Budgie

Ronald "Budgie" Bird has just been released from prison, and has been given the job of looking Charity, one of Charlie Endell's strippers While looking after Charity, Budgie and his Irish mate Grogan accidentally steal a van load of pornographic magazines from the police and then try to destroy the evidence by burning them on a cricket field.

Budgie seems to have fallen on his feet - a flat right in the centre of Soho all to himself for six weeks. But why is Charlie doing him a favour - and Hazel's mother has plans for him too.

Budgie's on to something big. It means "playing at home" in Watford for a change. It means seeing his wife Jean; but Budgie knows he's sure of a welcome there isn't he?

An evening of "luxury"- Spanish nosh and chateau-bottled "plonk" at the Grandee Hotel on the North Orbital Road - gives Budgie the chance of clinching an important business deal.

Budgie's in the money - it's unheard of. But it's true. But how did he get it, and more importantly how can he hang on to it?

Budgie's got a job working in Charlie Endell's bookshop. He's saving up for a holiday. But Hazel has a problem that starts off a sequence of events which leads Budgie back to his old school and into a tricky situation.

Providing he behaves, Budgie is due to be released from prison in three weeks' time. It looks as though his luck has changed - but anyone who knows our hero can be certain that 'waiting' will prove a bit of a strain.

Alive and well, and back home in Watford with his wife Jean, it isn't long before Budgie gets an itch to visit his old Soho haunts. What he finds there is not what he expected.

Old venues, some old faces - and some new. After a surprise meeting with his ex-girlfriend Hazel, Budgie decides it is high time to make some quick money. It isn't long before he's back to his old tricks again.

When Budgie dons a white coat and takes a job, his friends are amazed. Could it be that he has started on the straight and narrow at last? Even Charlie Endell shows surprise - but then he's privy to secret information.

Budgie is on the run again. This time both the police and Charlie Endell are after his blood. It's just a question of who catches him first - and which is the lesser of the two evils.

When Hazel asks Budgie to take her cousin Herbert on a guided tour of London, she has no idea of the trouble her request will cause - most of it on her own doorstep.