Waiting for God

- Season 4

(1993)

Diana is horrified to find that she is unaccountably in the red and goes up to London to cause a fuss,only to discover that all her investments have gone into receivership. Back in Bayview Tom's room is suffering from severe rising damp so Tom comes up with a solution that will sort things out for them both. They will live together in one large room. Diana accepts this but draws the line at being carried over the threshold.

To Jane's disapproval Diana and Tom are now living in sin,or rather together,but already they start arguing,since they can't decide whose furniture they should be using. A new resident, Mrs. Kent from Gwent,arrives. She is withdrawn and nervous so Tom and Diana put on an act of being very happy together in order to bring her out of her shell. As it happens they do get a result - but only when she sees what they are really like.

Living together is not the bed of roses that Tom and Diana were expecting. He criticizes her sloppiness and her funny little ways,such as feeding acorns to squirrels with a sling-shot. She decides to move out and goes to stay with Sarah to be a nanny to baby Diana but this is not her forte. Tom misses her,especially when Geoffrey decides to move in with him again.

Geoffrey is getting on Tom's nerves with his obsession with shelves,which he keeps putting up all over the unit and it's a blessing when he gets a call from Marion,asking him to get back with her. Tom is not the only resident missing Diana as she is seen as a source of advice but Diana herself,a thoroughly incompetent nanny,is missing Bayview and,after ruining a fashion show goes 'home' to Tom.

Whilst Mr. Kwok demonstrates karate to the Bayview males,who vie with each other to impress Jane, Tom is introduced to Jane's psychic,Marjorie Evans, and asks to be put in touch with his dead wife. A seance is duly organized but Marion has bribed the medium to give a fake message,saying that Tom's wife disapproves of his relationship with Diana. Diana,however, exposes the plot.

A promotional video is being made to extol the virtues of Bayview and several residents are to have speaking parts,including Basil,who sees himself as the new James Bond, Tom and Jenny. The excitement is such that few will heed Diana's view that it is just another money-making scam by the idiot Baines - except Tom,who joins her in sabotaging the project by substituting footage of Marion and Geoffrey giving a rather more realistic look at life.

When Tom and Diana's life drawing art classes at the local college are terminated and complaining yields no joy, they decide to instigate their own at Bayview. Baines is to be the model, posing as Julius Caesar, bare beneath his toga for authenticity (or so Diana tells him). But when an inspector calls at Bayview, Diana undoes the knot holding the toga in place and leaving Baines publicly nude. As a result he has to go to a clinic where Jane reports that he has had a breakdown.

A strange reversal of fortune overtakes Bayview with the hospitalised Baines seen as the victim and Diana his tormentor. She is sent to Coventry and there are threats of staff strikes unless she goes. Help comes from a most unexpected source - Marion,whose pharmaceutical knowledge leads her to see that Baines is faking his condition. Diana is vindicated though Tom has made her apologize to Baines in order for her to be allowed to stay. He knew Baines was faking it but thought the humility would do her good.

After drinking a lot at a reunion Tom has trouble passing water and becomes very sensitive about it. He tries to keep it from Diana but his secretive behaviour initially leads her to believe that he is seeing another woman. Ultimately he sees a doctor and goes to hospital and she is upset that he had not told her the truth.

There is to be a conference on the needs of the elderly held and Diana is asked to be the local representative. At the same time Tom is waiting on tests to see if he has prostrate cancer and so Diana researches the subject for the conference. Although the results of the test are as yet undisclosed Tom declares his love for Diana.

Jane's grandfather Jamie arrives at Bayview where tom and Diana are putting on a Christmas play for the residents,though Diana is as curmudgeonly as ever in respect of the festive season. She and Tom play a trick on Baines who is consequently injured and undergoes a personality change for the better.