Just Good Friends

In 1978, high-flying secretary Penny Warrender was due to marry bookie Vince Pinner but he jilted her at the altar. Penny has since had a disastrous marriage to Graham and is divorced whilst Vince remains single. By 1983, by chance, both…

Vince realizes how much he wants to get back with Penny and decides to brave a visit to her house to supposedly return her handkerchief, knowing that he will not exactly be welcome with her parents. This is an understatement as he has to…

Penny and Vince meet in the park and he invites her to dinner at his flat - purely as a friend. The food is awful but the pair get on, Penny describing how her marriage broke down, but she resists Vince's attempts to get her to stay the…

Vince decides to ask his scrap dealer father Les what he should do regarding his relationship with Penny and is surprised at the result given that it is the first time in years that he has needed advice. Penny meanwhile is also surprised…

Penny hopes Vince will ring her so that she can tell him she never wants to see him again but when he fails to call she goes to his betting shop on the pretext of nervously placing a bet. Vince suggests a night out and collects her in his…

Penny's mother Daphne is not pleased when Vince arrives at the birthday tea she and husband Norman have organized for Penny - and even more annoyed when Penny tells her that she and Vince are moving into a flat together. But it is Penny's…

To her mother's annoyance, Penny moves into the newly decorated flat with Vince but disaster soon strikes as, due to Penny not locking the door, the flat is burgled and vandalised. A horrified Penny tells Vince she's finished with him and…

Penny and Vince meet for a pub lunch but he so annoys her by bringing up the past and telling her that he sold the flat behind her back that she throws a drink over him. Drunk and depressed he turns up at her house to apologize but has an…

Penny thinks Vince is taking her for granted and decides to teach him a lesson.

Penny is summoned to a meeting at a restaurant with Graham, her controlling, patronizing estranged husband. He tells her that he wants her to admit to adultery with Vince to lessen the shame of a divorce – otherwise his mother will…

Penny and Vince attend her boss's daughter Sammy's wedding where Vince accidentally gets his cuff link caught up with the bride's dress - leading to a row with Penny and the cancellation of the honeymoon. Meanwhile Daphne is less than…

Vince tricks Penny into going away on a week's holiday at his family's new Portuguese villa.

Penny is alarmed when she appears to have pregnancy symptoms and, whilst Vince's parents are delighted to think they may have a grandchild, Daphne is anything but, giving her daughter a cautionary tale of a former friend in a similar…

After getting her divorce Penny meets Vince for lunch and he proposes to her, though given his past record she is wary. Furthermore she has the offer of a training course in Paris, so that when he stays out all night, despite having a…

Penny recalls how she first met Vince when he was selling ice creams from a van, their subsequent courtship, and the events leading up to her being jilting at the altar, and her subsequent decision to marry respectable but controlling…

Two years have passed. Penny, now in a good job in Paris, meets Vince, who has taken over his father's scrap business, at the top of the Eiffel tower as agreed on their last meeting. They return to her flat where inevitably one thing…

Penny returns to London and is irate to learn that Vince has been married – though not especially happily – for a while but omitted to tell her in Paris. Invited to his flat, she takes revenge by cutting up his clothes – only to find that…

Having heard that Penny is back from Paris, Vince's wife, the elegant but highly unpleasant Georgina, comes to her office, posing as a client, and summons her to a meeting with herself and Vince. Georgina recognizes that Penny still loves…

Penny tells Vince she is being sent back to work in Paris - probably due to a complaint from Gina, who is now filing for divorce. In their Portuguese villa the Pinners are taken aback to hear the news of a divorce and Les tells Vince on…

Some months have elapsed and Gina is attempting to obtain details of Vince's new wine importing business, run in conjunction with Les's Portuguese vineyard, as part of her divorce settlement. Back in London Penny meets up with Vince, who…

Things go badly in the divorce court for Vince, with Gina's solicitor vilifying him and a feminist judge giving her control of most of Vince's businesses, including the wine importers - though Norman's job is safe. He does however hold…

Penny and Vince are planning to get married again but are being held to ransom by Gina. Not only has she 'arranged' for Penny to go back to work in Paris but is refusing to employ Norman or import Les's wines unless they call off the…