S1 • E1
The new yuppie couple, Nigel and Emma, move into the Square. They begin their life there with an argument about Emma wanting a job of her own. Nigel refuses to allow it and says that she must spend all her time redecorating the house to increase its value. In a rage Emma runs out of the house, gets into her car and drives away. She accidentally hits Sean. Nigel says that no-one saw the accident so she could say that it was Sean's fault. Emma refuses and takes the blame and then takes him to hospital. The hospital find Sean to have broken his wrist and two fingers on his right hand. He can no longer type his autobiography or make sandwhiches for the local market. Emma decides to help out with his typing and cooking, if Sean will help with the redocorating. He agrees. Emma announces that she is working toward her new career in catering. Nigel refuses to allow Sean in the house alone with Emma and sends him away. Emma then threatens that she will give evidence about the accident and Nigel will have to pay fines and repair bills. Nigel, defeated, calls in Sean again.
S1 • E2
Emma has accidentally knocked Sean over in her car and injured his right hand. To make up for the accident Emma has offered to help him type his autobiography and run his market catering business. Sean decides to take over Emma's redecoration of her home. Nigel is worried that this will lead to a relationship and decides to spy on Emma. Whilst at the market, Nigel casually follows Emma whilst holding an egg timer picked up from the stall. A policeman notices and arrests him for stealing. Nigel pleads to the police officer that he has made a mistake, but the policeman does not like yuppies and is likely to press charges. Emma and Sean have lunch in a cafe that Emma is keen to take over and run herself. Emma asks the manager if there is any chance she could take over the lease. The manager agrees. Pete, the stall holder, tells Sean about the shoplifter and that the food that Emma has supplied has sold well. Sean realises that the shoplifter must be Nigel and does not press charges. When Emma asks Nigel, later that day, if she can borrow the money for the cafe, Nigel refuses to take her seriously. However, Sean threatens Nigel to tell about his shoplifting experience if he does not give Emma her loan.
S1 • E3
Emma takes Nigel to see the run-down market café for the lease of which she has offered £10,000, and which she plans to transform into a successful restaurant. Nigel finds the place shabby and unattractive, but eventually agrees with Emma's point that property in the area will rise in value anyway, making the purchase of the café lease a sound investment. Nigel promises to contact a solicitor that day to arrange a purchase. Sean arrives at Emma's house with his friends Hannah and Alan before Nigel has left for work; Nigel refuses to let them in but Emma gives them a warm welcome. Alan offers to work on some unconventional architectural designs for the café. Nigel tells Emma later in the day that her plans to buy the café lease have failed as she has been guzumped. Bitterly disappointed and angry, Emma decides to find out who has cheated her and takes Sean with her for moral support. The café proprietor tells Emma that he has been offered a higher price for the café by a man called Julian Pickford. Emma learns from Nigel's partner in the estate agency that Pickford is the solicitor whom Nigel commissioned to acquire the café lease for her. Sean and Emma find out that it was Nigel who made Pickford buy the café and Emma confronts him. She is about to leave for good when Nigel says he only did it for her own good - he wanted to protect her from all the pressures of running a business. Emma insists that Nigel must let her run her own life.
S1 • E4
Emma is looking forward to the purchase of the market café which she plans to transform into a successful restaurant. She arranges for a survey of the property and warns the surveyor that her husband will try to influence him against the property - Emma knows that Nigel's methods in his own Estate Agency business are very dubious and she also knows that he will act ruthlessley to prevent her from starting her own business. Nigel learns the name of the surveyor, Derek Fenner, and tries to bribe him to produce an unfavourable survey on the café. When Fenner refuses to yield to this pressure, Nigel threatens to tell Fenner's wife of his affair. Sean and his friends Hannah and Alan have learnd that the landlord of their house in the Square has died suddenly; Sean is unworried by the death of a man he heartily disliked anyway and he is jubilant at present because Emma has finished typing the manuscript of his autobiography; confident that it will soon be a bestseller, Sean arranges a party at his home to celebrate. He invites Emma to come with Nigel to the party and is insulted by her obvious reluctance to accept. Sean is delighted when Emma arrives at his party - although Nigel, accompanying her, makes no effort to conceal his distaste for his surroundings. Emma has arranged that Derek Fenner will ring her at Sean's house with the café survey report; she is bitterly disappointed when he telephones to tell her the café is in poor condition. Sean notices that Nigel does not seem surprised by this news. However Sean's concern for Emma's distress is overshadowed by worry for his own home when an old lady called Rose arrives unexpectedly at the house and intends to sell it to buy herself a pension. Nigel moves swiftly to introduce himself to Rose as a local estate agent and offers to handle the sale of the house for her. He warns Sean privately that he may buy the house himself and become Sean's new landlord. Later that evening Nigel commiserates with Emma on the collapse of her plans for her own restaurant business. Emma assures him that her plans are unchanges by her failure to buy the café - she intends to look for other premises instead.
S1 • E5
Emma's husband Nigel is opposed to her plans to run her own café business and he has blackmailed a surveyor to give a poor report on the café she hoped to buy. However, Sean's friend Alan, who is an architect, takes a careful look at the cafe and realises it is quite sound - Nigel must have tricked Emma into believing it was not. Alan's girlfriend Hannah urges Sean to tell Emma how she has been cheated by Nigel. But Sean knows that Nigel's and Emma's marriage will be in jeapardy if he tells her. Max, Nigel's partner in the estate agency firm, is worried about Nigel's dishonesty in his business dealings and tells Nigel frankly that his type of underhand practices give estate agents generally a bad name. Alan and Hannah decide to tell Emma. Emma is shocked when she learns that Nigel has cheated her. She relates sadly to Sean how she fell in love with Nigel's looks. Emma then goes to the Estate Agency office and learns that Max too is considering ending his relationship with Nigel. Emma confesses to Max that evidence of Nigel's low moral character has been accumulating for some while now and she is beginning to find him intolerable. When Nigel learns that Sean has revealed details of the survey to Emma, he becomes angry with Sean and threatens to make his life a misery as he now owns the house where Sean, Alan and Hannah live. When Emma returns home, she tells Nigel she wants a divorce. Nigel threatens to have Sean and his friends evicted. Emma threatens in return the she will reveal to the authorities details of Nigel's unpaid parking fines and multiple share applications. Nigel tries different tactics, inviting Emma to go to bed with him and forget their quarrel. Emma announces that in future she intends to sleep alone.
S1 • E6
Emma has vowed to divorce Nigel because of his recent low behaviour. Despite all his pleas for a reconciliation, she is determined to set divorce proceedings in motion as soon as her parents return from a holiday abroad and can advise her. Nigel storms off to the house in the Square where Alan, Sean and Hannah live. He shouts at Sean that the threatened divorce is his fault. When Hannah tries to intervene peaceably in the argument, Nigel insults her. Nigel persuades Sean to tell Emma to give the marriage another chance. Whilst Sean goes to see Emma, Nigel and Hannah are left alone where Sean tells her he will charge her double rent when her baby is born. Hannah is so shocked he goes into premature labour. Nigel has to comfort her while the ambulance arrives. Emma tells Sean that she will definitely divorce Nigel; he has no good points in his character to redeem the ruthlessness and greed that he has recently shown. Sean tells Emma that he will give up if he is not successful by his 25th birthday. When Sean returns home he finds a note to say that Hannah is in the hospital. Both he and Emma go to see if she is alright. Emma is struck by Nigel's kindness in helping Hannah through her labour and agrees that their marriage deserves another try. Alan then arrives with the news that it was Nigel's thoughtless remarks that caused Hannah to go into premature labour. Emma is furious with Nigel again.
S1 • E7
A situation comedy set in a south London square. Its central characters are the upwardly mobile married couple Nigel and Emma, whose seemingly pleasant lifestyle is disturbed by the appearance of Sean, an attractive and penniless romantic. Starring Lise-Ann Mclaughlin, Timothy Bentinck and Brett Fancy.
Nigel
Sean
Emma
Alan
Max Grout
Sally
Hannah
Julian
Geraldine
Nurse