Ed is now a happily-retired author. Not only that but he's well fed, warm and happily ensconced in Berkhampstead's premier accommodation of choice for the financially distressed.

Picking up the threads of Ed's thwarted life, listeners' find him prematurely but happily retired, ensconced at Charterhouse Court - Berkhampstead's accommodation of choice for the financially distressed. Ed has given up the life of a writer and gone to the place that his daughter and her right-on vicar stepfather were so heartily encouraging him to move to at the end of the last series. No more is his life one of unmitigated misery, disappointment, abuse and sheer grinding poverty, but rather one of happily undertaking Piccadilly Pot Pourri, the latest jigsaw from the games cupboard, and leading the fight to get the parental controls taken off the day-room computer.

Of course this life of joy won't last, and so it is that Ed is forced to return to his eternal struggle to keep mind, body and soul together with the rather pressing matter of earning some money.