Life of Riley

- Season 1

(2009)

Divorcee Maddy Jackson, who has a little boy called Ted, marries Jim Riley,who has two teenagers Katy and Danny. They also have a baby. However when a pregnancy testing kit is discovered unopened Jim assumes it belongs to Maddy who wants another child and Maddy freaks out, thinking it means Katy is pregnant. Of course it turns out that it belongs to neither of them . . .

To accommodate the increased family the Rileys move to a bigger house and the move is predictably disastrous. The cat gets lost along with the family silver, requiring improvisation at the breakfast table and the baby has to sleep in a crate. And,just as things are settling down Maddy gets to meet the smug couple from next door.

Maddy's husband Jim decides that her ex-husband Robbie is his new best friend. While the two of them bond by putting up shelves, Maddy's stepson decides to come out of the closet.

Katy becomes a vegetarian after rescuing a pigeon from the cat and devotes her energies into becoming an animal rights supporter whilst Maddy tries to help Danny when he complains of being bullied, though he hits upon a sure way of making money by posing as a down-and-out.

When Maddy's son Ted makes it clear to her that he has no desire to take part in the neighbour's sleep-over Maddy, rather than telling the truth, embarks upon a series of lies which inevitably escalate and only get harder to justify.

On the same evening that Maddy reads a bedtime story for the son of her next door neighbours the Weavers - resulting in calamity - Jim accompanies Maddy's first husband Robbie on his stag night, as best man, and it's a miracle that he manages to get him to the church on time.