Shine on Harvey Moon
Upon being demobbed, RAF serviceman Harvey Moon returns home and finds his family involved in various troubles. His wife Rita is not interested in resuming their relationship, and works in a seedy nightclub frequented by American servicemen. He becomes involved with the Labour Party and the union movement.
- 1982-1995
- 5 seasons
- Comedy, Drama
Upon being demobbed, RAF serviceman Harvey Moon returns home and finds his family involved in various troubles. His wife Rita is not interested in resuming their relationship, and works in a seedy nightclub frequented by American servicemen. He becomes involved with the Labour Party and the union movement.
Season 1 Episode Guide
6 Episodes 1982
Episode 1
Hail the Conquering Hero
30 mins
In November 1945 corporals Harvey Moon and Lou Lewis return to London from Bombay, where they sat out the war as stores clerks. Harvey's house has been destroyed - not by a bomb but his wife Rita's incompetence with the gas cooker - and his family have moved to a pre-fab. However, since he was reported missing Rita believed him dead and would have married a Yank, had he not already had a wife. Unlike his young daughter Maggie and ten-year-old son Stanley, Rita is not welcoming and Harvey and Lou move in with Harvey's mother.
Episode 2
Getting to Know You
30 mins
Harvey decides to spend a Saturday with Stanley and take him to watch the Arsenal play football. However, since Harvey went away the team's ground has been turned into a bedding centre and they are sharing a pitch with Spurs - the crowning insult for Harvey, who refuses to set foot in an enemy ground. However, to get back in Stanley's good books he raids Rita's larder of the tinned treats provided by her American boy-friends and provides a slap-up tea. Maggie goes on a date with Lou and he stays the night.
Episode 3
Who's Afraid of Virginia Flake?
30 mins
Harvey and Lou go to Bedfordshire to get officially demobbed, where Harvey, a non-smoker, uses his cigarette allowance to get Lou off a charge. Back in London Harvey finds that Stanley has been arrested for stealing a packet of cigarettes from a grumpy shop-keeper and again finds that a little bribery works wonders.
Episode 4
Sweet F.A.
30 mins
Harvey is not happy when Lou brings home a stack of black market sugar. He is no happier when the Labour Exchange get him a job as a stores clerk and he learns that Stanley is truanting. However when he learns that Stanley only goes to school when there are sweet desserts he finds a solution for two of his problems - and quits his job to solve the third.
Episode 5
The Rough with the Smooth
30 mins
To reward her for giving Stanley extra work to get him into grammar school Harvey takes head-mistress Harriet to an upmarket restaurant but feels out of his depth and walks out. He is almost reconciled with Rita after beating up one of her fancy men who has assaulted her but comes to see that she was just using him and returns to his mother's where Harriet brings him the food from the restaurant for a late night supper together.
Episode 6
A Christmas Truce
30 mins
With Christmas approaching Harvey is anxious to get Stanley a bike courtesy of one of Lou's spiv friends and works long hours as a department store Santa to get the money, though Stanley runs back to his mother after seeing Harvey kiss Harriet. Harvey is almost rumbled when Rita brings Stanley in to the store but, when Harvey's mother goes to see Rita to propose a Christmas truce, Stanley overhears what his father has done for him and returns to spend Christmas with a drunken Harvey.