Not Going Out

- Season 6

(2013)

Lucy's elation at securing a business deal quickly evaporates when she accidentally runs over Button,the pet rabbit belonging to client Paul's daughter Sophie. Lee agrees to take the blame but on returning the corpse discovers it is another,wild rabbit she also killed. They decide to buy a replacement and go to a pet shop where they narrowly avoid meeting Paul and Sophie so that the contract looks as if it can be saved - until Lucy and Lee pay another visit to Paul.

Lee,Daisy and Lucy are on a skiing holiday but Lucy has had an accident,putting her arms in plaster. The three of them are in a cable car which gets stuck over the piste,their fellow occupant being a heavily pregnant woman who speaks little English. With Lucy incapacitated and Daisy obsessed with a stray bird it is down to Lee to act as midwife - which he does admirably even though he was not expecting triplets.

When Lucy starts a course learning to be a psychotherapist Lee is predictable cynical so she decides to use him in an experiment. She has him visit his father Frank to find out what happened in the past to doom their relationship. It turns out that Frank never wanted to have a son - it was just that the condom broke - and that Lee was a problem child who caused his parents' marital break-up. For all that a kind of reconciliation follows.

Lucy attends a three day conference to acquire new business clients but jealous Lee assumes she is out to get a boyfriend and,forging a pass,gets in to stop her,posing as her husband. Inevitably this fails so Daisy urges him to return and declare his feelings,which he does,claiming to be her father and accompanied by her mother. However this incurs the wrath of her real father Geoffrey and loses her the deal she was after.

Lee is desperate to make Lucy jealous so he goes on a date with marriage-obsessed Rachel,taking her to a high class restaurant where he crosses swords with a lordly waiter. Finding Rachel odd Lee nonetheless continues taking her to the same restaurant. Back at the flat Rachel gets very amorous with Lee and - almost - succeeds in making Lucy jealous.

Wendy and Geoffrey recruit Lucy,Daisy and Lee to join their amateur dramatics group,performing a Victorian-style melodrama called 'The Kiss' and written by Lucy's pretentious first love Scott. Jealous that Lucy and Scott are hitting it off on stage Lee attacks Scott and gets sacked from the play. However,come the first night,he reappears and uses the fiction to show Lucy how he really feels about her.

Lucy's god daughter Nancy is dumped on her on the eve of her ninth birthday party,to which her unruly friends have been invited. To impress Lucy Lee offers a magic display in the guise of clown Wiggly Bob but,thanks to Daisy,he fails to pay Steve, the sinister magic shop owner for the props hired on approval,with the result that Steve sabotages the big stunt,an escapology act,which leaves Lee and Lucy stuck in a locked chest. Fortunately Daisy comes to their rescue and the birthday party goes ahead,with a somewhat fiery climax.

Frank suggests Lee spends a weekend on his boat,along with Daisy and Lucy - which he accepts when it means he and Lucy will be sharing a double bunk. The platonic bunk-sharing goes well but next morning the boat has slipped its moorings and drifted out to sea and Frank,unaware of this,has hacked a hole in it to claim the insurance. The group is saved by Marshall,the boat's life raft but,back on dry land,Lucy tells Lee she never wants another date with him.

Lee invites Lucy and her parents and Daisy for Christmas at his late aunt Maureen's country house, which appears haunted though Lee tidies it up, burning a rocking-chair. This seemingly housed the ghost of a young boy and in the night ghostly music is heard - though it turns out to be provided by Lee's father Frank. Between them they discover the identity of the 'ghost', a childhood friend of Lee called Ralph - or so they think until Frank provides the answer to their questions.