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Tracey does some decorating for Dorien's enemy Melanie Fishman, who tells her the source of their feud. Sharon meets the attractive Colin in a cinema queue and they click but he has failed to tell her that he is a policeman, a fact which comes to light when Dorien gets accused of buying stolen antiques. Sharon feels that their future is doomed though he would still like them to be friends.

Chigwell is in the grip of a burglar, and anonymous calls and letters are aimed at Tracey as an accomplice, since hers is one of the only houses not targeted. To square things up Chris, who knows the burglar and has warned him off Dal'n'Trace and Dorien's, gets him to stage a break-in at Tracey's house. Dorien, meanwhile, has her own security advisor.

Chris's cousin Georgiou is supposedly re-wiring the café but is actually using it as a night club and splitting the profits with Chris. When Dorien's latest toy boy takes her there she recognizes the place, spills the beans to the sisters and helps them to get their revenge.

Tracey is spending a lot of time helping Hayley, a first time prisoner's wife, and feels stronger as a result. Sharon tells Chris she is seeing Colin but ultimately breaks off with the policeman as she sees they live in different worlds and assumes Chris will think she did it for him. Dorien, stood up by her latest conquest, feels the sisters are neglecting her and is lonely but all three unite for a slap-up meal at the new restaurant where the waiters 'undress you with their eyes'.

Confusion reigns when Colin's superior, Inspector Dunsford and a female colleague stake out Emil, the possibly drug-dealing Frenchman across the road from Tracey's front bedroom. Dorien sees two people kissing silhouetted on the bedroom blind and Sharon tells her Tracey has a love slave whilst Tracey is disgusted that Garth has been paid fifty pounds by Emil. Eventually it turns out that Emil is a chef, paying Garth to help him and the married Dunsford is using the room to have sex with his bit on the side.

When Sharon tells Tracey she has it easy staying at home all day this leads to a challenge whereby the sisters swap roles. Tracey is exhausted but Sharon manages to flood the kitchen so they call it quits. Dorien, standing for the chair of the local tennis club, is receiving blackmail notes in an effort to get her to stand down - but then so is her rival, Melanie Fishman. Could the vicar's wife be to blame?

Sharon and Tracey get a visit in Ongar from Dorien, who has come back from Monte Carlo. She has been hanging out with Ralph Gardener, head of a water company, and frequently in the news and she plans to make it onto the front pages of the tabloids via her affair with him. Tracey does not approve, and is no more in favour of Sharon's desire to get pregnant.

Sharon reconnects with Dave and starts dreaming of finally starting a family with him. But when Dave learns that Sharon had aborted his baby when they first dated, things take a nasty turn.

Some things never change, as the sisters discover at their school reunion where Tracey - literally - exposes Poxy Loxy as the class sleaze and erstwhile bully Margie Harris still manages to torment Sharon, even though she is now in a wheel-chair. For Dorien, however, things do change. Her handsome young Luke, whom she re-encounters, has gone off her so she treats the girls to a night out instead.

Thanks to Sharon leaving the gas on, Tracey's kitchen goes up in smoke so Dorien, looking for an escape from visiting her mother-in-law, lets the sisters spend the weekend with her whilst the new kitchen is installed. There is the inevitable culture clash but the girls reward her with a shopping trip where Tracey's delayed shock spells trouble for Dorien and the brand new kitchen brings a shock of its own.

Fed up with her slobbish Greek customers, Sharon decides to make her cafe more upmarket and orders from a Jewish caterer suggested by Dorien. She is ostracized by the entire Greek community and the cafe looks like closing until she visits a Greek Orthodox priest who saves the day for her.

Despite its shaky start, Sharon's café is now thriving and she can even afford to take on an assistant, the super-efficient Gloria. By contrast Tracey feels inferior as she can only get menial jobs, so Sharon, knowing she is good at figures, asks her to become her book-keeper. Tracey initially feels patronised but comes up trumps by exposing Gloria as cheating Sharon. Dorien becomes reflective and feels she should stop her cycle of one-night stands, beginning by giving hunky Wayne the push. She starts to waver but Sharon is there for her...

Sharon dates a middle-aged man named Don who's in town to help Marcus Green through a financial crisis. Together, they try to recapture the spirit of the sixties in a hotel room.

Chris inherits a café and Sharon is so pleased to be running it she celebrates by drinking Greek brandy, which, mixed with the medication she's on, causes her to throw up in a policeman's helmet. Business starts to boom but Dorien gets side-tracked whilst on the sandwich run and Tracey walks out when she feels Sharon is exploiting her. When the police get called for a second time Sharon's business seems doomed but Dorien knows someone who needs a cleaner.

With the swimming pool business beginning to take off, Sharon decides to sell the café to consolidate her interests. Marcus is offering thirty grand but cousin Tony wants to keep the sale within the Greek community. And before she can entertain either of them Sharon has to get Chris to agree to sign over his half of the business.

When Tracey goes for her pre-natal check-up the doctor agrees with her that Sharon should go on a diet, which she does until she discovers that Chris has fallen for Josie, his amply-proportioned prison visitor. Dorien also reneges on her efforts to dress more her age when she finds that, for new beau Richard, less is more and hunky young Dominic, the new cleaner, has all the ladies crying out for more - massages.

Auntie Sylvie, just out of hospital, comes to convalesce with Tracey and Sharon and proves to be very demanding, as well as encouraging Garth to buy a motor-bike against his mother's wishes. They consider putting her in a home but feel unable to go through with it, though fortunately she has a mind of her own.

Dorien's husband Marcus makes a move on Tracey and Sharon finds herself in hot water with social security.

Darryl and Chris are free at last but Chris gets hit by a car and has to go to hospital, leaving Sharon free to invite 'Snotty' Scotty to Darryl's welcome home party. Things are less rosy for Tracey, who discovers that Darryl is impotent and for Dorien when Marcus finally catches her in the act with a business associate.

After drinking a little too much of the Christmas spirit, Sharon falls asleep and dreams that she is the glamorous, diva wife of rock super-star Chris who employs a prim, church-going cleaning lady who looks just like Dorien. Tracey, on the other hand, is a put-upon drudge living in a tower block with a layabout husband called Darryl and a tearaway son called Garth.

Sharon is appalled when Chris informs her that he is dumping her for a woman named Tina. Chris she can do without but Tina has been promised the café, which is what really hurts. Fortunately when Tina sees that the café is not what Chris had cracked it up to be she departs from his life and Sharon is back in business. Dorien considers living in sin, or rather Walthamstow, with her young lover Luke, but she misses her creature comforts and returns to Chigwell.

Tracey wants to find a job, but lacks confidence so Sharon volunteers her services to the prisoners' wives newsletter.

Sharon faces prosecution by the Social Security since they pay rent for her old flat when she no longer lives there and her lodger is in prison. When she and Tracey visit the flat they find squatters have moved in and the lady next door uses the address to order from a record club without paying. They manage to change the locks whilst the squatters are out but find that Dorien has been using Sharon's experiences as a model for the heroine of her saucy novel.

Chris gets compassionate leave after his mother dies but, after the funeral, he goes on a drunken bender, ending up at the café, where Sharon and Tony track him down. He is adamant that he is not going back to jail and needs a knuckle sandwich to persuade him. On return he can remember nothing.

Dorien's visiting niece, Rosa, seems the shy, retiring type so Dorien and Tracey are amazed to find her in the Jacuzzi with Garth and none too happy when the youngsters start dating. It causes a neighbourhood split but Dorien and Tracey make up after Dorien learns Rosa is using Garth to get her father to buy her a new car and Garth discovers that Rosa is not his type.