The Beer Hunter

Terry gets two sorts of surprise this week, one warm and one pure Arthur. Beryl Sharp, an old flame, turns up with her nine-year-old son Peter and announces that she believes Terry is the boy's father. She leaves Peter with him while she sorts herself out, and the two of them bond properly, the way people do when they have no plans and plenty of time. Then the real father, a truculent character named Ronnie, comes looking for the boy, and Terry has to teach him a lesson in what fatherhood actually means.

Arthur's surprise is more in his line. His old army mate Yorkie comes down to London for a night on the town, and after the evening is well and truly over, Yorkie goes missing. The search ends at a local establishment of relaxed morals, where Yorkie has managed to lose his trousers in circumstances he would rather not explain. His wife is on her way down to London, so the hunt is on for a replacement pair before she arrives and starts asking questions that nobody wants to answer. Terry, who was hoping for a quiet drive home, ends up driving the whole circus instead.

Willis Hall and Leon Griffiths wrote it, Tom Clegg directed. George Cole and Dennis Waterman lead, with Brian Glover giving Yorkie exactly the right blustering dignity as the man who has misplaced his trousers and his pride. Georgina Hale, Pat Ashton, Alan David, Robert Blythe, Jo Warne, Bill Rourke and Janine Duvitski support.

The episode runs fatherhood and trousers on parallel tracks, and the trousers are funnier, which is saying something. Terry comes out of it looking decent and slightly bewildered, which is his natural state. Arthur comes out of it owing somebody money, which is his. And somewhere in the middle of it all, Terry minds a boy while Arthur minds his friend's trousers, and both jobs get done.