Wheels Of Fortune

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 delivering.

Harry has left Ken in charge of the hotel. A starchy middle-aged woman, Phyllis Nichols, is staying there and soon makes her presence felt by demanding a vegan diet and herbal tea. She is a well-known clairvoyant who wants conditions of absolute peace to write her autobiography. However word soon gets out that she is staying at the Coaching Inn. A certain Harold Beamish asks Ken to give her an umbrella from his dead nephew. He is followed by a large crowd, all bearing objects such as guitars, bird-cages and tennis racquets to give to her, in the hope that by handling the possessions she will be able to make contact with the dead owners.

Phyllis warns Ken not to ride his motorbike because she can foresee a motorbike crash, a lot of blood, Ken on an operating table in hospital and a policeman arriving at the Coaching Inn, bearing bad news. Because all the other riders are out on jobs, Ken reluctantly agrees to do a delivery, despite Phyllis’s warning. He is knocked off his bike by a speeding Ford Capri but escapes with a few bruises; the car buries itself in a load of crates of vegetables!

Later, while he is delivering some serum for the hospital, he is asked to give blood because there has been a serious road accident. The casualty turns out to be Nick, who stole Rocky’s bike. This explains Phyllis’s predictions about lots of blood and Ken lying on an operating table (actually the blood donor couch).

Rocky’s bike is recovered, miraculously undamaged. Phyllis’s last prophesy comes true when a policeman arrives with bad news for Rocky – he wants to question him about having no insurance!

Phyllis Nichols arrived by train at the old Birmingham Moor Street station just a few months before it closed on 26 September 1987.

Notes and episode list © Martin Underwood, 1998

Page last modified: 13 May 2009, 19:59