Local farmer, Reg Manston notices one of his cows looks very ill and asks Nick to visit him. On Nick's arrival, Manston tells Nick that he suspects the animal may infected with the highly contagious disease known as Foot and Mouth. The local vet - Martin Thomas is called in performs test on Manston's herd. He phones the ministry of Agriculture while and sends the his tests away for confirmation of the disease. Meanwhile Nick as part of the regulations of the disease has to guard the farm entrance to check no one enters or leave the farm. The whole area becomes affected by the outbreak when it means that no social events can happen at the risk of the disease spreading, which annoys George whose bar is totally empty of customers. Meanwhile another farmer (and Manston's neighbour), Sam Carver is breaking the disease outbreak regulations by transporting his infected dead sheep to another area. In the meantime Manston's herd are shot and burned to prevent the disease from spreading. After

Gina goes into premature labour after she attempts to break up a fight between two men in the pub. At the hospital Blaketon recognises one of the two men from the pub brawl, Robert Flint, who was also involved in a major drugs case several years before for which he was never charged. Merton is determined to nail Flint this time around and impress the Division in the process.

Kate comes out of hospital with baby Sarah. The atmosphere is extremely sullen and Nick neglects his work, which doesn't go down well with Blaketon. Nick receives reports of prowlers hanging around at night, but he doesn't do anything about it. The next day Mr Copeland complains to Blaketon about Nick's inefficiency and about a tank of petrol he has had stolen. Blaketon is on the warpath and unaware of Kate's condition, goes round to the police house and tears a strip off Nick. Kate realises she can't keep it a secret any longer so Nick finally tells Phil the bad news. Blaketon feels awful for what he said and goes back to apologise. Kate is finding it difficult to cope and asks Nick to take her for a picnic in the hills. But this has disastrous repercussions when she goes down with pneumonia, which immediately worsens her condition. Emotions are running high, and by the time Kate dies everything comes to a head. After the funeral, Nick sees David Stockwell with a petrol can, realising

This is Peter Benson's first appearance at this show.

Alf is showing Nick the plot of land that he's bought on which to have a house built. But he's not pleased when Claude turns up with the digging equipment! Claude sets out to work but the digger soon becomes jammed. Claude goes down in to the excavation to see what's wrong and ends up trapped on an unexploded bomb. The army is brought in to diffuse the bomb and the police have to evacuate the whole village. One woman protests to leaving as a man has died in her bed and its not her husband. One little boy is missing, but Nick finds him hiding in a shed, unfortunately the bomb goes off causing the shed to collapse. Nick and the boy are fine but one soldier is killed.

An old flame of Eileen's turns up. He is a French man named Antonin, who urges Eileen to marry him. She declines because of her commitment to Katie. Nick goes undercover as a harbour worker to catch an escapee prisoner. Phil goes missing during the operation and is found trapped on one of the boats. Claude is buying fish under false means, Nick notices what's going on and advises him to stay away from Whitby - which is where the investigation is taking place.

Lady Whitly complains that she has had Christmas trees stolen. Kate is treating a young boy with breathing problems. His brother and sister are the ones selling the stolen Christmas trees to make money to send their brother to Switzerland which would benefit his health. Lady Whitly at first refuses to drop the charges against the children but later has a change of heart. Kate asks Claude to play Santa and he reluctantly agrees. Nick forgets to buy the turkey so he ends up buying a huge one from Claude! Thinking Blaketon would be alone at Christmas, Nick asks him to Christmas dinner, but he ends up bringing his son along as well. Kate knew nothing about the invitation so she looks a little surprised when she finds out they're cooking for four!

A burglar known as ‘Bero man' makes several attacks in the area, including terrifying Gina and injuring Maggie. He has also been known to bake a sponge cake in his victims houses before he leaves. The Bero man turns out to be a local girl who was feeling trapped by her family. A Bob Dylan look a like arrives and entertains everyone with his music. He is later found to be a drug dealer who gave some to two girls who were later involved in a car crash in which the driver died. Greengrass also unknowingly gets high on a hash cake that mysteriously appeared in his oven!

Suzanna Temple-Richards moves back into the area after having served time for drugging her husband, but when a woman she knew in prison turns up asking her for money she begins to get worried, and events take a turn for the worst. The woman turns out to be an escaped prisoner who is planning to escape to Spain with her boyfriend. Luckily the police realise what's happening and Suzanna is found tied up in the boot of their car. Eileen finds it hard to accept Jo staying over at the Police House, Nick talks to her about it, and everything is sorted out, she says that she thinks Kate would have liked Jo.

Maggie Bolton tells Neil that they are going to have a baby, but she's quite troubled about it and takes a small trip with Gina. Small fires in the area worry the police, and Greengrass has a railway carriage for holiday guests, but that makes Blaketon angry.

A new bank manager is very unwilling to lend out money and his son moves away from home in sympathy with the empty-handed. Bellamy and Gina prepare expensive luxury as Christmas gifts to each other.

A jailbird gets out to assist on a hidden agenda. Debbie changes her ways as a known person reunites in her life. A local child acts spiteful at the death of his pet. He creates a bomb and plants it in the Aidensfield Police House. The bomb explodes which kills Helen leaving Rob devastated by her death.

A caravan of circus-folk, the Laszlos arrives in Aidensfield and camps on the village green. The locals are angry about it and demand that these unwelcome visitors leave. The vicar's daughter, Anna meanwhile falls for one of campers, the young and handsome Milos Laszlo. This angers her wealthy fiancée, Jamie Hunter. Nick then receives allegations of theft against the Lazslos and Nick goes to the caravan to investigate. Nick hears that there is a sick man in the caravan and later discovers the man has cancer and has 'returned' home to his birthplace to die. The church's safe is then broken into and Milos then becomes the prime suspect after his scarf is found at the scene. Greengrass, an old friend of the Lazslos then informs Nick that he saw Jamie Hunter pick the scarf up and Nick realizes Hunter must have been responsible for the break in. The Lazslos then leave, with Anna after realizing they are not welcome anymore.

Convict Stevie Walsh is released from prison and is on a train back to Aidensfield to see his wife and to finish some unfinished business. In the night Aidensfield gets cut off as a severe snow storm and the whole are is unreachable. The train heading for Aidensfield then crashes when the signals fail. Nick is alone and can't get police assistance, so its up to him alone to organise a rescue mission with the villagers including Claude and George to help the passengers and see to the injured which include Gina's brother, Barry and Alex, who has suffered a head injury. The injured are taken to the village hall by the villagers until outside help can reach them. Meanwhile Kate is called out by a man, whose partner - Ellen and Walsh's ex-wife is in labour and about to give birth. To Ellen's distress, Stevie helps her and Kate when they get trapped in the snow on the way to hospital, and they end up with the train passengers in the village hall where the Kate delivers the baby. Blaketon eve

A man comes to Aidensfield who has mislaid his suitcase on a train.. The suitcase contained his wife's ashes. His purpose for his visit was to try and make peace with his mother in law after a fierce misunderstanding years ago.. There is a village fete with everyone involved, whilst the police uncover some weapons from a hot dog stand. Alfred is supposed to enter the Lurcher Challenge Cup race but unfortunately George lets him loose on the ale.

Joe Norton is causing trouble by smashing up pots in Nick and Kate's garden. A gypsy named Flo camps just up from Greengrass' house but he doesn't take kindly to her trying to sell him some lucky heather so she puts a 'hex' on him - Claude starts to believe that its working when everything starts to go wrong for him, so he asks to be 'unhexed'! Kate gets the result of her blood test that she sent off under another name, and it's bad news, but she keeps it to herself. Joe sets fire to the gypsy's caravan, Nick catches up with him but Joe attempts to assault him during the arrest. Clothes go missing off washing lines in the area. Kate goes into labour, and once she arrives at the hospital baby Sarah is soon born, Nick is over the moon, but his hopes are suddenly dashed when Kate tells him she has leukaemia.

It is Katie's christening, and everyone is celebrating at Nicks house afterwards, when an old girlfriend of his, Gill, from the Met turns up for a visit. Nick and Gill are asked to go undercover to investigate the criminal activities of the owner of a well known gambling club. Blaketon thinks that Mr Armstrong is going to cheat in an up coming racing event by tampering with the favourite horse, ‘Fab Four'. The police are on to him, and he soon notices he's being watched so he kidnaps Gill and hides her in a horse box. Nick and Phil come to the rescue.

Nat Coopeer is a 'traveller'. He and a mate tries unsuccessfully an armed robbery and they soon leave each other on their own. Greengrass gets involved in organizing horse races on open country roads.

An elderly woman, Jane Thompson who lives in a cottage is receiving threatening phone calls and hears noises in the middle of the night. A landowner, a Mr Walker is keen to get his hands on the her cottage. Nick at first suspects Walker of being behind the threatening behaviour, but Blaketon warns him off. The ladies son-in-law sells the cottage and she eventually is forced to move into a home, but she's not happy and goes back to her cottage. She then refuses to vacate it. Nick arrives and discovers the cottage was not her son-in-law's to sell, making her the rightful owner. It turns out that her son-in-law was responsible for all the threats. Meanwhile Alf finds a kitten and takes it to the station as Mrs. Ventress doesn't like cats. Blaketon orders someone to go and get it put down, but everyone refuses. Blaketon ends up not being so hard and keeps the Kitten as a pet.

Nick arrests Blaketon's son Graham for mugging a suspected drug dealer. Graham tells the police he did it to stop him pushing drugs to the youngsters. Blaketon is horrified but insists that there's nothing he can do and that the law must take its course, to the annoyance of his ex-wife. Meanwhile, Greengrass delivers a letter to Betty Such from her late husband. It tells her that a key to his safety deposit box is in the pocket of his best suit, but he was buried in that. So Betty and her son go and rob his grave to retrieve the Key. Once they have the key they open the box which is full of money. They celebrate their good fortune and start spending the money in the pub, but Gina realises its forged and tells Nick. Betty realises the notes are all forged and she realises that her husband has set her up from beyond the grave.

Nick isn't coping very well alone with Katie, and ends up calling his Mum to come and help out for a while. Mr Dewhurst complains to Nick that his neighbour has been shooting at his cat, but later when he sees the opportunity he takes his revenge, and his neighbour ends up in hospital. Maggie suggests that Nick should think of letting Katie be fostered for a while, but he is horrified at the idea. Phil and Alf help out by baby sitting Katie, but Phil has to end up taking her with him to the station, where he has a slight accident with baby powder Claude's nephew comes to visit and arranges to take bets on a darts game. Phil persuades Nick to come out to the pub. Phil, Nick and Alf end up involved with the darts match which ends up in a brawl out side. Blaketon isn't pleased that all 3 of his men were present at an illegal darts match!

The heads teacher's daughter who has been working as a house keeper for a sick man and his son, is knocked down in a hit and run accident. Maggie calls for help, but ends up becoming the main suspect. Obviously its not her, and Nick says he never suspected her, but Maggie's not so sure. The sick man can't remember anything of the night it happened because he blacked out, and is worried that he could have been responsible. But it turns out it was his son, who drove after the girl when she left that night (he had been her boyfriend) but panicked when he hit her. Nick reconsiders what Jo has said about promotion and asks Blaketon's advice about taking his sergeants exams.

Mel Drinkwater disappears on the way to her secret wedding and a former boyfriend, Michael, is suspected of making her diaappear. Greengrass' cat allergy is ruining his joy of a new business project. A burglar steals some medicine from Dr. Bolton's clinic.

Eric Tatton and his wife are dead and his sister, Peggy, has to move out of their house. At the last moment she however decides to fight to stay. Bellamy seeks a flat and gets 'assistance' from Grengrass.

Alex Robinson stays at the Aidensfield Arms while he tries to purchase land. But Ian Sinclair has beaten him to it and closed the deal with a couple of potential sellers. Lord Ashfordly has invited Robinson to dinner and he asks Gina to accompany him. His car has a flat tire and they have to go in hers. Late in the evening she feels bad and has to go home. The next morning she wakes up in her car only a couple of hundred yards from Ashfordly Hall. The previous evening Sinclair is seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident, and everything suggests that Gina is responsible. Sylvia and Linda are singers in a band, and to ensure that nothing untoward happens their father hires Vernon Scripps to drive them to and fro when they have a gig. But the loud music soon gets too much for him and David has to take over. The two girls soon discover that David is a real push-over in the hands of young females.