Rab C. Nesbitt

- Season 5

(1996)

Whilst Mary is eagerly anticipating the Nesbitts' twentieth wedding anniversary Rab is tempted into an affair with Susan, the leader of his AA group. When Susan discovers that Rab is married she throws him over. Will Mary have him back in time for the anniversary celebrations?

The Nesbitts and the Cotters are enjoying an idyllic holiday in the Lake District but the mood is soured when a chemical company dumps radiation waste in a local stream, causing an explosion which hospitalises Gash. Rab is spurred on to become an environmental campaigner taking on the polluters.

The Nesbitts win on the football pools but need to borrow from a loan shark until their winnings arrive. They book into a plush hotel with the Cotters,whose marriage they are trying to save, and Rab gives Jamesie money to enable his pregnant bit on the side to afford an abortion. Unfortunately he is unaware that Jamesie has betrayed him and stolen his winnings,leading to a beating from the loan shark.

Mary's brother Shug comes to Govan to spend his redundancy money on a shop selling square pies. This is a bad plan as the local Mafia, in addition to drugs and prostitution,are heavily into pies and have started a turf war because of them. Shug falls foul of the Lord of the Pies, who destroys his shop and captures his delivery man,Rab, pointing a gun at his head. For once Rab is grateful to hear a police siren.

Pilloried for causing the death of next door neighbour Mrs McBride through noise pollution the Nesbitts go on Uncle Bob's TV chat show to clear their name and become celebrities. Unfortunately Rab also stands trial for Mrs McBride's death though he is acquitted thanks to Gash and Screech spying on the supposedly grieving widower.

When Rab re-encounters long-lost brother Gash,he recalls their unhappy childhood with a violent father who never recovered from losing his job as a tram driver and who was about to beat Gash up for winning university admission before Rab stepped in, causing father to drop down dead. The experience traumatised Gash, now a mental hospital resident.