Episode Guide

Alice's prison sentence was taking its toll on George, never mind the poor jailbird herself. Shirley tried her best to console him but his stress levels were through the roof and, against Alice's wishes, he was determined to appeal her case. He finally got the chance to visit his daughter but as soon as the appeal was mentioned, she told him she deserved to be there and wouldn't be appealing. And she wouldn't see her family again until she got out, which was just too much for George. Kelly-Marie kept on her managerial role at Versus while a distant Heather struggled to cope with looking after Freya. Heather got angry about Duncan just taking off and dumping the kid on strangers but Gerry had a few home truths to tell her about that. As their relationship seemed to be breaking down, Gerry began to bond with Freya.

Gerry's worklife was falling apart as quickly as his homelife - Archie continued to blame him for Alice's sentence and told him there'd be no promotion for at least two years. Gerry didn't like the way he was being treated… and quit! Father Michael tried to convince Scarlett to go to the police about Lenny harassing Bob, but she knew that would make matters worse. Father Michael then offered to lend them £300… but it was just a drop in the ocean. Scarlett was really touched by his offer. Meanwhile, Lenny's heavies were on the scene to bring work Bob's way, but false bottoms on cars were too close to what his dad did for his liking. It was made clear he'd have no choice. Lola was finding life tough since Glenn ran off, and Carly was getting fed up. Roisin invited the pair to hers for Christmas but Lola was feeling far from festive.

Alanna was in the doldrums, still thinking about Alex, while poor Vader didn't have a clue what was going on - she wouldn't even let him touch her. Raymond's her only confidante but he was busy packing to go away to a week's conference! As Alanna became more and more withdrawn she told Vader she needed space - once he'd thought through stuff about Hazel, and she had sorted herself out then maybe they could move on… next thing we saw was Vader at George's door, with a bag packed. Alisha was getting ready for her trip to India and her farewell to Luca was rudely interrupted by hanger-on Jo. Jo made it her mission to look after lovesick and homesick Luca in Alisha's absence, but things looked like they were getting a little too cosy. In fact, it looked like she nearly kissed him before she remembered he's her brother. Eeek!