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Private Notes
Harry retires from the fire brigade and Ken is invalided out after his lungs are damaged while rescuing a boy from a fire. Harry buys a seedy hotel, The Grand. Ken buys a caravan, The Ponderosa, and tries to make a living as a market gardener. Harry suggests that Ken should supplement his income by offering to do odd-jobs for people - he places an advert in the local paper. His first client is Barney Spitz, a pop music promoter who wants Ken to dress up in an old fireman's uniform and star in a pop video!
Elena and Arturo Sandini (aka Helen and Arthur Sanders) run a circus lion-taming show. They ask Ken to recover their lion, Watson, which has been stolen by a group of animal-rights campaigners who want to use it to publicise their cause.
While sorting out unpaid bills at The Grand, Doreen find s one relating to a man who has since died. Ken, Harry and Doreen visit his widow, Meg Lucie, and find that she is coping very badly, both with looking after the garden and with the paying of the bills. Ken and Harry sort out the garden while Doreen sorts out Meg's bills. They decide not to tell Meg that they suspect her husband was having an affair while staying at The Grand. Harry falls for Meg but she decides to sell up and move away from the area. Harry employs a new barman, Lionel Blakey, but soon discovers that his racist comments are offending both Hanif and the Asian guests. After an argument, Blakey resigns, which prevents Harry having to decide how to sack him!
Laurie Langley, a has-been pop singer, employs Ken to look after her son after she suspects that her ex-husband, Geoff Greenaway, is trying to kidnap him.
Patsy, a young woman who is staying at The Grand, befriends Sidney Garbutt, another guest who has lost his memory. But what has caused Sidney to lose his memory in the first place?
Ken is employed by a genial Irishman, Erroll McLaverty, to bring a canal boat back to Birmingham from near London. He takes Doreen and plans a romantic weekend. But two scruffy men, Appleby and Laing, are following the boat. Then Ken and Doreen hear strange sounds from the boat's cargo hold. They discover that an escaped convict, Alan Prendergast, is hiding in the boat - McLaverty had employed Ken to smuggle Alan back to his father, Walter Prendergast.
Ken recovers the antiques that Philip Banks and Georgina Pemberton, a couple of corrupt antique dealers, have defrauded from an old man, Murdoch Johnstone. Harry is worried that Mr Dudley, an officious and demanding guest, might be a hotel inspector who will decide whether The Grand will be given a contract for housing homeless people.
Major Hopkinson, an old man who collects chiming clocks asks Ken for help after he is terrorised by some thugs to whom he owes money. But has he been completely honest with Ken?
Harry is organising a charity football match between the firemen and the All Stars. Billy ""The Kid"" Buchan, an out-of-work Scottish footballer, has flown over from Hong Kong to play in the match. Harry organises a press conference at The Grand, where Billy will be staying. Billy is a notorious alcoholic, so his manager, Peter Grant, asks Ken to act as his minder and prevent him from drinking. This is particularly important because Wally Patterson, manager of the Saudi Arabian national team, and Abdul Ibrahim, one of the team's sponsors, are coming to the match. They want Billy to act as captain and coach for the Arabian team. Grant, who has an agreement to take 25% of Billy's takings, threatens him: ""If you screw this up for me, I'll see you never play for another British club"".
Ken collects Patterson and Ibrahim from the airport and takes them to the hotel, but meanwhile Billy has drunk a whole bottle of vodka and is in no state to meet them, particularly in view of the Saudis' disapp
Ken falls off his bike while he is riding along a snowy country lane. The bike is damaged and needs a new rear suspension. Neighbour Ben Gibbs helps to recover the bike in his horsebox. After a lot of futile phoning around, Ken finds a motorbike repair shop, Alpha Bikes, which can get hold of the suspension unit. Alpha Bike is run Narain Singh and his nephew Ranjit. Narain offers Ken the use of his workshop. While working there one evening, Ken hears Ranjit and his wife Surinder arguing violently. Ranjit yells ""You are my wife. You will do as I say."" Surinder screams and runs away, pursued by Ranjit. She and Ken escape on one of Narain's bikes, and Harry reluctantly offers to put her up in a spare bedroom at The Grand.
When Ken returns the bike to Narain, he offers to bring Surinder back, although he tells Narain how his nephew has treated his wife. Narain resents the fact the Ken is ""interfering"". He says that Ken will only get his bike when he returns Surinder. Back at The Grand, Ken
The Karadia brothers run a carpet factory which has suffered more than its fair share of fires. The police, fire brigade and insurance company suspect arson. One of the carpets which is destroyed in the latest fire belongs to Harry - he has ordered it for The Grand and is worried because he has over-estimated its value on his insurance claim. Ken follows the suspected arsonist to a new hotel that Harry is about to buy and catches him in the act of setting a fire. Both Ken and the arsonist narrowly escape with their lives.
