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Private Notes
The 1950s :- GP Tom Gilder and his family leave Manchester to attend a wedding in Tom's native village Ormston, where his father Arthur is the doctor. Arthur's nurse Linda is marrying local copper Len, who wakes up nude in the centre of the village after a raucous stag night. The train carrying wedding guests breaks down and Linda has second thoughts but the wedding goes off well though one of the guests collapses.Father and son work well as a team to treat him and Arthur, who mistrusts the N.H.S. and is considering retirement, is pleased when Tom wins over his wife Deborah and agrees to take over his father's practice,with Arthur as consultant in charge of the cottage hospital.
Tom is appalled by the informal way Arthur runs his practice but both men combine to try and talk sense into their cleaner Edie McClure, sister of pub landlady Phyllis, whom Edie disdains for giving up on her marriage. Edie has a weak heart but is determined,against doctors' advice, to see through her seventh pregnancy as she has six daughters and is desperate for a son. Matters are taken out of her hands when she miscarries but reconciliation with Phyllis follows. Eddie,the hunky garage mechanic ,asks for advice from scrap-dealer Jean about dating Tom's teenaged daughter Helen but Jean misunderstands and assumes he wants to date her whilst Tom's son Michael gets revenge on a bullying schoolmaster.
With no cash available to pay builders the villagers rally to get the cottage hospital up to scratch before an N.H.S. inspector arrives to approve it.Despite being told the post is cursed Deborah becomes chair of the newly revived parish council and, whilst the villagers stall the inspector,who has arrived early, she tries to get cash from bombastic mill-owner Horace Trubshaw. He agrees providing Tom will pick three workers for him to sack,which Tom refuses. However he is 'persuaded' to provide funds when his put-upon chief clerk Jack Stubbs exposes him for embezzlement. Jack's son,who has diphtheria, goes missing and the inspector - who has been generally humiliated by the plan to stall him - is so impressed by the community's response to locate the little boy that he approves the hospital. Eddie finds he has somehow asked Jean AND Helen to the pictures and is dumped by both of them.
Tom is perplexed by carpenter Bert Cartwright's hostility to doctors until he learns that Bert blames Arthur for the death of his little boy years earlier. When Annie,Bert's wife, falls ill, Bert resists her hospitalisation but ,in her delirium, she mistakes Michael for her son who 'watches over her' and agrees to go, saving her life. Michael finds ancient coins in the woods but when the Reverend Brewer and station master Wilf start digging for treasure they unearth an unexploded bomb. Fortunately ex-munitions worker Phyllis knows how to defuse it - or thinks she does,but at least the remainder of the coins are unearthed.
Swaggering Frank Cosgrove, older brother of Len,injures himself driving his train when he stops to avoid a dog. He is a rude,reluctant patient but Tom discovers his twin secrets - he has diabetes,which is affecting his sight, and he is not the war hero he has always claimed to be. However he rises to the occasion when Tom's daughter Catherine gets trapped beneath a car and Len also proves himself to be a hero,apprehending a smooth con man who has robbed Jean. Tom bans his father from the hospital for using it to store his explosive home brew but there is a reconciliation at a family christening after the villagers have turned out to rescue Catherine.
Neville Manly, the shy new NHS inspector declares the cottage hospital the official annexe to Rattenbury General. To celebrate, Deborah revives the Flower of the Valley beauty contest, to be judged by Neville, who finds himself under siege from the competitive entrants. Arthur visits stroppy Sally Waddington, the local telephone operator,who has not set foot outdoors for ten months,since her mother was put in a home,suffering from dementia. She believes she too is going mad but she is agoraphobic.When Jean breaks her ankle Wilf rings for help but the ancient exchange, already faulty, blows up and Sally has to face her fears to fetch Arthur personally. In hospital next to Jean she tells Arthur, who is feeling side-lined, how much Tom appreciates him, as well as encouraging Jean to enter the beauty contest where the besotted Neville declares her the winner, restoring her self-confidence. When the celebrations end Arthur discovers that Tom and Deborah have moved him into their house.
An abandoned child proves a mystery for Tom, while a haunted parishioner and a train load of stuffed animals cause troubles for Arthur and Reverend Brewer.
Deborah's mother arrives in Ormston with some surprising news. Meanwhile, Tom has some unusual advice for shop-keeper Mr Boynton.
Fred Mills is reluctant to start medical treatment and instead concentrates on fulfilling his wish-list of activities. A mysterious rash spreads through the village.
Some villagers are found swigging brandy instead of water when the local supply is cut-off. Meanwhile, Eddie refuses to allow her daughter Joanne to go to hospital.
A German war veteran has news of Wilf's missing brother; Arthur throws his back out and must miss a fishing trip.
Wedding bells are ringing in Ormston, but the groom may not be all he claims. Meanwhile, Wilf and Arthur may have met their match in a parrot.
There is a buzz of excitement around Ormston as a fortune teller comes to town. Phyllis receives some shocking news. Tom has been so busy he has been neglecting his family, and Deborah has something she needs to tell him.
An elderly recluse agrees to go to hospital only if Arthur and the Rev. Brewer attend one last party; Jean and Eddie must pose as the Gilders.
Tom is angry that Arthur deceived Eugenia; Reverend Brewer finalizes the arrangements for Archie's funeral.
After an eventful Christmas, the villagers are settling back into their daily lives when a face from the past causes quite a stir.
Helen becomes a trainee nurse just as the hospital welcomes its most demanding patient, putting both Tom and Arthur in a difficult position. And tensions run high when a famous radio show arrives in Ormston.
Hubert Gough is convinced that his younger wife is going to leave him when a mysterious man arrives in the village. But what is Dennis Tyldesley's motive for being in Ormston?
Len and Linda have their hands full when their first foster child arrives and doesn't meet their expectations. Tom and Arthur are at loggerheads in the medical treatment of Rita Lennox, the woman sent by the brewery.
Tom is puzzled when local carpenter Bert Cartwright seems determined to keep him away, despite his wife's illness. Michael makes an exciting discovery, and the whole village becomes caught up in a hunt for buried treasure.
New doctor, Donald Newman, arrives in Ormston, saving the life of a beautiful young woman, in love with the local beekeeper. And Deborah and Phyllis discover the shocking truth behind the eviction notices.
Ormston is on battle alert with news that a man from the ministry is arriving to supervise the destruction of the village for a motor highway.
Ormston is united in its determination to win the annual pub olympics, which this year means a hefty cash prize to buy Phyllis's pub back from the brewery.
When Jean's mother turns up for her daughter's wedding, she reveals a devastating secret to Tom which his oath as a doctor forbids him disclosing to anyone else.
Dr. Nick Logan arrives in Ormston to help Deborah and Donald set up a walking blood bank; Jean and Eddie search for privacy; Len awaits his first call in his new police station.
The presence of a surgeon general alarms Donald; a patient tests Dr. Logan's bedside manner; someone makes an offer for the hospital.
Parents Dee and Christina Georgiou cannot agree on who is to blame for four-year-old Nicola's bad behaviour. She wets herself night and day, has violent temper tantrums and still insists on breast feeding.
Len prepares for the arrival of a foster daughter; Donald suggests that Phyllis start her own newspaper.
Ormston prepares for the traditional Apple Day Festival, while Len's cousin Nathan visits town.
Both Emma Rowe and Laura contract a fever after they are admitted to hospital, but it could be more than just a simply a coincidence.
Deborah and Nick are forced to spend the night together during a storm, and Nancy and Wilf decide to swap jobs.
Nancy is frustrated by Nick's lack of enthusiasm for their relationship and suspects his interest may lay elsewhere.
Phyllis wants to start a petition to keep Haven Hill from closing; a tax inspector visits Jean; the sexual tension between Logan and Deborah heightens.
Phyllis has a new admirer, and Jean and Eddie get some exciting news as they celebrate their first wedding anniversary.
