1. Make Yourself At Home

It's Friday night! And the Pledges are looking forward to two wholes days without pickling... until Lily and Walter appear. Apparently their house has subsided and they've got nowhere to go.

The doctor is sent for, as Walter has severe shock and soon he is sent straight to bed to be waited on hand and foot by Nellie. Whilst he's in bed, he sends Lily down for paper and a pencil to write out his will. The pound signs ring in Nellie and Eli's eyes, and they are soon dashing upstairs to be at his bedside. To makes things worse, Stan is setting out to woo Miss Lily. "With her money, and my looks, we'll be the toast of Colne!" he says.

It turns out that Walter is set to get better, and Lily is despatched back to make the house "fit for co-habitation", but while she has gone, Walter sends the three knock signal on the ceiling, the sign that he thinks he's going. So the Pledges could be in the money after all!

First broadcast: 17th Dec 1970

2. Compliments Of The Season

It's Christmas Eve! Eli's full of the Christmas spirit and Nellie has to tell Lily and Walter they can't come for Christmas dinner as they are going out for theirs: "We've booked a table at the Hotel Metrollops". Then Stan and Grenville turn up with a bottle of the hard stuff and soon the house is ringing out with Christmas cheer. Outside the snow is falling, and falling, and it continues to fall throughout the night, enough to block everyone in on Christmas morning. It looks like the Hotel Metrollops turkey and trimmings will have to wait!

There's no food in the house because the drunken party ate it the night before, so all they have is a jar of jubilee gherkins and a tin of sardines with no key. All is solved though, when Nellie finds a bottle of ginger wine hidden in the piano, Walter better watch it though, cause "He hasn't been"!

First broadcast: 24th Dec 1970

3. Barefaced In The Park

Eli and Stan are off for a quiet double date in the local, leaving Nellie on her own whilst there's a prowler on the loose! The bad news is, Walter's been arrested as the police think it's him! So Nellie and Lily set out to clear Walter's name, by catching the real villain.

The two boys (and Walter) take their dates to the park, where they fail to woo them both, whilst Nellie is making up a story about her bumping into the real prowler. The police think that Walter, Eli or Stan is the prowler, and it all ends up with them running off out of the park before the police take them in for wasting time.

Small note: Just after the advertisement break, we catch a real glimpse of Walter actor, Eddie Malin. Instead of him being in the semi-comatose state Walter's usually in, you can see him talking to the crew members out of shot, grinning, then putting his thumb up in agreement, before relapsing back into character. It only lasts a few seconds - it seems Malin hadn't realised they'd started filming again!

First broadcast: 14th Jan 1971

4. A Man And A Woman

The Pledges have a new coal man, and Nellie's checking out the size of his cobs to see if they're as good as the last fellows. Lily's also interested in the coal man, and Nellie soon thinks Lily fancies him. It turns out that all she wanted was for him to help beef Walter up a bit, and it's not long before Walter's wrapping a poker right round Eli's neck!

Hylda Baker comes out with a great line in this episode, when her and Lily are talking about Lily's trip to London "I believe there's sights to be seen, that shouldn't be seen, because they're obscene, if you know what I mean"

First broadcast: 21st Jan 1971

5. Bottoms Up

Whilst the landlord is away, Nellie has been asked to mind the bar at the Spread Eagle. However, after Eli and Stan take advantage of the free beer barrels in the cellar, she soon bars everyone from drinking in there. Three days later, the only customer she's had is Eli, and that's only because his money ran out in the Queens Arms up the road.

They both hatch a scheme to get the punters back in, hire a stripper! Nellie won't do it, Eli doesn't want Lily to do it, ("we want a sex kitten, not a mangy bloody moggy!"), and so it's down to Big Beryl to get her kit off. But Beryl can't bring herself to do it in front of a live audience, it's taken three hours for Eli to get her coat off, so Eli shows her how to do it, just as the police bust them all for after hours drinking!

First broadcast: 28th Jan 1971

6. X Marks The Spot

Eli has had enough of the pickle factory, so he is enlisting the help of a new works manager. Major Lovelace is sent from the labour exchange and Eli starts to get twitchy. He recognises him from his old army days as the Major that put him on a charge during the war and now thinks he's back to finish off the proceedings. Eli's off to hide in the cellar, with Nellie bringing him meals of corn beef and pickles. But before he can go grovelling to Major Lovelace, the Major is on the run, he's also wanted by the army, for absconding with the officers club fund, and a Churchill tank he sold for scrap. So it looks like Eli's in the clear again!

First broadcast: 11th Feb 1971

7. Something In The Night

There's a burglar on the loose in Colne, and the latest house to be turned over is Lily and Walter. So Nellie sets about hiding the family heirlooms in her bedroom, between the sheets. However, Eli overhears her thinking out loud, and he didn't even know she had any family heirlooms.

Whilst Nellie is downstairs, thinking Stan is the burglar, the "Boston Dangler", Eli is climbing up the drainpipe, and into her bedroom in search of the family jewels, and of course, Nellie catches him in the act. In the end, the "Boston Dangler" has the last laugh, he burgles the Pledges and leaves them without a thing.

Another great Hylda Baker line from this episode. Wonder how many takes this one took?: "You stay stood standing where your stood, because I've stood as much as I can stand"

First broadcast: 18th Feb 1971

8. Lucky For Some

The Pledges are low on money, Nellie doesn't even think her premium bond gets put in the drum, but they overhear Stan on the phone, he's come into a few pounds, so they think he's the bloke in the paper who's won the pools. The only way they can get their hands on a few bob is to make him a director of Pledges Purer Pickles. Stan however, sees it as a way to get to "Miss Nellie" and sets about seducing her, with the promise of sharing his windfall with her. However, all turns sour in the end. Stan's windfall isn't for half a million, but for a Corporation Folks flat, and he is soon sacked from the board.

In this episode, within the first minute, we see Walter walking across the back of the set, through the window on the other side of the false wall, yet he never appears in the scene. Another example of Eddie Malin not realising the cameras are rolling?

First broadcast: 25th Feb 1971