

Ruth Patchett has it all: a large, warty body, a standard suburban home, a couple of unruly children, a dog, a cat and a guinea pig. She also has Bobbo, her unfaithful accountant husband who resents her very existence. Bobbo wants, and is wanted by, romance novelist Mary Fisher, who lives in a lighthouse by the sea. When Bobo leaves Ruth for Mary, Ruth decides that Mary doesn't know the first thing about love, and she's gonna teach her.

Clumsy, put-upon Ruth Patchett leads a drudge's life with her two bratty children Nicola and Andy, and her neglectful accountant husband Bobbo. When Bobbo starts an affair with his top client, the glamourous, lighthouse-dwelling romantic novelist Mary Fisher, Ruth does everything she can to be a good wife but everything fails and Bobbo humiliates her in front of his parents before leaving her for Mary. Ruth snaps and, declaring that she will become a she-devil, burns the house down in such a way that the insurance claim will be invalid and dumps the children on Mary and Bobbo.
Aired: 10/8/1986
Whilst Mary and Bobbo find it tough going looking after the kids, Ruth, calling herself Lily Latimer, becomes a care assistant at the home where Mary's mother lives. Having befriended a co-worker, Nurse Hopkins, Ruth soon gains the down-to-earth Mrs Fisher's trust, learning that she regards Mary as being 'from the gutter'. Soon, Ruth has stage-managed the old lady's discharge into the unwilling care of her daughter, whose work suffers from her unwanted new family.