After You've Gone

- Season 1

(2007)

When nurse Ann Venables has to go to Africa to help out after a flood,she asks her lazy ex-husband,handyman Jimmy,to move in with their teen-aged children Molly and Alex. However Ann's organized mother Diana,a teacher,looks down on Jimmy and his parenting skills and also moves in. Jimmy is displeased to learn that Ann's doctor boyfriend Howard has gone with her and even more displeased to get a parking ticket. After returning home to find that the supposedly ill Molly has slipped out he and Diana decide that they need to put up a united front.

Jimmy agrees to letting his children have a party but fears Diana's disapproval so his girlfriend Siobhan suggests he take Diana out for the evening. They go to a sea food restaurant where Diana sees Laurence,a colleague with whom she has been having an affair,with a much younger woman,and counters by claiming that Jimmy is her toy boy. However she is suspicious of Jimmy's behaviour and returns home to find the party,now fancy dress,in full swing.

Jimmy's van is subject to a break-in and all his keys, including those for the house, are stolen. Diana insists that he has all the locks changed but he prevaricates. However, upon returning home, he finds that Diana has gone behind his back and had the locks changed, involving his having to break into the house. Inevitably, he is arrested as a burglar and Diana and the children have to vouch for him.

When Diana loses the school time-tables she has prepared for the year Jimmy comes to her aid by buying a second hand lap top computer from work-mate Kev. However it turns out that the computer was not Kev's to sell and its owner wants it back,causing Diana to lose her schedules a second time. And Jimmy is ripped off literally when Siobhan persuades him to let her practice her waxing skills on him.

Whilst Diana is appalled that Molly has a T-shirt bearing the legend 'Slut Queen' Jimmy volunteers to build an arch in the house for her. He enlists Alex's help as a learning exercise after his school report states that the boy has potential but needs to improve his attention span. It involves his having to cancel a weekend in Brighton with Siobhan but he discovers that Siobhan,knowing him to be unreliable,expected as much and has made plans of her own.

Yet again Jimmy and Kev lose out in the weekly pub quiz to Siobhan and her friends so Jimmy recruits Diana to his team and at last they win - on a tie-break. However when Diana discovers that her wrong answer was judged correct she goes to the pub to return the prize money,meeting Siobhan. The two women get drunk and get on famously,largely by agreeing about Jimmy's short-comings. He is not amused and ends up by insulting Siobhan.

Howard,Ann's colleague and new lover,returns from Africa to raise funds for their relief work. Whilst everybody else warms to him Jimmy dislikes him on first sight and matters are not helped when he says that he and Ann want the children to go to live in Africa with them. Diana and Jimmy are dead set against this as,eventually are Molly,who has got a job in a chip shop,and Alex.