Episode list

Kevin O'Grady goes for a job at the Lillicrap Novelty Company and is the subject of bigotry among the workers--not because he is Irish, but because he is a Pakistani with an Irish father. The token Black man at the firm does not like Pakistanis and the two Scousers are extremely colour-prejudiced, but Arthur Blenkinsop, the liberal foreman, takes him on and fixes him up with lodgings with Mrs. Bartok. He also buys Kevin a pint of Guinness, but because it is black it is not well-received.

Having sampled from Mrs. Bartok the delight of curry and chips--a dish that Arthur cannot stomach--Kevin settles into his first day at Lillicraps'. However, as a worker he quickly falls foul of his indolent colleagues' attitude and union-bound response to not working too hard, a situation which Arthur must save to avoid losing staff.

When Kevin comes up with eight score draws on his football-pools coupon and it looks like he has won 250,000 pounds, attitudes towards him suddenly change with special meals and free drinks all round. Everybody wants to be his friend. But has he really won a quarter of a million?

Kevin is on his way to confession to safeguard himself for the afterlife should he get killed in a riot at a football match. Unfortunately, he walks straight into a race riot, gets arrested, and ends up with a black eye. On his release it turns out that he is both a Muslim and a Catholic, just to ensure that he goes to some kind of heaven.

Word comes from above that, as the company is losing money, one of the work-force must go. Norman, the shop steward, instantly calls a strike but to no apparent avail. As the only Black--as opposed to Irish-Pakistani--worker on the shop floor Kenny feels that his job is also at risk because of bigotry. Fortunately, common sense eventually prevails.

As the workers decorate the office for Christmas, Smellie laments the lack of a televised Queen's Speech this year and Norman dismisses Christmas as nothing more than a commercial racket for capitalists, though he is challenged by Kevin and a heated debate follows. However, at the Christmas party everybody drunkenly performs their party pieces, in Kevin's case a song involving Cockney rhyming slang, and all animosity is forgotten.