Financial shenanigans, ill health and industrial action all threaten the Hammonds family business in the fourth series of BBC One s classic Sunday night drama. When matriarch Mary (Jean Anderson) suffers another heart attack, the family rallies round and Edward (Patrick O Connell) decides to keep quiet about his impending marriage to his father s former mistress Jennifer (Jennifer Kingsley). After rapid expansion, moves are afoot for the Hammonds to go public. Brian (Richard Easton) has money man Martin Farrell (Murray Hayne) join the board, while Edward appoints ex-foreman Bill Riley (Derek Benfield) to help run the business. Farrell is alert to the firm s organisational weakness, while Riley is suspected of causing unrest among the workers about the new share issue. The company is floated at a time of deep tension, on the advice of slippery merchant banker Paul Merroney (Colin Baker), and Edward is left fighting for survival as chairman. Can he rely on the support of all the family?