Following the everyday life and times of the residents, friends, and enemies who live in a suburban neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city of Liverpool in the north of England.
Sheila becomes suspicious about Bobby's visit to the doctor, and Karen gets a shock when she goes to visit Bobby at work.
Bobby is forced to come clean about his vasectomy when Sheila's stepladders accidentally poke him in the front room. Sinbad buries a television.
Sheila overhears Damon and Karen discussing the stand-off between her and Bobby. Jack wants to impress a new woman, and asks Terry a favour. Tom tells Heather there is someone he wants her to meet.
Eileen becomes suspicious of Jack's living arrangements. Bobby and Sheila consider separating. Tom introduces Heather to his father, Jim.
Terry suggests that Sheila should consult a priest. Harry and Ralph decide to go to a car auction.
Tom and Heather discuss their future. Sheila turns to the church for help with her problems.
Heather plans a celebration with Tom, but gets a shock when she calls unexpectedly at his office. Sandra returns from her holidy in Rimini, and Neil persuades Damon to go busking.
Neil and Damon plan the seduction of their girlfriends. Heather forces Tom to admit the truth about the girl she saw him with. At the hospital fete, some of the residents get Russell Grant's autogr...
Harry discovers that running a car will be expensive. Tom suggests to Heather that they cancel a date. Neil asks Damon for a divorce. The stranger returns.
Pat, Sandra and Kate find themselves at the mercy of an unbalanced man with a gun.
Annabelle becomes suspicious after speaking to Kate and hearing about her encounters with Harry and the milkman, but Paul doesn't believe her. Damon and Neil prepare for a seance. The captor become...
The siege continues, and Pat undermines Kate's attempts to end it peacefully.
The Close is evacuated, and the residents monitor the situation as it is reported on television. Harry becomes concerned when Edna goes to the toilet and doesn't come back.
After gunshots ring out, the police move in, but there are only dead bodies to be recovered.
Reporters are swarming around the Close, and Terry accuses Harry of profiteering from the death of one of his tenants.
As a result of the newspaper coverage of the siege, Annabelle and Harry both receive letters from the tax man. Terry and Sandra have to go to London for a funeral.
Ghoulish appetites for a glimpse of the scene of the crime make matters worse. While Harry is arguing with other residents outside, Edna suffers a stroke in the kitchen.
Paul and Annabelle prepare to go on holiday, but first he wants to know why an extra television set has appeared in the house. There is no hospital bed available for Edna. Karen's exam results arrive.
Edna has a relapse and is in a critical condition. Paul and Annabelle prepare to camp out in their back garden, but is their tent waterproof?
Damon and Neil find out that the photo of Karen they entered for a competition has won. Harry's spirits are low as Edna's condition remains unchanged.
Harry is hopeful that Edna will be able to come home. Sandra is surprised when someone from the Close turns up while she visits her mother in Glasgow.
Harry and his family maintain a vigil at Edna's bedside, but she is not going to wake up. Matty is disappointed when he is unsuccessful at his job interview.
Pat and Sandra return from Glasgow and find Harry in their house, distraught because Edna has died.
There's an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, as the vicar puts his foot in it at Edna's funeral. When Terry returns from the funeral, he discovers that new arrivals the Corkhills have dumped h...
Terry and Pat discover that televisions dug up from the garden don't necessarily work. Billy has a surprise for Doreen - a ready-to-assemble fireplace kit. Jim hears something he shouldn't on Heath...
Sandra is feeling the strain of being the only breadwinner in the house. Heather regrets lying to Jim. Doreen needs help with the building of her fireplace.
Terry and Pat go to the bank. Karen and David play monopoly. Paul sets off for a military reunion dinner, but has no intentions of arriving there.
Doreen's mother, Julia, reveals a few home truths about Billy's criminal past. Annabelle is startled when she questions Paul over his reunion dinner. Harry sells, then buys again.
Heather is worried when she receives some mysterious phone calls. By chance, a cigarette end found down the toilet ends up in Sandra's meal.
Tom asks Heather to be "Mrs Curzon". Sandra gives Pat three months to make the van-hire business a success. Damon needs plenty of initiative when Karen asks him to change a book he has given her, a...
Billy Corkhill has forgotten about a little electricity job, but it's someone else who is caught red-handed. On Karen's first day at university, her worries turn into outright fear when she meets o...
Billy's new shutters are causing a bit of a stir. Damon and Rod are determined to outdo each other in their displays of support for different football teams.
Rod plans to impress Heather by washing her car, but then the water supply is cut off. Lucy Collins returns to the Close.
The cleaner meets the daughter, but who has more reason to be suspicious? Heather reflects on becoming a free woman again as her divorce from Roger becomes absolute.
It's Lucy's birthday, but she has disappeared again. Damon and Rod make a bet, and Harry agrees to adjudicate.
Karen goes to a party without telling Bobby and Sheila, and does something she later regrets on the way home. Heather is not sure how to answer Tom's proposal.
Doreen discovers that Julia has nearly burned her house down. Lucy tells Annabelle her plans. Damon sets about returning the Corkhills' alarm without them knowing.
Heather is confused when Tom refuses to invite his daughter to the wedding. The Corkhills are more confused about what has happened during the night.
Lucy is confident about her job interview, but finds that it isn't the walkover that she expected. Julia appears in court.
Jim has a proposal for Tom. Ralph and Harry go on a trip to Blaenau Festiniog. Julia discovers a love-letter written by Tracy to a lad at school…….or is it?
Annabelle's homewatch meeting doesn't quite go to plan. Terry and Pat take on an awkward customer.
Heather discovers that Tom has bought her a new house and handed in her resignation. The appearance of Gummy George on the Close results in Paul getting a black eye.
Heather struggles with her preparations for the wedding. Harry and Ralph go to the cemetery to see Edna's grave.
Heather has serious doubts about marrying Tom. Lucy tells Paul and Annabelle that she has a boyfriend. Harry inadvertently causes a fight between Billy and Doreen.