Buy Damned

Al comes to work to find that Martin has changed the door code and inept temp Nat has returned. He can do without the continual visits of adoring ex-client Anne Marie just as Rose would prefer ex-husband Lee not to call in regarding access arrangements. This is all ammunition for the officious Nitin, charged by their senior officer Denise to spy on them in the name of efficiency. Rose suffers another blow when she discovers her latest client is an ailing ex-boyfriend, still living with the woman who stole him from Rose..
Hide description ▲

Nitin is unhappy when he draws the short straw and has to be the office cleaner but endures it in order to carry on spying on the team. Rose has a nasty moment when she has to investigate a 15 year old schoolboy having sex with his teacher and fears that he may be Denise's son but is very happy to learn that Martin has been declared fit to work and uses him to get revenge on Lee. Al is also pleased when a loving but simple couple who only feed their baby on ice cream learn nutritional skills.
Hide description ▲

Al goes to see a gay couple persecuted by homophobic neighbours for fostering a little girl. To escape the jibes of the office after Nat reveals he photo-copied his bum whilst drunk Nitin accompanies him but their joint approach leads to a complaint against them. Back at the office Rose is held hostage by an irate father demanding the return of his children from care, prompting police intervention and heroics from Nitin, by which time Rose has defused the situation.
Hide description ▲

Al is concerned by a report that a famous actor has sexually assaulted 14 year old Chantal on a visit to a children's home whilst Nat and Martin have to help Rose persuade Denise that Rose's senile mother Audrey is in the office on work experience. Unfortunately Audrey wanders off before she can be assessed for geriatric care and by the time Al has learnt the truth from Chantal Nat has innocently alerted the press to the alleged offence.
Hide description ▲

When two Syrian girls go missing from their foster home paranoid P.C. Harris calls an emergency meeting, suspecting that they may have joined a sleeper cell. Martin pops out to the shops to look for them but it is Nat's knowledge of popular culture which finally locates them. Meanwhile Rose is in a quandary whether to place her mother in a home and Nitin's blind date cancels after seeing a photo of his new hairdo.
Hide description ▲

Denise forbids anybody to leave the building before all outstanding cases are closed - particularly galling for Al, who is hoping to slope off early for a weekend in Paris with his girlfriend - so he feigns illness. Then real illness kicks in, still preventing him from going. Rose exploits the usual prank call about an abandoned baby as an excuse to go shopping but is surprised to find it is no hoax, with Nitin left holding the baby. Finally Denise, having sorted out the sexual harassment case at her son's school in her own way, shocks the team when she announces which one of them is about to be promoted.
Hide description ▲

Martin has been promoted and become wholly rule-bound as well as being charged to mentor annoyingly earnest student Mimi. Al stands alone in defending single parent Elena who works as a prostitute and is amazed to find Rose's ex-husband Lee has become an Uber cab driver. Rose has her own problems with a tearful victim of historic abuse and her children's incontinent dog.
Hide description ▲

Schoolboy Dean Atkins tells Al he is being suspended for fighting, following being bullied for his father's gender realignment but when Al talks to the headmistress he finds that Sean has been lying. Rose is pleasantly surprised when the icy Denise's laid back brother Dennis takes a shine to her and Nitin comes to Ingrid's aid over a controversial birthday cake.
Hide description ▲

Denise is interviewed on television about the department's failure to investigate historic abuse and has a brain freeze, to the amusement of the other social workers. Al gets mistaken for a violent father and is tasered, ruining his job interview at a library whilst Martin helps Mimi financially. Rose's date with Dennis ends as badly as Nitin and Al's double date with two women, one of whom displays fascist tendencies.
Hide description ▲

Secretary Nat tells Martin that she believes student Mimi is stealing files whilst Al contends with a boy who refuses to clean his teeth and Ingrid's foster-son Limahl also gives cause for concern. Rose has a personal problem and the historic abuse case refuses to go away, with Nat getting involved.
Hide description ▲

Rose wakes up in bed with Dennis at Denise's house, meeting Denise's angry lover Hazel. In Rose's absence Nitin is sent to investigate the drug-addicted parents of a young girl Ellie and is shocked at what he sees, at last being taken seriously. Al is concerned that Mimi has looked at confidential files whilst Nat, pregnant by her married lover, offers unusual rewards for a birthing partner.
Hide description ▲

Rose visits a Mormon couple who home school their children and is shocked to find their only subject is Bible Studies whilst Al, about to start a new job, makes a disturbing discovery at the home of violent ex-prisoner Shazz Middleton. Ingrid locates the missing files, spelling disaster for Denise and Lee makes a last ditch effort to win Rose back from Dennis. Meanwhile Nat chooses her birthing partner.
Hide description ▲