Not Going Out

When Lucy announces that she is pregnant, Lee wonders if the father might accidentally be him. He can't bring himself to tell Lucy how he thinks it might have happened, but Tim guesses. He is outraged at the thought of his friend and his sister together, but Lee has already started to warm to the idea of being a dad.

Lee is insufferably smug when he wins a thousand pounds in a writing competition with an essay entitled Disability in the Workplace.

Lucy is moved to tears when she reads the essay - she had no idea that Lee was so sensitive. Tim, however, is more sceptical, and with good reason; when a journalist turns up to interview the winner, she is expecting to meet a disabled author.

Over-excited by the appearance of a lesbian couple in their building, Lee and Tim ask them over for dinner, little realising that their adolescent attempt to get their jollies will backfire when Lucy discovers a side to herself that she never knew existed.

When Tim and Lee try to organise a party for Lucy's 30th birthday, their ideas of what makes a good party differ widely; Tim likes a few games of charades, while Lee likes a do where there are no competitors for Lucy's attention.

So when she arrives at the party arm-in-arm with another man, Lee makes it his mission to somehow get rid of him without causing a scene.

A new neighbour moves in upstairs, and his constant noise drives Lucy to distraction. She begs Lee and Tim to get him to stop, but neither is man enough.

Tim takes being branded a coward to heart, and rushes off to join a boxing gym. Lee, meanwhile, tries to impress Lucy by confronting the man in his own flat, where he finds himself staring into the eyes of a cold killer.

Lucy is stressed, as she has to make an important speech at a recruitment conference, and has nobody to help her write it. Sensing an opportunity to impress her, Lee offers his services, which upsets Tim, who also thinks he is the best man for the job.

What started off as a small job soon turns into a competition between Tim and Lee not only to see who can come up with the wittiest lines, but also to establish which of them Lucy likes best.

Lee is horrified when he hears that Lucy is considering marriage to Pavlov, a mechanic from the old Eastern bloc, just so that he can stay in the country. But he is a lone voice in trying to stop it, because one by one, as Lucy's family and friends hear Pavlov's tragic tales of life back home, they are persuaded that he is a perfect match for Lucy.

Lee's father turns up at the flat unannounced. This is the man who walked out of the family home when Lee was four, never paid his maintenance and ate Lee's goldfish. Lee wants him out of the flat, but Lucy tells him that the only way forward is to forgive and forget. Unfortunately, Lee's dad's behaviour makes this virtually impossible for Lee to achieve.