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Whilst Lou's black market activities flourish Harvey is stuck in a dull job in a wireless factory working for the tight-fisted Hartley. He and Rita have to masquerade as a happy, united couple at an interview to get Stanley into the grammar school for which Harriet has recommended him. A combination of misunderstandings and Stanley's tall stories about his father's war exploits ensures entry but Maggie feels her father is neglecting her to spend time with Stanley.
Back at work after the factory strike and with a pay rise, Harvey disapproves of Lou's involvement with local black market king 'Connie' Rosenthal. He is proved right when Lou is arrested for having four crates of whiskey in his car boot and refuses to name Rosenthal for fear of reprisals. Rita, working in Rosenthal's drinking club, meets new gentleman friend Monty who starts to buy Stanley's affections. Harvey does a deal with 'Connie' that gets rid of Monty though it involves Lou getting sent down for three months.
When Nan, Harvey's mother, goes down with pneumonia, Harvey finds himself paying out doctor's bills and the money the imprisoned Lou buried in the park is no good as it is out of date, so that even Rita offers to help. At the Labour Party club, Harvey urges the members to write to the government insisting they push ahead with the N.H.S. causing Harriet to suggest he stand as a local councillor. Maggie has a false pregnancy scare and she and Stanley catch Harriet and Harvey kissing.
Harvey agrees to stand as a Labour councillor against the right wing Progressive Party's Clarence Saxby. To appear to be a family man, he bribes Rita to present a united public front with him, but she proves to be a liability. Fortunately, Saxby bears a remarkable resemblance to a man who keeps exposing himself to Stanley, thus ensuring Harvey's victory.
Just out of jail, Lou is dazzled by the stories Nan's old flame Wilf, who has made his fortune in Africa, tells and determines to emigrate. Unfortunately for him he decides to ask Harvey for a reference. Harvey feels under pressure when Harriet gets him to ask Rita for a divorce, and both women decide to come on a family outing to Southend, during which Stanley, upset by their bickering and the fact that Harvey missed his school football game, runs off. Harvey catches up with him, in a mine-field, but there is reconciliation all round.
Harvey and Harriet spend a weekend with her father in the country. Harriet wants sex but Harvey prefers romance. Rita also becomes an object of desire when 'Connie' gives her a job managing a bar in Mayfair, with accommodation. His attempts to mix business with pleasure cause her to quit and return to the prefab. An unexploded bomb renders Nan's tenement block unsafe, causing the council to consider demolition and rehousing the tenants in a new town. When Nan resists, Harvey gets the council to change its plan but the bomb goes off anyway.
