Wild West

- Season 1

(2002)

Mary Trewednack and Angela Phillips run the ailing shop in the Cornish village of St Gweep. Mary is unhappy about the number of incomers who buy properties purely as a holiday home, including television actress Gilly. Led by young hippy Jake, Mary and a reluctant Angela break into Gilly's house, watch her DVDs and eat her chocolates but Mary starts a small fire and leaves Angela to face a police caution. Fisherman Old Jake discovers bags of Tupperware being washed ashore on the beach and the villagers all gather to get their share, including Mary, though dim policeman...

Following an outbreak of vandalism by local kids Mary recommends punitive action but Angela suggests positive activities, in the process discovering bungee jumping, which she is keen to try, especially as the instructor is young and handsome. Other villagers also sign up but Angela begins to have second thoughts and only agrees to go through with it if white witch Holly gives her a lucky charm - a very large stone which makes her jump rather more spectacular than the others'. Meanwhile Mary forces the kids to paint a mural - securing herself an arts council grant ...

Elderly boatman Jake disappears, causing panic in the village when his clothes are found on the beach and suicide is suspected though it turns out that he was having a sexy weekend with a lusty German lady client. Angela, meanwhile, is disgusted that landlord Jeff is running swingers' parties in the pub's upstairs room and when Mary gets herself invited to one Angela calls the police, who raid the pub. Mary has been hiding in a cupboard throughout, missing both the sex and the raid.

A storm causes a power cut in the village and the only person with any electricity is Old Jake, who has his own generator and charges people to use his facilities though the generator gets overloaded and blows. PC Alan makes Angela the power cut tsar, putting her in charge of overseeing the crisis, an activity which she enjoys so that she is rather disappointed when the power returns. Mary meanwhile is very jealous when Holly starts dating dozy young caravan dweller Harry and does her best to split them up.

Mary is given a body piercing kit but since there are no instructions with it the results are less than satisfactory and she sells it to Jeff. Angela meanwhile is troubled to see that her old headmistress Miss Peppard, who humiliated her in front of the whole school by making her do a cross country run in her undies, is in the village and Mary has to stop her from killing the old lady. Eventually Angela confronts Miss Peppard, who assures her that the facts were not as she remembered them but Angela is, rightly, unconvinced.

Holly decides that the village needs a revival of the Cornish language and brings along a guest speaker though nobody can understand what he is saying. Angela is mutually smitten by Martin, a handsome American on holiday - and their romance makes Mary very jealous, to the extent that, when he asks Angela to go back to London with him, she resorts to dirty tricks to get rid of him, though ultimately Angela admits to feeling safer in St Gweap.