Boon Episode Rating Graph

Harry falls for Jo Beckett (Jill Gascoine), ""The Woman Of My Life"", who owns a jazz club, ""Smoky Jo's"". He plans to marry Jo (he buys her a 2500 engagement ring) and to invest in the club. He even makes preparations to sell his share of CBS to a rival security firm.

Harry is taken for a ride when he accepts a job minding a country mansion and discovers uninvited guests in his flat.

Ken discovers that it is hard to find a cab when you need one, particularly when a thief has the same idea.

CBS has been given the contract to guard a building site - a derelict church which is due to be demolished and replaced with luxury flats by a local builder, Donald Bannerman. During a violent thunderstorm, there is an earth movement and some ancient statues are uncovered. Dr Freda Butler, an archeologist at the university, insists on being given access, saying that the statues date back to the time when there was a Cistercian monastery on the site. Bannerman refuses, but Ken decides to let her have a quick look at the statues while Bannerman isn't there. During the night, one of Bannerman's JCBs is sabotaged when sand is poured in the fuel tank. Freda and her students are blamed. Bannerman threatens to hand over the security contract for guarding all his sites to Jack Fentiman, one of Harry's rivals. Harry wants to sack Frank, the security guard who was on duty at the site. However Ken feels sorry for Frank, who is the rather simple brother of another CBS guard, Bertie, and insists on

Harry has just moved to the peaceful village of Upper Ridley and Rocky is lodging with him. They help Sylvia Clayborough, a young widow, who has taken over her husband's fishmongering business but is plagued by vandalism: the fish-van's tyres are let down and graffiti is sprayed over it. When Sylvia and another widow, Vivienne Blake, start to compete with each other to welcome Harry to the village, Harry begins to realise that he has uncovered a hotbed of rivalry, jealousy and frustrated passion. Harry and Rocky eventually track down the vandal: Vivienne's wayward nephew who is staying with her. Thomas O'Rourke, an Irish builder, asks Ken to investigate a break-in and theft of cash at his office. He suspects Brian Jonson, another builder. He thinks it is a dispute between Catholic (himself) and Protestant (Jonson). O'Rourke tries to settle his score with Brian by demolishing his office with a JCB. However O'Rourke's daughter, Caitlin, thinks the real culprit is her elder sister, Bernad

The Bisons, a secret society similar to the Freemasons, is holding its meeting at Woodcote Park. Large amounts of alcohol are consumed. On the way home, one of the Bisons, Derek Donaghue, is stopped for drink-driving. Helen asks Rocky to take some of her chairs to sell at an antique shop. Roxanne, the shop assistant, realises that he knows nothing about antiques and rips him off. He and Helen come up with a plan to get his own back. He invites Roxanne for a slap-up dinner at Woodcote, then disappears while pretending to book them a room for the night. Helen makes Roxanne pay the bill! Ken receives a peremptory phone call to meet a potential client, Vincent Brack. Brack wants Ken to watch his wife, Nina. Ken follows Nina to a pub where she changes into a tarty dress and blonde wig, and leaves without Ken realising. The following day he is ready for her and follows her to a club where he discovers that she works as a hostess and singer, using the name Susie. Suspecting the worst, Ken get

Harry is employed by a lawyer, Caroline Mortlake, to protect her and her 16-year-old daughter Emma. Caroline and Emma are being pestered by a main in a raincoat. He is a reporter, Bill Webster, who works for the local newspaper. Bill's boss, Eddie Morgan, is determined to ""get that woman"". Harry gets Rocky to look after Emma, ferrying her around on his motorbike. Emma takes an instant fancy to Rocky and tries every trick in the book to get him into compromising situations. However he is rather embarrassed by her attentions. He asks Laura to help him fend off Emma by pretending to be his girlfriend. Laura has a quiet word with Emma who immediately leaves Rocky alone. The real reason for this only emerges much later. Bill is watching outside Caroline's office, determined to get his story. His car has been sabotaged by having its brake pipes cut. He storms off to CBS, accusing Ken of being responsible. Ken and Harry confront Caroline and ask her why exactly she is being pursued by Bill. S

CBS have been employed to guard the pheasants in a wood owned by Lord Melverley of Whitley Hall, in preparation for the annual Shoot on the day of the Feast of Mortimer. Lord Melverley is worried about hunt saboteurs. When Ken is on his way to join Rocky and Laura in the wood, he discovers an old Morris Minor Traveller van parked nearby, with a shotgun in the back. Could it belong to the saboteurs. The following day, his bike breaks down outside the church. The vicar, Rev Peter Bradshaw, is a keen bike enthusiast and mechanic, and gets the bike going again. He happens to mention that he also maintains the van, a Morris Traveller, belonging to Ralph Cotterell, the former gamekeeper. Lord Melverley sacked Cotterell recently after twenty-five years and Cotterell is now reduced to working as part-time groundsman for a nearby school. Ken talks to Cotterell who is indeed very bitter about the way that he was sacked, in connection with an incident when sheep belonging to a neighbour, Chris Sh

Ken makes a start on renovating Orchard Cottage. Pam Strong, one of his neighbours and the widow of a fireman, tentatively asks him for help because her son John has changed suddenly: he has dropped out of college, become sullen and uncommunicative and has started locking himself in his room. She also suspects that he may be stealing from her. Something is wrong - could it be drugs, Pam wonders. John has become friendly with another teenager called Mark who rents room at a nearby farm. Mark and John steal a car and drive around, terrifying the locals. The car hits a man and woman on a bridge, but Mark drives on, dumping the car in a quarry and swearing John to silence. But John later recognises the man that was knocked down as a local doctor, James Harlon. It was Harlon who got John his part-time job as a porter at the hospital. Ken visits Dr Harlon, not realising that connection with John and the accident. Dr Harlon describes John as quiet and a bit of a loner, but not the sort to be

Ken and Harry call in on the spur of the moment to check Don Jakes, the security guard that they have employed at a safety deposit company, Unicorn Deposit Ltd. While searching for him, they walk into the vault. The door swings shut and an unknown person locks it behind them, trapping them inside. Ken and Harry see that the vault has been ransacked and that the cable for the security camera has been cut. They realise that they will probably be trapped all weekend. They think that Don might have been attacked, which is why he can't rescue them. Don leaves the vault and meets his Scottish girlfriend, Billie. They have stolen the contents of the vault and are planning to run away together to Argentina. Ken had arranged to meet Laura, who is getting obscene phone calls at home. When he doesn't turn up and she can't contact either him or Harry, she gets very worried. She and Rocky start to investigate. Don's wife, Jeanette, becomes suspicious when she sees Don with Billie, who is her hairdr

Ken is in the process of moving into a derelict house in the village of Upper Ridley. He has arranged with the owner that he will live there rent-free in exchange for renovating it. John Pritchard approaches Harry and wants CBS to provide security guards for the launch of his new health club. He wants the guards to wear tracksuits, which he will provide, so they will blend in with the punters. Harry promotes Rocky to ""executive"" and gives him the task of employing suitable college students: no mean feat when all the tracksuits are extra small! One of the students, Vicky ""Mouthpiece"", gives Rocky a hard time, quoting the Factory and Sex Discrimination Acts as she attempts to do as little work as possible. However Rocky soon puts her in her place. John Dewar, the owner of a dairy, suspects that his wife, Melissa, may be having an affair and asks Ken to investigate. Ken is reluctant to do so, firstly because he wants to get on with moving into his new house and secondly because he hates w

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Lawrence Drake, a rich ex-racing driver, asks Ken to watch his wife, Pamela, whom he suspects is having an affair. Lawrence feels that he has nothing to offer Pamela because he is now crippled after an accident on the racetrack. Pamela and her boyfriend, Alex Cavendish, are robbed at gunpoint while driving home from a restaurant late at night. Pamela's jewellery is stolen and she receives a blackmail request: ""pay up and you'll get the jewels back"". She starts to gamble heavily and tries to borrow money from loan sharks in order to raise the blackmail money. Ken follows Pamela and sees her with her lover. He then gets Laura to visit Alex, posing as ""Briony Carling"", a magazine researcher, and soon learns his name and that he is a wine importer. Later, Pamela sees Ken while he is following her again. She pleads with him not to tell Lawrence about Alex or the jewellery because she doesn't want to hurt him. Alex is in league with the thieves. At a win

Margery Keeverton is looking after the estate of her uncle, Geoffrey Keeverton, who has just died. He had made a considerable amount of money from a fairground amusement arcade and has now left it all to her. While staying at her late uncle's house, she starts to receive nuisance phone calls which make it clear that she is being followed and which referred to an unpaid debt. Ken and Harry are asked to help. Because Harry rather fancies Margery, he is keen to help and even takes a week off work. Margery's solicitor, Peter Haymon, has very little confidence in Ken's abilities as an investigator. Harry takes Margery to the races but they happen to meet Haymon, spoiling Harry's plans for a romantic day out. A friend tells Harry that Haymon is ""one of the shiftiest lawyers in the Midlands"". Ken and Harry keep watch on the house each night and their patience is eventually rewarded when they see a shady figure prowling round in the garden. They give chase but the man escapes, after giving Har

CBS are looking after security at the Theatre Royal for a charity gala. One of the ballet dancers, Jan Melzer, is quite obviously scared stiff of her agent, Eckford, and Kelp, a thug who is working for him. At the party after the performance, Jan tells Laura that she and her fellow dancer Peter Sorreno desperately need help to escape from Eckford and Kelp. Harry is captivated by Enrica Montanini, an opera singer at the gala. He persuades her to give an impromptu performance at the party to distract Eckford's attention. Acting as decoys, Rocky and Laura dress up as Peter and Jan, and Eckford chases them through the empty auditorium. Meanwhile Peter and Jan escape to Ken's boat. Jan tells Ken that Eckford is threatening to reveal that Peter was arrested for drugs offences when he was younger - unless she co-operates with him. She says that the only person who might be able to help is her uncle, Tony Margiotta, who fled from America to Britain after a family argument. Ken traces him to a

Ken is asked to investigate the fiancée of Lawrence Varlish. He suspects that she might be having an affair with her hypnotherapist, Geoffrey Phillips. Harry goes to see Phillips, posing as an anxious patient, and soon discovers that Varlish is worrying over nothing. Two suspicious-looking South African men are waiting in the car park of the newly-opened CBS offices. They are anxious to collect something from a boat on the river. Nearby a narrow-boat belonging to a certain Mrs Walters is commandeered at gunpoint by Hobson, a suave man with a painfully cultured accent, accompanied by a Scotsman called Dilkes. They urgently need transport because their own boat has broken down. That night, when Ken is asleep on his yacht, he is woken up by the sound of heavy objects being thrown in to the water. Still half asleep, he peers out of the window but can't see anything and soon goes back to sleep. After advertising in the local paper, Ken and Harry are inundated with enquiries for missing pers

Helen is hosting a party for Argentinian polo players at Woodcote Park. She falls for Raoul Gomez, a suave Argentinian. Aiden Curtis, the husband of one of the English guests, asks Ken to watch his wife Merrily (!) who is ""terribly easily influenced"", meaning that he knows every man in the room fancies her and that he thinks she is having an affair. Ken follows her and uncovers a conspiracy between her, a local vet, David Rennet, and one of the Argentinian polo players, Celestino da Silva. Merrily's horse, Deauville Dancer, is infertile but Rennet has signed a certificate stating that it is in perfect health. She ""sells"" the horse to da Silva, thus establishing its value so that the insurance company will pay out when, six months from now, Rennet ""has no choice"" but to have it destroyed. She arranges to return da Silva's money when the insurance company pays up, but instead she leaves him as the owner of an infertile horse and disappears by plane with his money, accompanied by another

As he is driving along a country lane towards Woodcote Park, Harry sees a racing cyclist being harassed by a souped-up car. The cyclist, Ian, turns out to be Helen's nephew. He is staying at Woodcote Park while he trains for a road-race through the centre of Nottingham. Greg Simpson, the manager of a racing team, is pressuring Ian to leave his present team and to join Greg's. He threatens to publish a letter which proves that Ian once conspired to fix the result of a race by letting a friend win. Harry uncovers proof that Greg's soignier (team doctor) is prescribing drugs to addicts; this would not go down too well with the sponsors of Greg's team, a health-food company. Faced with a clear case of stalemate, Greg realises that he cannot win and backs down. Ken is asked to trace the author of love letters written to Barbara Lake. They are apparently from her husband, Ronnie, a bank robber - but he died in a plane crash six months ago... Either he is still alive or else the letters are c

Mr and Mrs Sheridan, parents of Isobel, a university student studying Art History, ask Ken to investigate why their daughter has changed and why she suddenly seems to be suspiciously wealthy. Ken talks to her former boyfriend, Geoff, and learns that she used to be very keen on rowing but then suddenly gave it up a year ago and now has a new set of friends. Laura and Rocky go undercover, posing as students. They see Isobel and a friend, Dominique, all dolled-up and getting into a brand new flashy convertible. They follow her to a hotel. When Rocky sees the women leaving a hotel bedroom after a little while, and an Italian man gratefully handing over money, he jumps to the obvious conclusion - that they are on the game! Then, outside Isobel's room, Laura finds syringes and a note referring to poppies - perhaps she is a drug dealer. What should Ken tell her parents? Ken eventually discovers that Isobel is selling her essays to less able students - with the knowledge of her tutor, Dr Micha

Ken is employed by the owners of a nursing home to investigate a series of petty thefts of patients' money. Because of pressure of work, he passes the case to Harry who goes to stay at the nursing home, posing as a businessman suffering from stress and a nervous breakdown. Laura also helps, posing as Harry's gushing and utterly spoilt daughter! After eliminating the cleaner and the gardener, Harry soon suspects Mary Foster, an eccentric old lady who is a long-term patient. He marks a wad of 5 notes and leaves them in his bedside drawer. They soon disappear and Harry finds them in Mary's handbag. He presents his findings to the Matron, telling her that he has traced the thief. Much to his surprise, the Matron herself confesses to the thefts. She has been taking the money to give to Mary, in order to perpetuate a white lie - Mary thinks that her son, living in New Zealand, is paying for little treats on her birthday, whereas in fact the son died two years ago and the Matron hasn't the he

While sorting out unpaid bills at The Grand, Doreen find s one relating to a man who has since died. Ken, Harry and Doreen visit his widow, Meg Lucie, and find that she is coping very badly, both with looking after the garden and with the paying of the bills. Ken and Harry sort out the garden while Doreen sorts out Meg's bills. They decide not to tell Meg that they suspect her husband was having an affair while staying at The Grand. Harry falls for Meg but she decides to sell up and move away from the area. Harry employs a new barman, Lionel Blakey, but soon discovers that his racist comments are offending both Hanif and the Asian guests. After an argument, Blakey resigns, which prevents Harry having to decide how to sack him!

Laurie Langley, a has-been pop singer, employs Ken to look after her son after she suspects that her ex-husband, Geoff Greenaway, is trying to kidnap him.

Ken is employed by a genial Irishman, Erroll McLaverty, to bring a canal boat back to Birmingham from near London. He takes Doreen and plans a romantic weekend. But two scruffy men, Appleby and Laing, are following the boat. Then Ken and Doreen hear strange sounds from the boat's cargo hold. They discover that an escaped convict, Alan Prendergast, is hiding in the boat - McLaverty had employed Ken to smuggle Alan back to his father, Walter Prendergast.

Harry has sold the Grand Hotel and bought a much more prestigious hotel, The Coaching Inn in Edgbaston. Doreen has moved to Spain and out of Ken's life. Harry is trying to raise some publicity for the grand opening that he has planned at The Coaching Inn, but the newspaper reporter isn't very interested. However Harry persuades them to print a photo if he can get it to the newspaper by their deadline. But who can perform the opening ceremony, now that the mayor isn't able to attend. By chance Emlyn Price Jones, a fiery red-haired Welsh MP, who is somewhat the worse for drink, is staying in the hotel so Harry gets him to do the honours. While Ken is taking the film of the grand opening to the newspaper office, he is ambushed by a gang of Hells Angels. Ken is starting up a motorcycle courier firm, Texas Rangers, which will operate out of the stables at the Coaching Inn, in which he has a financial stake. He is living in a flat above the stables. He has bought an ancient trans

A new recruit is oblivious of the jealousy around her as she concentrates on the man who intends to repossess her father's stately home - a man who just happens to be staying at 'The Coaching Inn'.

An unwelcome guest checks in at the Inn - Harry's Ex-wife, who is then kidnapped ! Meanwhile, Ken, Rocky and their new van attempt to deliver a large statue in which no-one seems to be interested.

Ken is approached by Marion Kershaw who is looking for her missing husband, Geoff, who is in ""the import/export business"". Ken soon discovers that Geoff Kershaw owes money to the taxman. At the squash court that Kershaw uses, Ken finds a holdall containing a large amount of cash, a false passport and a gun. The police tell him that Kershaw is wanted for running an antiques smuggling business, stealing antiques around the country and sending them abroad. Ken and Harry agree to stage a fake robbery at Woodcote Park so as to have some ""stolen"" antiques with which to tempt the smugglers. The local contact for them turns out to be Eric Beveridge, an antiques dealer who has just sold Helen some chairs for Woodcote Park. Geoff and Marion meet up at a deserted quarry - the ""missing person"" story is evidently a cover. With Harry and the police tailing them, Beveridge takes Ken to the quarry where Marion recognises Ken. After a dramatic chase, Beveridge and the Kershaws are arrested. Helen catch

Ken and Harry are involved in a court case, giving evidence against a landlord, Michael Roach who is accused of terrorising his tenants into leaving his houses. Some time ago, Ken had been employed by George and May Jenkins, and Aziz Hussain, Roach's tenants who live on a run-down estate. Jimmy Craven, one of Roach's thugs, had forced his way into the Jenkins' flat and vandalised the furniture, with the George and Mabel looking on in horror. When their neighbour, Aziz Hussain, had tried to intervene, he was beaten up. Roach was clearly behind the attacks: he wanted to redevelop the land on which the flats stood and had resorted to violent tactics after the more subtle approach (eg refusing to carry out repairs) had failed to work. The Jenkins and Hussains wanted Ken to gather evidence that Roach was paying Jimmy Craven. Ken and Rocky waited outside a pub that Craven was known to frequent, and photographed Roach handing over a large envelope of cash. But they were spotted and Craven and

Harry retires from the fire brigade and Ken is invalided out after his lungs are damaged while rescuing a boy from a fire. Harry buys a seedy hotel, The Grand. Ken buys a caravan, The Ponderosa, and tries to make a living as a market gardener. Harry suggests that Ken should supplement his income by offering to do odd-jobs for people - he places an advert in the local paper. His first client is Barney Spitz, a pop music promoter who wants Ken to dress up in an old fireman's uniform and star in a pop video!

Major Hopkinson, an old man who collects chiming clocks asks Ken for help after he is terrorised by some thugs to whom he owes money. But has he been completely honest with Ken?

Harry is searching for a group to provide entertainment at the Coaching Inn. He approaches Frankie Bass, a theatrical agent, who recommends a Country and West band, Bronco Billy's Boys. Harry hires them privately, bypassing Frankie's agency fee. Ken falls for Bebe McLintock, their raunchy blonde singer, after he has to rescue the band when they break down on their way to the Coaching Inn. Frankie Bass turns up and demands her share of the takings. Bronco and Bebe are forever arguing and Bebe is angry that she is not given sufficient chance to sing her own songs. She runs away from the band - and ends up in Ken's bed! She is on the point of leaving the band and living with Ken. However Ken's luck does not last: before long Bebe (who turns out to be Billy's wife) goes back to the band after Billy decides her needs her to stay. He is prepared to give her top billing and to let her sing her own songs. When White Lightning (Ken's beloved bike) is stolen, it is another member of the band, P

Elena and Arturo Sandini (aka Helen and Arthur Sanders) run a circus lion-taming show. They ask Ken to recover their lion, Watson, which has been stolen by a group of animal-rights campaigners who want to use it to publicise their cause.

Harry is thinking of extending the Coaching Inn and entertains a local councillor, James Petherbridge, to lunch in the hope that he will put in good word for Harry at the planning meeting. Unfortunately for Ken, the plans would involve the demolition of the stables used as Texas Rangers' office. Petherbridge is being pursued by an over-ambitious TV journalist, Linda West, who is determined to prove that he is corrupt and is accepting gifts in exchange for ensuring that applicants' plans are passed. Things look bad when it is revealed that he has just returned from a holiday in Sardinia. Then he receives a package of pornographic books, unwittingly delivered by Ken. The police arrive as Ken hands over the package. Because Texas Rangers is implicated by delivering the package, Ken investigates- to clear his own name as well as Petherbridge's. He discovers that the pornographic magazines have come from a seedy club run by Sillitoe, a florid-faced, fruity-voiced man who reluctantly reveals

Debbie thinks that Ken is getting very unfit so she takes him out jogging. A spirited elderly woman, Irene Maplethorpe, is being victimised by pranks at Moat Farm where she lives. A dead sheep is found in a water-trough; cattle get loose; the farmyard is flooded; she gets anonymous phone calls and finally a barn is "accidentally" demolished by a JCB. A consortium of unscrupulous property developers, Rathbone, Keen and Blackwater (RKB), has designs on the land where Moat Farm is situated. They are planning to build ""luxury dwellings"" there, even though they don't yet own the land. RKB put pressure on Irene's wimpish nephew, Philip Lainchbury, who runs a sawmill that is in financial difficulties, to get him to persuade Irene to move. RKB offer Harry the chance to invest in the consortium and take him shooting on the land next to Moat Farm. Irene demands that they leave her alone - and shoots out the tyres of Rathbone's car to emphasise her point. Irene suspects that her nephew is involve

Albion Firetrucks, a local company which makes fire engines, has the computer plans for its new high-tech prototype stolen, when Ken is knocked off his bike while couriering them to the managing director. He is rescued by Shandy Tremblett, a platinum-blonde Page 3 girl who is staying at the Coaching Inn while trying to "improve her education". When the prototype itself is stolen, Ken investigates. He uncovers a conspiracy between an American consortium, led by Ed Slatterley, and Albion's director, Sir Freddie Blackton MP. The intention is for Slatterley to buy Albion at a knockdown price (because the prototype and its plans are missing) and then, having asset-stripped the company, to close it down. Ken finds the prototype hidden in a barn. Ken, wearing a brass fireman's helmet, and Shandy, dressed in a Union Jack robe, stage a publicity stunt on top of the fire engine to raise public awareness and to persuade the government to allow a management buy-out to take place.

Rocky has his bike stolen by an opportunist thief, Nick, while he is collecting a package from an office in the city centre... and being chatted up by the doe-eyed receptionist! To make matters worse, he has forgotten to renew the road tax and insurance on the bike. Harry's 84-year-old Aunt Lill has had a stroke and is found lying on her hall floor. The ambulance drivers are on strike so her neighbours, Margaret and Sam Green, have to take her to hospital by car. Harry is furious at what he sees as the drivers' selfish attitude: "What's the world coming to when the unions can use a crippled old woman to bump up their pay packets?" he asks Ken. He vents his frustration on the casualty registrar, Dr Hamill, but she lectures him about the dire financial state of the Health Service and tells him how the ambulance strike is affecting deliveries of drugs and medical samples. Somewhat chastened, Harry offers Ken's services free of charge if the hospital needs any supplies collecting or delivered.

The episode starts with a bang as Rocky suspects that Texas Rangers is delivering IRA bombs. Explosions aren't the only thing in the air as Ken copes with Harry's passion for a beautiful artist.

Rocky's in love again. This time it's with the delectable Guiseppina, daughter of the owner of 'The Pizza Palace', an establishement so fortified that Rocky jokes about mafia connections... Harry, meanwhile, is planning a trip to Las Vegas, and Ken is involved in a number of mysterious parcels.

Ken encounters an old friend and meets up with a former love, Detective Constable Margaret Daly, at an aerobics class.