Alan is discharged from hospital and it is agreed that he will move into Celia's granny flat as it is more conducive to recovery. Gillian feels slighted and things are not helped when John rings to say he loves her and, after she has admitted to Caroline her drunken one night stand with John, she finds that Caroline has told her mother, who has told Alan. He is disapproving, reminding Gillian how she fell pregnant at fifteen. John turns to Judith for consolation but she gets drunk and falls downstairs, making up Caroline's mind to move Kate into the house. Alan and Celia decide that they will marry in secret at a registry office but Gillian finds out and rings Caroline to tell her. Written by don @ minifie-1

With strangers as witnesses Alan and Celia marry in a registry office. Gillian is outraged, feeling side-lined and, as she tells a sympathetic Robbie, pushed out of her father's life by Celia. However, when Raff's girlfriend Ellie turns up at the farm, heavily pregnant, Alan saves the day by getting her to hospital for the birth. Celia explains to Caroline that Alan's health problems hastened the wedding but Caroline has her own problem as she wants Kate to sell her house so that they can buy John out. Kate is agreeable but also wants to have a child with Caroline, with an ex-boyfriend as the donor. Written by don @ minifie-1

Whilst Kate lets slip to Celia that she wants a baby with Caroline, a desire Caroline does not seem to share, Celia is also indiscreet in telling Robbie that Gillian had an abortion at fifteen. Trouble follows when Robbie learns for the first time that he was the father and Gillian feels more isolated when Ellie returns home, leaving her as the chief baby-minder. She calls John for consolation and tells him that she deliberately delayed in ringing the ambulance that may have saved the suicidal Eddie, something that Alan also tells Celia. Written by don @ minifie-1

Anxious to get in with Gillian John is very helpful at reconciling Ellie and Raff but unfortunately Judith arrives, exposing John's one night stand with Gillian, and causing trouble with Robbie. Kate and Caroline spend a weekend at a hotel, where Caroline meets sperm donor Greg. However he is a self-centred bore who goes on about his old times with Kate and Caroline feels excluded. Alan and Celia baby-sit Caroline's sons but one gets drunk and the other one beaten up and robbed and Celia is glad of her husband's support. Hearing that school-friend Maurice has died suddenly Alan becomes aware of his own mortality and he and Celia decide to have another wedding, this time inviting friends and family. Written by don @ minifie-1

As John moves into Judith's untidy flat, Ellie moves into the farmhouse and Robbie installs his much younger girlfriend Cheryl in his house Caroline hears that both Judith and Kate are pregnant and rows with Kate as a result. To compound her problems Lawrence moves in with John and it falls to her to invite Celia's sister Muriel to the wedding. Years ago the two women fell out over a man and the rift has never healed as Alan discovers when he and an icy Celia visit the garrulous Muriel. Caroline and Gillian press on with organizing the wedding venue and get drunk and confessional, Gillian admitting to Caroline that she murdered Eddie because she could stand no more of his cruelty. Written by don @ minifie-1

Next morning Caroline promises Gillian she will keep her secret before venting her anger on John for exposing her son to Judith's drunken antics though John makes it clear he is not marrying Judith. Caroline also reconciles with Kate and accompanies her to hospital following a suspected miscarriage, though it is a false scare and a scan shows the baby to be a girl. Alan's brother Ted comes over from Australia and, at Alan's stag night, all the men tell Robbie he should settle down with Gillian. The wedding goes ahead on Christmas Eve with Caroline acting as the father of the bride. Next morning both Caroline and Gillian wake up next to their ideal partners. Written by don @ minifie-1