Grand Expectations

Ken falls off his bike while he is riding along a snowy country lane. The bike is damaged and needs a new rear suspension. Neighbour Ben Gibbs helps to recover the bike in his horsebox. After a lot of futile phoning around, Ken finds a motorbike repair shop, Alpha Bikes, which can get hold of the suspension unit. Alpha Bike is run Narain Singh and his nephew Ranjit. Narain offers Ken the use of his workshop. While working there one evening, Ken hears Ranjit and his wife Surinder arguing violently. Ranjit yells “You are my wife. You will do as I say.” Surinder screams and runs away, pursued by Ranjit. She and Ken escape on one of Narain’s bikes, and Harry reluctantly offers to put her up in a spare bedroom at The Grand.

When Ken returns the bike to Narain, he offers to bring Surinder back, although he tells Narain how his nephew has treated his wife. Narain resents the fact the Ken is “interfering”. He says that Ken will only get his bike when he returns Surinder. Back at The Grand, Ken and Harry try to persuade Surinder to go back to Ranjit, but she is terrified of him: “He’ll kill me”. She locks herself in her room and later admits that she keeps being sick. She says Ranjit is very possessive and once locked her up because she had gone out without his permission. She is contemplating divorcing him but is torn between such liberated British ways and traditional Sikh ways such as an arranged marriage and being considered to be her husband’s property. Narain and Ranjit come to the hotel to try to persuade Surinder to come out of her room. She refuses, so they stage a sit-in. Ken borrows Doreen’s car and goes to Narain’s shop at night. He tries to break in to recover his bike but sets the alarm off. As he is doing this, the car is stolen by joyriders. Later Ken borrows Harry’s van and traces the car to a back street where it has been abandoned when it ran out of petrol.

Harry wants to evict Surinder from the hotel because he is losing money while the room out of action, but Doreen and Ken flatly refuse to allow him to do this. Ethel gives Surinder a good stern talking-to. Reluctantly Surinder confesses that she is pregnant and is scared that Ranjit will react badly to the news. Narain brings Surinder’s parents and the two families argue. Doreen and Ken try to persuade Surinder and Ranjit to settle their differences. Eventually they get chance to talk, away from family pressures, and then proudly announce the pregnancy to their families. Narain pays for the room and returns Ken’s bike.

Jack, Doreen’s ex-husband, turns up unannounced and asks her to help one of his friends, Les Rickett, a builder who has got into financial difficulties and needs Doreen’s accounting skills. Les thinks that she has been given the job because she has lost her job at The Grand and needs the money. Doreen is furious at Jack’s distortion of the truth, especially when she learns that he has told Les that they are still married – clearly Jack won’t face up to the fact that he and Doreen are irrevocably divorced.

Notes and episode list © Martin Underwood, 1998

Page last modified: 19 June 2020, 13:20