Budgie is in the farming business - but not the kind that includes furry creatures or our feathered friends. The only "birds" are two-legged ones.

Budgie seems to have fallen on his feet - a flat right in the centre of Soho all to himself for six weeks. But why is Charlie doing him a favour - and Hazel's mother has plans for him too.

Budgie's blown it. Charlie Endell is after his blood, and this time he means business. Budgie's friends have gone to ground, and the heavies looking for him all over London, he needs somewhere to hide. Where?

A chance meeting between Budgie and his old friend Inga the Stripper on a railway station sets in motion a chain of events which places our hero well and truly in the firing line - and leads to a final showdown.

Charlie Endell drives Budgie to a football match in his Rolls Royce. Just after they park, someone tries to shoot Charlie, but hits Budgie by instead. They both take refuge in a nearby house, much to the annoyance of the owners, who have a dark secret of their own.

When Budgie asks Charlie Endell for a job reference, it appears that the lad has finally taken the decision to go straight. But in Budgie's world, things are seldom what they appear to be.

When Charlie Endell clothes him in a new suit and makes his 'chief associate', Budgie is confident that Charlie has finally recognised his true potential - but Hazel isn't so sure.

When he meets Inky Ballantine, and gets involved in a new money-making racket - capital investment- Budgie believes he's struck it rich. He's thought that before - but look where it got him last time.

Alive and well, and back home in Watford with his wife Jean, it isn't long before Budgie gets an itch to visit his old Soho haunts. What he finds there is not what he expected.

Providing he behaves, Budgie is due to be released from prison in three weeks' time. It looks as though his luck has changed - but anyone who knows our hero can be certain that 'waiting' will prove a bit of a strain.

Ronald "Budgie" Bird has just been released from prison, and has been given the job of looking Charity, one of Charlie Endell's strippers While looking after Charity, Budgie and his Irish mate Grogan accidentally steal a van load of pornographic magazines from the police and then try to destroy the evidence by burning them on a cricket field.

Budgie's on to something big. It means "playing at home" in Watford for a change. It means seeing his wife Jean; but Budgie knows he's sure of a welcome there isn't he?

An evening of "luxury"- Spanish nosh and chateau-bottled "plonk" at the Grandee Hotel on the North Orbital Road - gives Budgie the chance of clinching an important business deal.

Budgie's in the money - it's unheard of. But it's true. But how did he get it, and more importantly how can he hang on to it?

Budgie's got a job working in Charlie Endell's bookshop. He's saving up for a holiday. But Hazel has a problem that starts off a sequence of events which leads Budgie back to his old school and into a tricky situation.

"A man's best mate is his best mate" they said, especially when he is in trouble. But Budgie finds that in the case of Maguire that trouble leads to trouble, and still more trouble - 500 troubles to be exact.