Born and Bred

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.

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.

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.

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?

After an eventful Christmas, the villagers are settling back into their daily lives when a face from the past causes quite a stir.

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.

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.

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.

Deborah's mother arrives in Ormston with some surprising news. Meanwhile, Tom has some unusual advice for shop-keeper Mr Boynton.

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.

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.

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.