Series 4 (1991)
| # | Episode Notes | Directed By | Written By | Original Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A small aircraft crashes in central London; Hallam is acting station officer and applies for the full-time job but doesn't get it; Tony has left the watch to run a boutique with Jenny; Sicknote decides to stand for election as a local councillor for the Green Party; Kate's ex-boyfriend Martin turns up at her house; a man gets trapped under the floorboards while doing DIY in his house; to Kate's annoyance, her friend invites Martin to stay; Malcolm takes on a new tenant, Helen; Colin accidentally sends the pump to the wrong address; As a result of this and Colin's youthful exuberance, Sub Officer Hallam extends Colin's probationary period; | Gerry Mill | David Humphries | September 29, 1991 (1991-09-29) |
| 2 | Colin's mum arrives at the station and gives Hallam a piece of her mind for leaving Colin on probation; George is getting married to Kelly; Blue Watch attend a fire at a recording studio; then they are called to rescue a horse stuck in a pond; Hallam hires Bayleaf, George and Kevin to renovate his kitchen; Sandra returns to find a big hole in the wall; George's wedding ends in a punch up and he knocks out Kelly's brothers; Sicknote wins the council election | John Reardon | David Humphries | October 6, 1991 (1991-10-06) |
| 3 | A stranger arrives at Blackwall. It turns out to be Nick Georgiadis, the new station officer. Nick has already been nicknamed Zorba and soon makes his mark on the watch, demanding strict adherence to the rules, and is unimpressed by their lax ways. The watch doubt his firefighting credentials, but he proves them wrong by taking part in a drill. Blue watch deal with a gas explosion in a sewer. Kevin confronts Rick about hitting his sister but is overpowered by Rick's friends and beaten up. Kevin and Nick clash when Kevin questions Nick's order that he is unfit for duty. Blue Watch are called to help a Chinese woman whose thumbs are stuck in the bath taps. | Gerry Mill | David Humphries | October 13, 1991 (1991-10-13) |
| 4 | When an elderly couple try to put out a fire in their old couch, young neighbour Zoe ends up calling the Fire Brigade. Mabel refuses to leave without her pet budgie and Colin, who takes a shine to Zoe, volunteers to rescue it. As Colin tries to resuscitate the dead bird, he gives it a blast of air from his BA and sends the corpse through an open window. To Mabel and Zoe waiting outside, it looks like the bird has flown away. Colin is Zoe's hero and so he asks her out. The pump is sent on standby into the Kent countryside and despite getting the appliance stuck in a ditch when they take a wrong turn, assist in fighting a barn blaze. Attempting to remove a valuable tractor from the inferno, George merely succeeds in demolishing half of the barn. Green Councillor Bert Quigley has started holding surgeries in his living room. Besieged by pensioners, Jean gets tired with making cups of tea, until a drunk Irishman comes in with a serious wound, mistaking it for a doctors surgery. | Mike Vardy | Tony Hoare | October 20, 1991 (1991-10-20) |
| 5 | Bringing a party of young children to London for the day, a coach driver id distracted by their antics and has to swerve through the central crash barrier to avoid a car. The coach plunges down an embankment, leaving the driver, a teacher and one boy dead, with others screaming in pain. Rejoining the Watch is Firefighter Stuart "Recall" MacKenzie, so nicknamed for his photographic memory, while Colin's chosen venue for his date with Zoe is a home game at Millwall FC. He can't understand why she doesn't answer the phone the next day. Blue Watch are called out to a gruesome accident in a block of flats where a youth is decapitated after mucking about with his mate on the roof of the lift. The blood-soaked body is discovered at the bottom of the lift shaft. kevin reveals his feelings for Marion three, but finds she is still seeing Technique. Drunk and upset, he turns up at Nick's birthday party, held at Uncle Demitri's restaurant. Kevin tries to pick up Nick's teenage sister but becomes abusive. Nick sees it as a family insult and floors Kevin with a right hander. | John Reardon | Anita Bronson | October 27, 1991 (1991-10-27) |
| 6 | Two boys break into a boat moored in a marina and take out the cooking gas cylinder to sniff it. Alerted by an alarm, a security guard goes to investigate. One youth escapes, but the other is still sniffing when the guard turns on the light, causing a huge explosion. When the Watch arrive, several boats are on fire. Kevin spots the security guard in the freezing water and dives in without a line. Nick then has to dive in to rescue Kevin and see the mutilated body of the second youth floating alongside them. George learns that he is going to be a father but Nick is fed up with the constant pressure for him to marry cousin Ariadne. Colin and his uncle Jaffa taje their revenge on Technique who has sold them a dud window-cleaning round. Marion finally realises Technique is a rat and tries to make it up with Kevin. When he won't have anything to do with her, she takes pills and vodka in a Suicide attempt and is rushed to hospital. | Gerry Mill | Anita Bronson | November 3, 1991 (1991-11-03) |
| 7 | A City yuppie, much the worse for drinking, drops his filofax on the track at a London Underground station. He climbs down to retrieve the scattered contents and ends up under an incoming train. Blue Watch arrive to find the man still alive and free him by jacking the carriage up. Riddled with the guilt at her suicide attempt, Kevin visits Marion. They patch it up and agree that Kevin should move in. Kate is getting dis-enchanted with Jeff, the fireman she met in Kent, but passes her end-of-probation exam. A hotel goes up in flames and Colin risks his life to save a colleague when the stairs collapse. Nick is suspicious about the hotel's safety and, on confronting the manager, discovers that alterations made since the building's fire certificate was issued had turned the place into a death trap. And when a constituent chains herself to Sicknote's front gate, he decides he's had enough of being a Councillor. | John Reardon | David Humphries | November 10, 1991 (1991-11-10) |
| 8 | A builder uses a pneumatic drill in an attempt to clear a load of duff cement from the drum of his lorry before it sets. But a massive lump of concrete crashes onto him, trapping him. His young son, playing nearby, calls the Brigade who realises that he has to be got out quickly before more concrete falls down. Just as he is released, he dies. Touched to learn that Recall's son Jamie has cystic fibrosis, Bayleaf has organised the Watch to take part in a charity pram race to raise enough money for the family to go to Disney World in Florida. It is a great success, raising over £1,000 and Maggie's daughter has managed to get free tickets for the flight. Later in the Station Mess, Colin reveals he has never been outside of Britain and Nick decides the Watch should go on a trip across the Channel to France which he leaves Sicknote to organise. Meanwhile, George has to fight off Kelly's mum, Lil who tries to seduce him. | Gerry Mill | Tony Hoare | November 17, 1991 (1991-11-17) |
| 9 | There is a surge of excitement when news of a massive warehouse fire comes through on the teleprinter. The scale of the incident is getting bigger all the time and Nick, Kate and recall are send into a basement to find the night security man. Josie and two other members of Charlton Blue Watch are back up. The security man is found on the second floor and Nick's team are called back. but as they return, an explosion rips through the basement where Recall is pinned by a huge wooden beam with his air supply running low. At ground level, Bayleaf locates a hydrant under a lorry. He succeeds in attaching a standpipe to the hydrant by crawling underneath a lorry but needs Hallam's help to turn it on. Suddenly the building wall collapses burying the two under an avalanche of rubble. Meanwhile, Josie's team have reached Nick, Kate and Recall and give them much needed air. At last the vibraphone locates life in the rubble, Hallam is dragged out alive but Bayleaf is still missing. | Keith Washington | Anita Bronson | November 24, 1991 (1991-11-24) |
| 10 | The warehouse shout continues and a tabloid journalist worms her way into Sandra's kitchen where the anxious wives and girlfriends have gathered. Clare, whose Firefighter husband died on a shout, faints when she is told Bayleaf is missing presumed dead. At the shout, nearly all personnel are involved with clearing the rubble, with Blue Watch and Josie working frantically. At last, the vibraphone picks up something under the lorry and Kevin and Colin crawl under to jack up the lorry. they find Bayleaf unconscious but alive and drag him out to waiting paramedics. In hospital, Bayleaf has a head injury and a broken leg. Hallam's physical health is fine but he is showing the classic symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and hasn't kept any appointments with the Brigade Counsellor. unlike Bayleaf, he was conscious while buried. Hallam insists he is fit for work, but Nick refuses to let him back until he has had counselling. At this, Hallam has a nervous breakdown in front of Nick and his wife. Nick, shocked to see his Sub Officer break down like that, quietly leaves him sobbing in Sandra's arms. | Keith Washington | Anita Bronson | December 1, 1991 (1991-12-01) |
Read more about this topic: List Of London's Burning Episodes
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