Every resident of Oldshaw stands a chance of becoming an Unsworth's client, and being given one of the most disastrous funerals in the long history of undertaking.
The funeral parlour is 'CLOSED - DUE TO BEREAVEMENT'. The reading of the late, unlamented Jeremiah Unsworth's will brings little comfort to Ivy, and even less for Billy.
Billy sees the girl of his dreams at the Temperance Hall Tearooms. The trouble with being an undertaker as Billy complains, is that 'it puts the jessies right off you'.
Competition rears its ugly head, with Ivy embroiled in a bitter trade war with Percy Openshaw. the winner takes it all, and the loser catches the next hearse out of town.
Following an unfortunate incident with a short-sighted pallbearer and a professional mourner with a permanent grin, Billy is given an opportunity to learn a new trade - away from home.
Undertaking is the only profession in which the customer can't complain or ask for a refund. At Unsworth & Co., it seems there is a first time for everything...
A string of onions and a bicycle wheel stuck in the tram-lines set billy on the road to High Adventure - via a trip to France in the hearse.
The annual undertaker's picnic ends in a romantic tryst for Billy, and even Ivy gets to taste some forbidden fruit!
When a gypsy arrives hawking her wares, Ivy recognises her as old schoolmate Vera and promptly shows her the door, paying no heed to Vera's threats of a gypsy curse. Various unfortunate events unfold and Ivy is convinced it is the gypsy's curse.
It could be the wedding of the year, as Billy finally ties the knot. Ivy, not to be outdone, arranges her own funeral.
Billy reluctantly agrees to bring his new lady-friend home to meet his Aunt Ivy, convinced that she will send this one packing too. The lady-friend is made of sterner stuff....
The Undertakers' Association Annual Bowling Tournament is well under way, but life is all bowls to Ivy and Billy.....until Ivy wins a prize she was not expecting!
Ivy's ambition to be the first woman president of the local British Undertakers' Association isn't helped when Billy 'misplaces' a client, and has to follow the example of Messrs Burke and Hare to get him back.
Ivy takes a trip down Memory Lane to recall the 'high spots' of her career for readers of the British Undertakers' Journal.
It's election day for the presidency of the local British Undertakers' Association, and Ivy intends to be its first female president. Will accident-prone Billy let her down?
Not many people have had the chance to watch their own funeral procession, but anything can happen when Ivy is making the arrangements - even for kith and kin.
Billy finally, if unexpectedly, becomes a proud father. there's just one small snag; the parents haven't actually been churched.
When a travelling evangelist comes to Oldshaw to save souls, he has his work cut out. Billy's decision to 'seek a better life' is no help to Ivy, or the business.
Unsworth Undertakers are fighting off the bailiffs and don't even have the money for coffin nails. Is this the final nail in the coffin for Ivy's ailing business?
A visit to the local music hall on a knife-thrower's off-night leads to Billy's backstage involvement with a real thespian, much to Auntie Ivy's apprehension.
When Ivy attends Sunday service at the chapel, she doesn't foresee spending the night alone with a man - or being condemned by all and forced to depart for pastures new.
Tis Christmas Eve, Oh Joy, what fun, We undertakers hope you'll come To see our merry pantomime.
Jeremiah Unsworth and Co. Undertakers and Embalmers, finally go up in the world - in more ways than one!
Billy meets an old flame at the mill, and Ivy meets an even older flame when invited to present prizes for good attendance to the infants of the local school.
A return to her roots and a night in a haunted house are enough to convince Ivy that the blood running through her veins is bluer than a bottle of Stephenson's ink!
A series of anonymous phone calls brings a welcome upsurge of business - but Billy suspects Unsworths' new clients 'accidental deaths' were anything but...
As Billy finally leaves home to find a place of his own, a visitor from the past returns to comfort Ivy in her loneliness, with unexpected results.
Church organist Annie Greenhalgh books her own funeral. Billy scoffs when Ivy tells him of Annie's amazing clairvoyant powers, but later receives astonishing news.
Confirmed bachelor Ernie Hadfield goes the way of all young men in the mating season, and is promised his fiancée's hand in marriage. Ivy and Billy help make it the Wedding of the Year.
Billy finally marries his beautiful bride - only to find that Ivy intends to accompany the newlyweds on their honeymoon to Robin Hood's Bay.
Billy and his new bride have scarcely a minute to themselves on their honeymoon...until the ever-present Auntie Ivy makes a startling announcement.
Mary's feeling jealous of Billy's past girlfriends, with her worst fear confirmed when he's seen with district nurse Tiger Lilly Longstaff, the Mata Hari of Oldshaw East.
It's smiles all round as Ivy shows family photos to her nephew's new bride...until an old wedding group photo turns up, apparently showing Billy as the groom!
The strenuous sport of fell running has obvious attractions for any undertaker on the lookout for clients, and Ivy's greatest rival will stop at nothing to get in first.
An unfortunate accident in the planting of the late Alderman Cartwright, caused by the incompetence of the hired help, drives Ivy to advertise for a proper apprentice.
When a leading competitor goes bankrupt, the extra business for Unsworth's puts Billy's marriage under strain...to Ivy's apparent glee.