The Balance of Power

The council serves Arthur a compulsory purchase order on his car lot, and Arthur does what any reasonable man would do: he stands for the council. As an independent candidate in a local bye-election. It is the sort of escalation that only Arthur would think of as a defence, and the show plays it perfectly straight. Nobody pauses to wonder whether a man whose living depends on avoiding paperwork should be seeking public office.

The seat, it turns out, holds the balance of power for the whole borough, which means this is not the small local matter Arthur imagined. His rivals have no intention of letting him win, and they play dirty. Arthur lands in custody, and the opposition tries to have him barred from the campaign for overspending, which for a man who has spent his life avoiding invoices is a particular kind of irony.

The rescue falls to Julie Waters, Terry's journalist girlfriend, who springs Arthur in time for him to make the meeting that matters. It is the episode's most competent piece of work, and the show is generous enough to let her have it. The real campaigning is done by Julie and Terry. Arthur's contribution is the speeches and the grievances, delivered with great ceremony. The borough holds its breath.

David Yallop and Leon Griffiths wrote it, Ian Toynton directed. Dennis Waterman is Terry, George Cole is Arthur, Caroline Langrishe plays Julie Waters, and the cast includes Patrick Malahide as Chisholm, Michael Povey as D.C. Jones, Glynn Edwards as Dave, Peter Woodthorpe as Lent, Clifford Rose as Cooke, Brian McDermott as Blakeney and Neville Jason as Rutherford.

And the joke is that Arthur, who has spent years avoiding the attention of officialdom, now wants to become officialdom. The car lot goes, and in its place comes the nearest thing the borough has ever seen to a Daley in the chamber. It is a terrifying thought, and the episode knows it.