Episode 2

As a parent, how do you know if the decisions you make for your child are right? If your child can't always express his own feelings, how do you even go about making the decisions in the first place? These questions hang over Paul and Alison as Joe starts his first day at a specialist school in Manchester. For a boy who finds change the hardest thing of all, life is changing utterly - and Paul and Alison are unprepared for how Joe reacts.

They are also unprepared for how they feel. As Alison wonders about her role as a mum, Paul is exposed to questions that unsettle him. Will Joe forever be labelled? Will his future be like that of Sophie's autistic son Mark who, at 16, is struggling to cope? In the past, Paul and Alison would have told each other what they were feeling. Now, tellingly, they don't. Could this be the first indication that they are pulling apart?

Also facing an uncertain future is Maurice. Having appointed Ralph as his new brewery assistant, he gets it in the neck from Louise who is adamant her son shouldn't be working for him. Maurice demands to know why. When Louise finally tells him the truth, it knocks Maurice sideways.

Meanwhile, Vincent is determined to relight Nicola and Eddie's fires, to atone for his own marital misdemeanours. And James warns Rebecca that he's not going to get stuck with her family - and if she wants a life of her own, she shouldn't get stuck with them either.