Tue, Dec 23, 2008
Following an incident involving Clive's mother during a performance of 'Peter Pan' in which he is starring,Rick looks forward to Christmas with just Mel and himself. But then Mel feels the need to invite Magda,in mourning for her country's late president whilst Ben,sacked from the Christmas post,asks himself over. Despite his professed disdain for the festive season Marty also shows up when his flight to the sun gets postponed and Rick takes pity on Michael,doomed to spend Christmas alone when his chat-room girlfriend dumps him. Rick is even prepared to ask the dreadful Clive in for a drink but Michael,unwittingly high on the contents of Sam's special mince pies,gives the bore a piece of his mind. All in all a Christmas to remember even though the tree is shedding its needles and Rick's mother has yet again sent him a hamper full of useless things.
Thu, Nov 27, 2008
After scoring minus twelve, the lowest score ever in the history of pretentious radio panel game 'Watch Your Language' Rick's day gets even worse when his email system crashes and he has to go into an estate agents pretending to buy a house in order to use their fax system to send a script,resulting in his having to view a house. Michael is in therapy regarding Ambrose's sexuality and Magda is looking forward to a car boot sale but the best news is that Sam and Ben's song could be used on a television commercial.
Tue, Jun 28, 2011
Donald orders everybody else out of the library, explaining to Rick that he has taken him hostage in order to be provided with a chess set, denied him on safety grounds. He is a fairly jocular kidnapper, even getting Rick to play Twenty Questions to guess his crime - killing a rival drug dealer. He gets Rick to open up about his own insecurities which bores him so much he falls asleep, allowing Rick to tiptoe out of the room, though in his press conference Rick gives a more heroic account of his escape.
Thu, Nov 22, 2007
Rick gains heroic status after dissuading a suicidal paedophile from jumping to his death and cashes in on his new fame by asking the man he recognizes as a television producer to dinner to discuss a new project. However not only is Magda's dinner so foul it gets thrown out but the man is in fact the roofer who did some work for Rick previously so he has to pretend that he wants a new conservatory in order to save face.
Thu, Dec 11, 2008
The bad news for Rick is that his appearance on Phil Randall's phone-in show was a typical disaster and that Mel has offered to pay for Magda to return home for her sister's wedding. The good news is that Sam has split up with Ben but it gets worse when she seems to be going out with the ultra-gormless Spikey,who calls Rick Dick and is a 'walking bio-hazard'. Rick and Mel are invited to a dreadful play written by one of Mel's clients,who turns out to be a former stand-up. The play's high-spot is when Ben's phone,which Rick has in his possession,goes off at a crucial moment,a fact which gets reported in the local paper's review of the play to Rick's embarrassment. At least Rick can save some money when it turns out that Magda's sister's wedding is off as the groom is already married .And Sam goes back to Ben after Spikey puts himself in hospital after trying to illegally reconnect his electricity.
Thu, Dec 18, 2008
The printers have wrongly spelled Rick's name as Bick on his letter-heads so that when Magda brings her sister to stay Rick pays her to alter the mistake with typing fluid but she runs out and has to improvise. Mel's office is being redecorated so she works from home with her secretary Izzy,who has quite an effect on Marty though Magda dislikes her. Rick overhears Mel trying to pitch one of her clients to appear on a game show and rings up the producer to sabotage the man's chances. What he has failed to realise is that Mel was actually trying to put Rick forward for the show so once again he has shot himself in the foot. Nor do Sam and Ben's attempts to cook food to sell at a rock festival go down well with Clive from next door.
Thu, Nov 13, 2008
At a charity auction Rick opens the bidding for a waistcoat worn by late rock star Graham Evans but finds himself stuck with it when nobody else wants to outbid him. He also notes Ambrose,Michael's father,with another man,their conduct suggesting that they are a gay couple. Michael refuses to believe it but,at the disastrous reopening of the cafe as a trendy restaurant,Rick's suspicions about the two men are confirmed. Meanwhile Magda moves in with Rick and Mel after the boiler in her flat is leaking toxic gas and Rick discovers that Graham Evans' waistcoat is indeed very valuable. Unfortunately he has given it to Ben,who cut it up as part of his textiles project at college.
Thu, Dec 4, 2008
After surviving a near-death experience in the television studio, Rick decides that life is sweet and,to Marty's cynical amazement,becomes placid and positive,letting insects go free and not even blowing his top when Magda sells his father's war medal in a boot sale. And then he seems likely to have landed the star role in a television series. Can he really have found good Karma? Or,since he is Rick Spleen,will it all go down the drain,like Sam and Ben's relationship?
Thu, Nov 15, 2007
Rick appears as the celebrity oracle partnering a woman on a game show Trick or Treat,naming the blue whale and not the giraffe as the world's tallest mammal. Not only does he end up on the Dunces and Dorks website of dumb quiz show answers but has to make good his promise to his partner that he will buy her the star prize car if they fail to win it. His efforts to buy a cheap car and pass it off as the prize lead to yet another brush with the law whilst he causes a domestic crisis by insulting Magda,prompting her to threaten to give notice.
Tue, Jul 5, 2011
Rick's prison hostage situation has made him a bankable celebrity again - though Marty is suspicious of the true facts - and he is invited to host the Brave Britain awards. However Clive uses the event to coerce Rick into approving a ramp for his mother's wheelchair,forcing Rick to take drastic action whilst Donald sends a messenger to make Rick admit publicly how he really escaped from the siege. One of these events will increase Rick's popularity but the other will have the opposite effect.