Nearest and Dearest

An accident of birth – but does it really matter what you are? It happens in the best families.

The elixir of youth – an old wives' tale or a racing certainty? Well, if it worked for Stan!

If you go a funny colour, lie low; it's all in the mind. They can cure anything these days.

A little late love for Nellie – but was it worth keeping the home fires burning?

The sun is setting on twelve tons of pickled onions. A dynasty is dying – and who's left?

With the business not doing so well, Nellie decides that cuts are needed: first the horse, then Stan.

When Eli realizes that he's forgotten Nellie's birthday, he manages to plan an evening at The Starlight Club.

When Eli's drunken antics prevent Nellie admission to the Women's Town Guild, she becomes determined to stop him from drinking.

Nellie and Eli are off to the seaside on holiday, but it isn't long before familiar faces start appearing.

Nellie arrives at the front door to meet two constables accusing her of shoplifting.

Boxing Day in the Pledge house: Lily and Walter join Nellie and Eli in a seance.

With growing competition, the factory faces closure, leaving Eli and Nellie penniless, starving, and staffless.

Eli plans an away weekend and Nellie wants to decorate the cellar, but an error strands the siblings together.

Eli installs an executive toilet in the factory and faces industrial action as a result.

When Lily discovers that she and Walter aren't legally married, Nellie takes it upon herself to put matters right.

Nellie and Eli agree to look after their teenage nephew Nigel, who Nellie believes it's time he learns the goings-on of the birds and the bees.

Nellie takes Eli to the doctor, who is far more interested in Nellie's behaviour than in Eli's cough.

With the workers off sick, it falls on Nellie, Eli, Lily, and Walter to keep the pickle production line going.

Eli is trying to sell the business to Leonard Longbottom, but he also needs to convince Nellie to sell. Then Leonard falls for Nellie.

Nellie's had enough. She's reached the end of her tether and can no longer skivvy for her brother so she's decided to move out.

Eli has brought a new fur coat for his fiancée Marlene. Nellie takes an instant dislike to her and determines to prove that she is no good.

Eli isn't pleased to learn that Nellie has taken out an insurance policy on him in case of accident or death, so he takes one out on her, and the pair eagerly await an accident.

Desperate for funds, Nellie and Eli install Stan as a company director; their motive: to share in his recent windfall.

A burglar has been operating in the local area; his latest victims are Lily and Walter. Keen to protect her valuables, Nellie hides her treasured possessions.

Eli is struggling to cope with his role at the pickling factory, so he sends for a manager. The Labour Exchange sends Major Lovelace.

Despite having no bartending experience, Nellie takes over running the Spread Eagle Pub for a friend.

Nellie isn't happy when the new coal man, Snatcher Snelling, becomes rather taken with a newly-styled Lily.

A prowler has been tormenting ladies in a local park. When Walter is arrested and questioned, Nellie wants to prove his innocence.

Mother Nature scuppers Nellie's plans for a surprise Christmas lunch at a nice hotel for Eli and herself.

When Walter and Lily's house suffers damage, Nellie and Eli must put them up.

The long arm of the law reaches out for Eli from the distant past; but, with Nellie in court, all is set for the Law to get its knuckles rapped.

Can dandelion leaves picked at the time of the full moon really win for Pledge's Purer Pickles the coveted Golden Gherkin? Nellie's wonder ingredient lands her greatest rival, Arnold Guttersby, in a real pickle.

Annoyed with Eli for treating the home like a boarding house, Nellie kicks him out. The alternative living arrangements suit neither party.

The Pledges consult an industrial efficiency expert in a bid to improve production. When the workers strike, it is left to Nellie and Eli to keep the pickles flowing.

A tiff in a launderette, under Nellie's gentle touch, bids fair to becoming a national crisis.

Fourteen days' holiday in sunny Spain for 10p all in! It sounds too good to be true. And it is!

The problems of Pledge's Purer Pickles must take second place; for each of its co-owners are hearing wedding bells. But when the Pledge's enter the Matrimonial Stakes they inevitably fail to come under starter's orders.

Nellie is keen to buy a second home in the middle of nowhere, Eli is more keen on his Spanish holiday, and tries to put her off.

Pledge's Pickles is all set for a Royal visit, and Nellie goes to great pains to get The Factory and staff ready.

Ex-POW Siegfried, who was taken in by The Pledge Household, returns and vows to help Nellie and Eli.

The Pledges and the Tattersalls visit a health farm but when the diet proves inadequate, the call goes out to the pickers to bring them food.

After a visit from a French restauranteur, the Pledges travel to Paris to introduce their pickles to the European market.

When local lothario Harry Hampton demands Eli repay a loan, Eli invites him to stay with him and Nellie in lieu of payment. This leads to Nellie getting a reputation as a good-time girl.

Eli gives the Christmas club money to a promoter who promises a share of the profits from the Christmas play he's producing. He promptly spends it, and when Nellie and the gang find out, they offer to take over the roles. During rehearsals, the promoter makes a break for it.