Gary wants to leave his girlfriend, Dorothy, but she decides to leave him first. Gary owns a flat and needs a lodger to help pay the mortgage. Unfortunately, he's got Dermot as a lodger and he's no help at all. A young woman named Deborah moves into the flat upstairs and Dermot immediately decides he's in love with her. The feeling isn't mutual though!
Gary and Dermot play chess to decide who will win an evening of pleasure
Gary tries to impress Deborah by installing a burglar alarm while Dermot tries to impress her by offering his body!
Gary suggests to Dorothy that they should have an ""open relationship"". Much to his surprise, she agrees. Dermot makes greater efforts to get somewhere with Deborah
Dermot organises a romantic dinner for Deborah
Gary thinks that he's been offered a new job so takes his staff out to dinner so that he can tell them that he's leaving! Will he be correct? Meanwhile, Dermot loses his job after he dangles a customer by the ankles.
Dermot has left the flat and gone abroad so Gary advertises for a new lodger. After interviewing a string of very strange and weird applicants, Gary offers the room to a bloke called Tony. Also, Anthea asks Gary for a pay rise and gets locked in the stationery cupboard.
Tony tries to impress Deborah by pretending that he can speak German - His plan backfires, however, when Debs gets a letter from a German customer and asks him to translate it for her! Gary begins to suspect that Tony is gay.
Deborah is ill, so Tony decides to look after her. Meanwhile, Tony decides that his girlfriend is getting too serious for his liking so sets about finding a way of dumping her without having to tell her face to face!
Dorothy demands an explanation when Tony sells one of her LP records, which is a 'rare' collectors' item worth £200, which is green in colour. Gary has to find a replacement! - The replacement LP is black, so Gary tries to paint it green! When Dorothy is not convinced, he has to pay her £200. Then, Tony tells him that there was a misprint in the catalogue - the green LP was only worth a few pounds!!!
Gary and Deborah are trapped in a lift together. Tony has bought an old van and equips it with an electric blanket - Can you guess why?!
Tony's brother has come to stay and so does his girlfriend. Gary ends up wanting to kill both of them. Then he finds out that her parents have a holiday villa which might be available for a free holiday. Now he'll have to be nice to them both!
Gary is upset when he discovers that he's had well below the average number of sexual partners for a man of his age, so goes to great lengths to prove to Dorothy that he's VERY experienced. Meanwhile, Deborah has split up with her boyfriend, making Tony thinks he's ""in with a chance""!
It's a wild and stormy night. Deborah can't sleep because she has digestive problems and because the garden fence is flapping around in the wind. She solves this problem by sending Tony to fix the fence and sends Gary to the shops. In the middle of the night, to look for indigestion tablets!
Deborah has become very depressed, so she decides to sell her flat and leave the country (As you do!!!). To prevent her from leaving, Gary and Tony do everything they can think of to convince potential buyers that her flat is a terrible place to live!
Tony gets a job as a barman, working for Les. Gary and Dorothy compare fantasies.
Dorothy orders Gary to hire a cleaner because she is fed up with the dirty state of the flat. Gary agrees, reluctantly, and becomes obsessed with his new cleaning lady! Tony loses his job at the pub when Les's brother comes to stay, but finds a new job as a male model.
Tony resorts to bugging Deborah's flat in an attempt to find out what she sees in her new estate agent boyfriend. Gary takes Dorothy to the ""Pasta Pig"" for a romantic meal. Carried away by the wine and the atmosphere, he forgets himself and proposes! - Dorothy accepts!! Next morning, Gary has second thoughts but how can he escape marriage?
Deborah leaves her keys with Tony so that he can let the gas engineer in to service her boiler. Tony can't resist the chance to have a peep in Deborah's underwear drawer, with disastrous consequences! Gary and Dorothy think they might have a baby - Dorothy begins to wonder whether Gary is mature enough to be a father.
Deborah tells Tony that she prefers people who help others, so he tries to become a Samaritan. Meanwhile, Gary suspects Dorothy of ""playing around"" and goes to great lengths to confirm his suspicions.
Gary organises a dinner party which proves to be a total disaster while Tony's new girlfriend tells him that he'll have to get rid of his collection of soft-porn magazines or she'll leave him.
Gary's dad has come to stay so he has to find a partner to take to a party. Tony has three girlfriends at the same time and he's finding it difficult to keep them apart. He's also making Gary very jealous!
Gary is supposed to be having a romantic meal with Dorothy, but he gets held up in the pub with Tony. Then Les announces a ""Beers of the World"" promotion and Gary and Tony have to help with the tasting. Will he ever get to the romantic meal?
Dorothy has had an operation to remove her appendix so Gary insists that she stays with him so that he can look after her. He isn't happy when she shows no interest in having sex with him. Tony is discovered wearing spectacles.
Tony has toothache but can't face a trip to the dentist. He decides on a 'do-it-yourself' extraction and ends up in great pain. Gary and Deborah have gone away on a weekend writing course. Tony calls Dorothy at the hospital and she comes round to help him. They end up in bed together.
Tony is away travelling around Europe. Meanwhile, Gary and Dorothy have a very romantic time and Dorothy decides that she'll move in with Gary. She also decides that Tony will have to leave the flat if he moves in! Tony comes home with a beard and is shocked to find a tidy flat with a fridge full of food instead of lager. Gary agonises about ways of breaking the news to Tony that he'll have to leave the flat.
Deborah has become interested in astrology. Tony thinks he can use this new interest as a way of getting her to sleep with him. Dorothy gives Gary a lesson in bad behaviour. Gary and Tony are horrified when they discover that Les has been sacked as manager of ""The Crown"". They're even more horrified when they learn that the new landlord plans to completely refurbish the pub. They set about finding a new 'local'. They also fill their flat with some strange mementoes of the 'old Crown'.
Gary makes himself look like a coward in a 'road rage' incident so he hatches a plan to make himself look macho. He hires someone to pretend to pick a fight with him in the pub but ends up fighting the wrong man. Deborah has a female friend staying with her. Gary and Tony are convinced that she's going through a ""lesbian phase""!
Gary has to decide between keeping Tony as a flatmate and living with Dorothy. He finally decides to ask Tony to leave. Tony moves to a room in ""The Crown"". Then Dorothy announces that she's decided to move in with Deborah! Tony tries to prove his love for Deborah with a do-it-yourself tattoo.
Gary is upset when he's mistaken for George at the office. He decides to prove that he isn't becoming ""middle aged"" by taking Dorothy, Tony and Deborah to an all-night rave. The evening is a complete disaster!
Everyone keeps telling Tony that he's getting fat, so he tries to lose weight. Tony discovers that Gary has £33,000 in his savings account and soon everyone knows about it. Dorothy 'persuades' Gary to make a donation to the hospital appeal fund but everyone is after Gary for a handout. He solves the problem by pretending that he's blown all of his money on expensive watches and Harrods lager.
Dorothy and Deborah have gone away on a sailing weekend. Tony is building a sauna in the garden shed - a ""shedna"" as he calls it. Gary and Tony meet Paula and Carol, who are staying at the house next door for the weekend. They invite the girls round for a barbecue. Tony makes a play for Paula, but discovers that she's a happily married mother. Gary is seduced by Carol. When Deborah and Dorothy come home, Tony talks Debs into trying out the ""shedna"" with him, but it blows up before they can use it! Gary obviously keeps quiet about his weekend activities with Carol.
Gary and Tony set out to celebrate Gary's stag night after Dorothy decides that it's time Gary showed ""real committment"" by marrying her. Gary suggests to Dorothy that buying a dog together might be an alternative!
The day of Gary and Dorothy's wedding arrives and both of them are having second thoughts. Tony, however, is ""on a promise"" if the wedding goes ahead.
Tony becomes obsessively jealous when he thinks that Deborah fancies another man. Gary and Dorothy, Tony and Deborah spend a weekend in a caravan out in the country. Gary is trying to give up smoking.
Gary, Dorothy, Tony and Deborah spend an evening watching television. At least, Tony tries to watch television. The other three seem hell bent on making Tony look like an idiot.
Tony tries to talk Deborah into making love in unusual places. He also has to try to make a good impression on Deborah's mother. Dorothy talks Gary into seeing a relationship counsellor.
Dorothy talks Gary into getting rid of his 25-year-old sofa. Gary reminisces about the events his sofa has 'witnessed'.
Christmas time, a time of love, food and fun. However at Gary’s home Christmas time is a time of hate, burnt turkeys and deep fat fried phones! Gary is determined to do the cooking, and Deborah wants to split up with Tony, who's thrilled with his new drum set.
A specially filmed scene in aid of Comic Relief brings a surprise guest to the flat.
Gary and Dorothy are determined to try for a baby; however Gary has a slight impotence problem so collects a heavy collection of pornography to solve the issue.
Gary attends a conference in Worthing, and Dorothy, Deborah and Tony tag along for the trip; Tony and Gary make the local headlines by stealing a large ornamental fish, and Gary falls in love - and not with Dorothy.
In the final episode, Tony takes up his new job as a postman; however Deborah believes he's become boring as a result. Meanwhile Gary gets heavily drunk to break the news to George and Anthea the office is closing down; and Dorothy goes into labour, but with a drunken Gary and Tony (who’s now back to his old ways) and an unconscious midwife, events descend into disaster.
As part of Comic Relief 1999, a 'Swinging Sixties' version of the show was broadcast via recently discovered black-and-white footage, known as 'The Naughty Boys'.
Gary and Tony discuss testicular cancer as part of Channel 4's Stand Up To Cancer telethon and The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night.
