Three Up Two Down - Season 1 (1985)

Photographer Nick Tyler and his wife Angie have just bought a house for them and their new-born son but want to let the basement flat to improve their finances. Nick's father Sam, recently made homeless, is keen to move in but, unbeknown to him and Nick, Angie's mother Daphne also arranges to take the flat to be the child's nanny. Daphne is refined and hypercritical. Sam is down to earth and unassuming. As co-tenants they will prove to be a very mismatched couple.

Sam settles in to the basement and proves himself a champion nappy changer, though he is less successful at winning over reluctant flatmate Daphne. She is also displeased to hear that her grandson will be called Joe and not Jeremy and will not be christened. Daphne hopes to get her vicar friend Gerald on her side and is appalled when he and Sam hit it off totally, leading to Gerald upbraiding her for being a snob.

Four weeks have passed and Daphne is still hostile to Sam, prompting Angie to threaten her with eviction unless she changes her attitude. When Daphne entertains her friend Elspeth to tea Angie forces her to include Sam in the party, but things go very wrong when Elspeth discovers the dead snake Sam has brought home for his new hobby of taxidermy.