Old Tom

It's Angela's birthday and Lavinia has several treats planned for her. But she is annoyed that Old Tom is coming, too - especially when he gets them thrown out of a café. At Lavinia's next treat for Angela - a trip to the skating rink - Old Tom goes wild in a zamboni and covers Lavinia in ice. Furious, she refuses to let Old Tom go to the next treat - he has to stay with Lucy, instead. When Lucy decides to play dress-ups, Old Tom realises their costumes are so good they can follow Angela and Lavinia in disguise. They see Lavinia and Angela try to get into Lavinia's final treat for Angela - the -studded opening of a new Cineplex. However, the doorman rejects them for not being stars. So, Old Tom, posing as a celebrity, manages to get Angela and Lavinia into the opening.

Old Tom is upset when Lucy has to go to a friend's party, so Angela takes him to the beach to cheer him up. As Angela dozes, Old Tom gets up to mischief. He grabs hold of the tail of a kite, which carries him out over the sea and drops him onto what looks like a pirate ship. However, it turns out to be a pirate-themed children's party, and Old Tom eats all the food. When the kids discover what he has done, they tie him up and threaten him with 'Scarface, the meanest pirate of them all'. However 'Scarface' is really Lucy, and Old Tom is untied. Before the party can resume, the birthday boy's father, who has fallen overboard, is chased by a shark, so Old Tom grabs a rope and rescues him.

Lavinia persuades Angela to buy Old Tom a computer, so he won't get up to mischief. When the computer arrives, Old Tom is more interested in playing with the box, so Angela tries the computer instead. She is hooked immediately, surfing the internet and paying no attention to Old Tom or anything else. He takes advantage of this by getting up to mischief - preparing his own food, and kicking a football inside the house. But the fun soon palls for Old Tom - the place is a mess, he runs out of food, and he misses Angela. In desperation, he enlists the help of Lavinia and Lucy, who realise Angela is hypnotised by the computer. They rush her to the nearest café and give her a cup of tea. Soon, Angela is herself again - until she discovers it's an internet café!

Lavinia thinks her nephew, Billy, is a brilliant artist and hangs one of his paintings in Angela's living room. When Lucy and Old Tom see it, they think Angela must be desperate for a painting, so Old Tom paints a self-portrait to replace it. By mistake, it ends up at the Art Gallery in an exhibition of 'Modern Masterpieces'. Meanwhile, Lavinia is trying to interest the Gallery in one of Billy's paintings. However, the curator thinks it's rubbish and points to Old Tom's painting as an example of great art. Lavinia leaves, just as Old Tom and Lucy sneak in and retrieve his painting. When Lavinia arrives at Angela's, she is surprised to see the 'great example of modern art' hanging on her wall.

When Lavinia discovers that 'the great example of modern art' was painted by Old Tom, she takes it to a local gallery owner who offers to exhibit and sell Old Tom's paintings, and give Lavinia half the money. Lavinia greedily asks Old Tom to paint four more paintings, but he will only do so if she does something for him in return. Lavinia, desperate, agrees. As she runs around after Old Tom - buying him gifts, giving him treats, etc - Angela feels left out. On the day of the exhibition, Old Tom happens to be passing the gallery and, seeing all the food, bursts in and makes a pig of himself. When the art patrons realise this is the painter, they think it's a joke and don't buy his paintings. Old Tom doesn't mind. He takes the paintings home for Angela, and Lavinia doesn't get a penny.

Lucy is having trouble with her school project on Leonardo Da Vinci, so Angela takes her and Old Tom to the local museum to get more information. While there, Old Tom and Lucy play around on a replica of a Da Vinci flying machine, and actually make it work! They fly it around the museum to where a professor is explaining why Da Vinci's flying machines can never work. The museum curator is horrified that Old Tom and Lucy are playing in one of his exhibits, but the professor is amazed and delighted that they have made it fly. To Angela's delight, he congratulates the youngsters and helps Lucy finish her project.

Lavinia takes Angela, Lucy and Billy on a picnic in the countryside. When they open the picnic hamper, they discover that Old Tom has hidden inside and eaten all the food. Lavinia is horrified, but Lucy suggests they can fish for food in a nearby river. As they look for the river, they are chased by a bull, disturb a beehive and upset a farmer. However, when Old Tom manages to catch some fish by scaring them out of the river, all is forgiven, and the farmer is invited to join their picnic lunch.

With all his friends away for the holidays, Old Tom is bored - so Angela reluctantly sends him off to summer camp. Despite Angela's fears, Old Tom settles in immediately and makes new friends among the campers. Angela, however, is still concerned that Old Tom won't be able to cope without her, so she goes back to the camp and makes his bed, tidies his tent and brings him a bag full of supplies. The other campers make fun of Old Tom and when they go on their bush walk, they make him bring up the rear. However, when the campers get into trouble by falling into a raging, crocodile-infested river, Old Tom saves the day with Angela's bag full of supplies.

While Angela is sleeping, a couple of thieves sneak into her house and steal her most treasured possession - a valuable antique vacuum cleaner. Old Tom, however, sees them and hides in the back of their getaway truck, leaving a trail of sweetie wrappers behind him. When the thieves unload the stolen goods into their warehouse, they unknowingly unload Old Tom, too. Meanwhile, Angela wakes up and discovers that her vacuum cleaner - and Old Tom - are missing. With a policeman's help, she follows the trail to the warehouse, where Old Tom catches the thieves and hands them over to the policeman.

Old Tom overhears Lucy and Angela complaining about Billy, and mistakenly thinks they are talking about him. Devastated that not even his best friends really like him, Old Tom runs away from home and joins a circus. There, he is immediately accepted and told that he is not the 'no-hoper' he thinks he is. With the encouragement of the Ringmaster, Old Tom learns that everybody has a talent, and his talent is to make people laugh. Meanwhile, Lucy and Angela search the town for Old Tom and eventually find him in the circus - just as he is doing his act. They clear up the misunderstanding with Old Tom, telling him they were always proud of him and always will be, and he returns home with renewed faith in himself.

While playing frisbee, Old Tom accidentally breaks Angela's favourite record by her favourite singer, Tom Moans. Old Tom and Lucy try and buy a replacement copy, but it's impossible to find. When they learn Tom Moans is performing in town, they try and buy Angela tickets to the show, but it is sold out. Instead, they go backstage and try to get Tom Moans's autograph, but find him in tears - he has lost his chest hair wig, and won't perform without it. Old Tom has an idea. Lucy rushes off and brings Angela and Lavinia to the show. Angela wonders how Lucy got free tickets, so Lucy points to Tom Moans's orange chest hair. Angela looks through her binoculars - the chest hair is really Old Tom!

Old Tom wants some money to buy a toy, so Angela suggests he work for it - as a gardener. She lends him her old lawn-mower, and he soon has a job mowing the next door neighbour's lawn. However, mowing is hard work, so Old Tom attaches Lucy's remote-controlled toy to the machine and turns it into a remote-controlled lawn-mower. This is much easier, until he accidentally switches controls with Billy - then the mower zooms off out of control, with Old Tom holding on. The mower and Old Tom zoom around town, cutting a zigzag maze through the town park - but the Mayor, far from being angry, is delighted with the new feature and pays Old Tom for his work. Old Tom rushes off to the shops, but instead of buying the toy he wanted, buys a new mower for Angela.

Angela has to go to hospital for a small operation on her big toe, so she leaves Old Tom with Lavinia for the afternoon. However, Old Tom is very smelly (he had been hiding in a rubbish bin to avoid going to Lavinia's), and Lavinia makes him play outside. When Lady Winifred calls and invites Lavinia and Old Tom to her garden party, Lavinia realises that she has to wash Old Tom. But this is not as easy it seems, and Old Tom manages to foil Lavinia every time. But on the drive to the garden party, Lavinia has one final attempt at washing Old Tom - by driving through a car wash with the windows open. When they arrive at the party, Old Tom is finally clean… but Lavinia is a mess!

Old Tom hurts his tooth on a lollipop, so Angela rushes him off to the dentist for a check-up. The dentist has trouble coping with Old Tom - who plays with all the dental equipment - but finally says Old Tom's tooth will be fine, if he just gives up the sweet food. When Angela throws out all his sweets and buys healthy food instead, Old Tom starts to go delirious and imagines sweet foods everywhere. Thinking a street lamp is a giant candy cane, Old Tom bites it and hurts his tooth again. Angela rushes Old Tom back to the dentist but learns that the dentist was so exhausted by Old Tom's visit, he has had to take the day off. Angela finds the dentist at the beach where, with the help of some sun-screen, a beach ball, and an ice-cream stand, they manage to fix Old Tom's tooth.

A rather ordinary magician, called Morton the Affordable, is entertaining Billy's birthday party - not very successfully - until Old Tom's antics disrupt the party, and Morton's assistant quits. Morton desperately needs a new assistant for his appearance on an important TV show, and he picks Old Tom. This makes Billy jealous and, just before the show, he locks Old Tom in one of the magician's boxes and takes his place as Morton's assistant. The performance starts badly, until Old Tom escapes from the box and turns the magic act into comic mayhem. The audience is so amused that Morton becomes a big success and discovers the art of showmanship from Old Tom.

Old Tom has a nightmare about monsters, so Angela takes him and Lucy to an amusement park to cheer him up. Lucy wants to go on the Ghost Train, but Old Tom is too scared, and they play on the other amusements instead. When Old Tom accidentally breaks one of the games, he is chased by the park manager, and has to hide in the Ghost Train. At first Old Tom is frightened, but then he realises the ghosts and monsters are fake, and he has nothing to fear after all. Meanwhile, a young couple taking the ride think it is really boring, until they see Old Tom and believe he is one of the monsters. They congratulate the park manager, who thanks Old Tom and gives him a lifetime pass to the park.

When Old Tom is finishing his bath, his favourite bath toy - a rubber duckie - goes down the plug hole and gets stuck in the house's plumbing. Old Tom tries to retrieve the toy, but ends up soaking Lavinia, who has come for tea. On Lavinia's advice, Angela calls a plumber who, with Old Tom's help, tries to fix the problem. But he, too, accidentally soaks Lavinia. Tired of all the drenching, Lavinia leaves, only to be soaked again when the blocked garden hose explodes, flooding the house - but finally releasing the little rubber duckie.

Angela won't let Old Tom keep his new pet - a goat. However, instead of taking it back to where he got it from, Old Tom hides the goat in his room. Meanwhile, to make up for the pet, Angela buys Old Tom an insect-eating plant. To his dismay, the plant won't eat insects but, when his back is turned, it eats the food off his plate and grows bigger. When the plant tries to eat Angela, Old Tom rescues her in the nick of time and they flee the house. Meanwhile, Lavinia arrives, not knowing about the carnivorous plant. Angela and Old Tom return just as the plant is devouring Lavinia, and they manage to rescue her. At that moment, Old Tom's goat escapes from its hiding place and eats the plant.

Lavinia is organising a dance competition and wants Angela to take part. Angela, who loves dancing, is keen, but she doesn't have a partner. When Old Tom volunteers, Lavinia is horrified and tries to find an alternative. However, each candidate is secretly sabotaged by Old Tom, so Lavinia has no choice but to let him be Angela's dance partner. At the dance contest, Angela and Old Tom aren't doing very well, until Billy - who has a grudge against Old Tom - unleashes his super-flea on Old Tom. The flea makes Old Tom jump and leap about, which the judges interpret as brilliant and original dancing, and they award Angela and Old Tom first prize.

Angela has organised a cruise on the harbour for herself, Old Tom and Lavinia. However, when Lavinia discovers the boat is an old rustbucket, she refuses to join them, but goes for a cruise on a sleek new yacht instead. On the old boat, Angela and Old Tom aren't having much fun, when suddenly Old Tom catches, with his fishing line, a giant sea monster which pulls him overboard. Angela is terrified, but Old Tom is having the time of his life as the creatures pulls him along, water-skiing, and then gently puts him back on deck. It turns out the sea creature is very friendly so, thanks to Old Tom, the old boat's captain starts up a new enterprise - sea monster rides!

Angela buys a birthday present for Lavinia - a parrot. But while she goes out to buy some birdseed, Old Tom lets the bird out of the cage. Angela returns home to find Old Tom and Lucy chasing the bird around the living room. They almost catch it, but it escapes through the chimney. Then Lavinia arrives. Angela pleads with Old Tom and Lucy to catch the bird, while she keeps Lavinia busy. Old Tom and Lucy build a home-made flying machine so they can fly after the bird, but it keeps outsmarting them. Finally, Old Tom catches the bird with his net, but he falls out of the flying machine. The bird and Old Tom tumble down Angela's chimney and land back in her living room. Lavinia is delighted with her present but, because she believes animals should be free, lets the bird go.

The Queen, wanting to see someone different at her next garden party, choses Angela and Old Tom at random. Angela is delighted, but gives Old Tom a crash course in manners, just in case. The garden party begins, but the Queen doesn't want to go, because her dog doesn't seem well. Meanwhile, Old Tom upsets several party guests and seeks refuge from them in the palace. There he annoys the Queen's dog, which chases him around the throne room. The Queen enters and, delighted to see her dog full of life again, decides to go to the garden party after all - with Old Tom as her guest of honor.

Old Tom accidentally breaks Angela's favourite vacuum cleaner, so he and Lucy go to a Home Appliance Expo, to buy her a new one. There they discover that a spaghetti-eating competition is offering, as first prize, a new vacuum cleaner, so Old Tom enters the competition. However, just before it begins, Old Tom sees a baby in danger in a runaway pram, and he runs off to save it. Meanwhile, Angela, who is also at the Expo, mistakenly enters the competition, thinking it's a free lunch… and wins! Old Tom is a hero for saving the baby, and Angela gets her new vacuum cleaner, after all.

Angela bakes a cake to enter in the Home Appliance Show Bake-Off, but Old Tom eats it by mistake. Feeling guilty, Old Tom decides to bake a new cake to replace it. With Lucy's help, he runs around the expo gathering the ingredients from the food pavilions, and then mixes them all together in one of the expo's spinning rides. Old Tom and Lucy use an appliance exhibit to cook the cake and then race, with Angela, to the Bake-Off - where the cake wins first prize!

Angela gets a temporary job at a local sports store, and takes Old Tom along. The store owner, Nugget Gristle, doesn't like Old Tom at first, but when Old Tom starts playing on the sporting equipment, he attracts so many customers that Nugget promotes him to head salesman. Nugget then orders a state-of -the-art exercise machine - the Robo-Trainer - but tells Old Tom not to play on it. The minute Nugget's back is turned, however, Old Tom switches the machine on - and it goes berserk. Nugget tries to turn it off, but gets trapped. It's only when Angela and Old Tom work as a team that they can save the day.

When Lucy enters a TV Quiz Show, Old Tom helps her study. However, Billy is one of the other contestants and, on the day of the show, he tricks Lucy into catching the wrong bus. When Lucy doesn't turn up at the TV studio, Old Tom - who is in the audience with Angela - rushes onto the set and takes Lucy's place in the quiz. Because he helped Lucy study, Old Tom knows most of the answers. However, Billy is cheating and nearly wins, until Old Tom accidentally drenches him and washes off all Billy's cheat notes. On the last question, Billy can't cheat any more, but Old Tom gets the answer right…and wins the contest.

Angela and Old Tom go to the local swimming pool, where they meet Lucy who is practising for her swimming certificate. Billy is also there and starts showing off. However, he goes too far and is kicked out of the pool by the lifeguard. Angry and jealous, Billy tries to sabotage Lucy's attempt at her swimming certificate by turning on the pool's wave machine. However, he accidentally breaks the machine, knocks out the lifeguard, and ends up in the pool himself. Old Tom saves them both by ingeniously pulling out the plug and draining the pool.

It's April Fools Day and Old Tom and Lucy play a trick on Billy, who tries to get his own back. Instead, he meets Angela and tricks her into believing that a flying saucer is about to land in the park. Alarmed, Angela races through the town warning everybody. Meanwhile, Billy finds Old Tom and Lucy at a pizza parlour and manages to get them thrown out. As they leave, the big, pizza-shaped signs falls off the building and collects Old Tom as it starts to roll down hill. Meanwhile, at the park, Billy is about to tell Angela that he tricked her about the flying saucer, when the runaway pizza sign bounces off a rock and flies overhead. Everyone thinks it's a flying saucer, and Billy's trick backfires on him.

When an outing is cancelled because of rain, Old Tom decides to invent a device that can change the weather. Adapting a TV remote control, he almost succeeds. At first, he creates an indoor snow storm. Then, he makes an electrical storm. When Lavinia gets hit by a lightning bolt, Angela asks Old Tom to stop his experiments. However, she tries to turn on the TV with the remote and accidentally starts a mini-tornado, which lifts the house off the ground into the storm clouds. Old Tom has a brain wave and switches on all the vacuum cleaners, which suck up the clouds to create a sunny day. Success at last!

Angela and Old Tom go to the beach, where Old Tom gets involved in a sandcastle competition. While waiting for his sandcastle to be judged, Old Tom goes swimming and meets a baby whale, and plays with him underwater. Meanwhile, on shore, Billy pretends Old Tom's sandcastle is his own, so he can win the competition. With the judging about to begin, Old Tom races back to shore, but accidentally smashes his own sandcastle. However, with the help of the whale, he ends up winning the competition, after all.

Angela buys Old Tom a novelty radio, shaped like an apple. However, Old Tom, thinking it is an apple - eats it! All of a sudden, strange voices start coming from Old Tom. Angela thinks Old Tom can talk, until a doctor diagnoses the problem and offers to remove the radio. However, Angela can't afford the operation, so Old Tom tries to raise money by entering a singing competition, using the radio as his 'voice'. The deception is discovered and Old Tom is thrown out, so Angela goes to a bank to apply for a loan. Suddenly two bank robbers enter, but a broadcast from Old Tom's radio makes them think they are under arrest, and they give up. The police chief arrives and pats Old Tom on the back, dislodging the radio. With the reward money, Old Tom buys a new radio.

Old Tom wants to play with Lucy but is not allowed to, because she has chicken pox. Old Tom goes home and paints spots on his face, so Angela will think he has chicken pox, too. However, instead of letting him play with Lucy, Angela insists that Old Tom stay in bed. He manages to sneak off, but when he gets to Lucy's place, his spots are accidentally wiped off. He races back home and starts to paint them back on, but Angela catches him. She washes them, but they don't all come off - Old Tom really has chicken pox, after all!

Angela and Old Tom are planning to go to the zoo, but the car breaks down. As Angela tries to fix it, Old Tom is accidentally picked up by a garbage truck and deposited at the zoo. There he has adventures in a lion's cage, has tea with the chimps and escapes from two attendants. When he hides in a rubbish bin, he is picked up by a garbage truck again and deposited back home. Angela hasn't noticed he was missing and, now the car is fixed, they drive off to the zoo. To Angela's surprise, all the animals seem to treat Old Tom like an old friend.

Angela buys Old Tom a robot and cleans it. At first, Old Tom dislikes the robot - especially when it tries to clean him - but when it cooks Old Tom dinner, he and the robot become good friends. Knowing the house and Old Tom are in good hands, Angela goes out with Lavinia, while Old Tom and the robot play together. However, when Old Tom gives the robot a glass of milk, it goes berserk, so Old Tom locks it in the cupboard. Then the salesman returns, trying to sell another robot, so Old Tom releases the berserk robot, which chases the salesman down the street.

The local playground is old and dilapidated, so Old Tom and Lucy decide to hold a fundraising fete to build a new one. However, Lavinia takes over the fete and hardly raises any money at all. When Old Tom and Billy get into a tussle over the playground's maypole, they accidentally drill it into the ground, striking a spring of natural mineral water, which soaks Lavinia and ends the fete. But the underground spring turns out to be very valuable and, with the proceeds, a new playground is erected in Old Tom's honor.

Billy has a fabulous new tree house - complete with elevator - and all the kids want to play in it. However, when Billy refuses to let Old Tom in, Lucy decides to build her own with rubbish from the tip. Meanwhile, the other kids aren't having much fun because Billy is being too fussy about his new tree house. But when they try to leave, they get stuck in the lift. Old Tom and Lucy, on their way home from the tip, see the drama. Old Tom rescues the kids but accidentally destroys the tree house. So they all go back to Lucy's place and build a new one.

Old Tom and Lucy are practising for a go-kart race but Billy destroys their kart. Dismayed, they go home to Angela's place where they see a big box in the living room. Not realising it's an Egyptian artefact belonging to Lavinia, they remove its contents - an old statue wrapped in cloth - and take the box outside to turn it into a go-kart. Meanwhile, Angela comes home and, seeing the wrapped statue, thinks it's Old Tom in bandages and she rushes it to the hospital. Then Lavinia arrives, looking for her statue. Lucy realises what has happened and wraps Old Tom in bandages, to make Lavinia think it's the statue. But Old Tom moves and Lavinia thinks the statue has come alive. She runs off, and Old Tom follows, out of control, in the new go-kart. They race through town and end up in the park, where Old Tom wins the go-kart race.

A TV producer sees Old Tom causing mayhem at a shopping centre and, thinking Old Tom is a comic genius, gives him his own TV show. Soon Old Tom is a TV star, and everybody who previously disliked him know wants to be his friend - even Lavinia. When Old Tom is mobbed by fans at the Department Store, Lavinia rescues him and takes him to a party she is throwing in his honour. Old Tom enjoys this adulation until he realises that his old friends - Angela and Lucy - are being left out. Old Tom turns his back on his new fame and new friends, and goes back to being himself.

In the final episode, Old Tom seems to be back at square one - rejected by much of the community. On a trip to the observatory, Billy causes trouble but Old Tom gets the blame, so he runs off and hides in his old rocket ship. When Billy accidentally unleashes an asteroid which threatens to destroy the world, Old Tom takes off in the rocket - with Lucy and Angela - and manages to avert the catastrophe at the last minute. Old Tom lands the rocket back on Earth, in the middle of Lavinia's party, where he is finally appreciated for who he is - wild, free-spirited and occasionally berserk - but always a hero.