand. She goes into premature labour at her father's iron works but Tom delivers the baby and keeps it alive in a fish tank with hot water bottles round it. To the Cosgroves it is harsh to see others bear children as Linda has a condition, caught from a G.I. in the war,rendering her virtually barren.When the village water supply gets cut off Deborah,researching local customs, sees the opportunity to help Linda by staging a fertility rite,which involves village women dancing naked. The water is ...

German Hans Gothard comes to Ormston and tells Wilf he killed his brother Charlie in the war. Charlie wounded him but,as Charlie lay dying, he and Hans got to know each other. Wilf refuses to forgive Hans,who collapses. Charlie's bullet is still in his back and is slowly killing him. Initially he refuses to have it removed but relents having made his peace with Wilf after going to bury Charlie's gun under a bridge where Charlie and Wilf played as children. Arthur breaks his ankle and is a most troublesome patient whilst young artist Connor Docherty sets the girls' ...

Deborah's mother Dora and her groom Derek arrive in Ormston for their wedding. Deborah foregoes her initial animosity when she learns that Derek has a form of dementia but the ceremony runs far from smoothly when Len, under orders to up the local arrest rate, decides Derek is a jewel thief and refuses to let the wedding go ahead until he proves his innocence and a parrot bought by Arthur as a wedding present gets drunk and causes havoc.Tom takes up cudgels for injured farm worker Bill Driscoll against his apparently negligent employer only to find that Bill's drinking...

Certain villagers with psychosomatic disorders believe that a statue of a donkey in the vicar's attic sale has magic powers, 'curing' them when they touch it. Amy Faulkner,whose young son Stuart is in a wheelchair after contracting tubercolosis, takes him to the church to touch it but her husband James,who has arranged to send the boy to see a specialist in Manchester,is angry and smashes the statue. Inside is a medieval map of the heavens and Stuart and Michel,both amateur astronomers, use it to run off and try to view a comet due to enter the Earth's orbit. The ...

The Magnificent Colin, a fortune-teller, comes to Ormston, spreading happiness when he gives the vicar racing tips and tells Wilf he has royal connections,though the joy is short-lived. Jean falls prey to temporary blindness due to hard work and Eddie keeps a vigil by her hospital bed. Aggie and Bill Driscoll re-surface, evicted due to Bill's drinking. Tom feels sorry for Aggie and the children but ultimately finds out that Aggie has been lying about Bill and his supposed domestic violence because she has a crush on Tom himself. Michael discovers first love, Phyllis ...

The childless Linda is dismayed to hear Deborah tell Tom her pregnancy is unwanted whilst Michael,playing at being a spy, gets money from letting Wilf and Mr. Boynton out of a shed he's locked them in. Tory M.P. Eugenia Maddox arrives to inspect the hospital with a view to granting it extra funding but,as the Gilders are away,Phyllis gets Jean and Eddie to impersonate them. All goes well until the departing Eugenia is involved in a car crash with Tom - who innocently gives her his name and details. Seriously ill Archie Tomlinson,unwilling to see estranged son Sam, ...

Eugenia decides to turn the hospital into a platform for Tory propaganda so Phyllis calls on Labour M.P. Reg Samuel to give her a run for her money. Wilf has taken to making pies since the baker has now retired and he gives Jean a batch to deliver to the hospital. In the confusion as the Labour group demonstrate against Eugenia the pies go flying and both M.P.s get hit with them ,being burnt by hot gravy. Eugenia initially wants Jean to be arrested but calms down as she and Reg bury their differences and are tended in the hospital. Helen plays Cupid for Jean and Eddie...