Man Down

- Season 3

(2016)

Still pining for Emma, who is now in America, Dan is alarmed to discover that he is to face a disciplinary hearing for his incompetence. Anxious to discover the contents of his file he fails to bribe the scary Serbian janitor Mr Klackov and an attempt to break into the school ends with his being savaged by a fox. Though the headmaster assures him that he is not being dismissed he still figures that it may be time to move on whilst at home he is unimpressed by his mother's new boyfriend Daedalus, or Daddy for short.

Now jobless Dan attends a funeral officiated by trendy gay American vicar Drew. Captivated by his charisma Dan joins Drew's self-confidence group where nobody knows him but everybody likes him - a first for Dan. When Jo's efforts to obtain a shop fail, due to her bizarre interview role play, she joins Dan as part of the church group but manage to accidentally disband it. However Dan does receive an encouraging message from Emma.

Jo's shop is due to open but without a celebrity to cut the tape. Brian would very much like it to be MP Anne Finton, with whom he is smitten, but she is busy. Nesta has to retake her driving test and accidentally backs into Dan, causing his knee to swell up. Local rag editor Roger thinks this is newsworthy though Dan would prefer him - or anybody - to be interested in his planned emigration to America but finally comes up with an idea to make the front page, help Jo and bring Brian and Anne Finton together. He even gets a friendly response from his successor, teacher...

Forced to share with Nesta when Daddy moves in Dan decides to leave home, taking his sole possession, a blue chair, which causes a problem on a bus. Another problem is his need for a visa to go America since he needs an address and has made himself homeless, being foiled when he tries to sleep at the local gym. Nor does having Jo as his guarantor help when she accidentally starts a fire outside the passport office but, though his application is accepted and he returns home, the real shock comes when he sees his birth certificate.

Dan is shocked when Mum tells him that she and his father are his natural parents but, being young and poor, they put him up for adoption, the adopters eventually giving him back. A search for their identity leads him, along with Jo and Brian and his daughters to Southend, finishing up in an Irish pub where Dan's attempts to join in a music session with a made-up song does not impress and circumstances prevent a reconciliation with the adopted parents. However Brian becomes uncharacteristically free-spirited in comforting Dan after his disappointment.

Having resigned his teaching post Dan is having a leaving party but it gets cancelled when the venue, Jo's shop, is repossessed whilst Daddy spitefully arranges to take Mum away for the weekend so that she will miss it. Brian has his own bad news but when there is a family crisis Dan and Nesta ally to put Daddy in his place and circumstances contribute to Dan changing his mind about emigration - even in the light of news from Emma.