TV star Amy Clark is mistaken for a nurse during an emergency because she is still wearing her nurse’s uniform from the serial she stars in. This inspires her to give up her television career and start training as a real nurse.
Bessie, maid to Mr Owens, had promised before he died that she would take care of the five children he had adopted. Mr Owens leaves them a strange-looking house that is shaped like a shoe!
Mr Owens had been over-generous in his lifetime, so there is no money left to support the children. But Bessie is determined to keep the family together and make their own living.
1969
1980
Other Appearances:
Sally Shaw secretly becomes friendly with John, the crippled son of Colonel Blakely. The Colonel has kept John in a secret room at Redhill Manor, and few people know of his existence. Sally is a keen skater and is delighted when she finds a cleaning job at the ice-rink, as she can skate between chores. An instructor spots Sally and arranges for a boy called Drew to come and skate her. Drew is not happy with the idea, but then John begins to regain the use of his legs and take up secret skating with Sally.
Freda arrives at Karen Wilkinson’s house with a letter from her father saying she is a distant relative of the family and they are to take care of her until he returns. But Karen realises there is something strange about Freda; there are peculiar gaps in her knowledge, she says odd things, and she does not seem to understand everyday life.
Wendy Watson works for Sheldrake Homes (a parody of Sherlock Holmes). She is the one who ends up solving the mysteries and getting Homes out of scrapes he gets himself into.
Other Appearances:
Tessa Blake’s brother John is crippled in a mine accident that also kills their father, and life gets tough for the Blakes. Tessa makes friends with Ruth Grayson, a rich crippled girl who wants to buy John’s paintings. Tessa discovers Ruth’s grandfather, Mr Grayson, owns the mine and also the woollen mill where she makes a hard living. Then Tessa and Mr Grayson discover that crooked managers have been stealing the money that Mr Grayson invested into both businesses for safe working conditions and proper machine maintenance.
Kay Harper, a junior reporter at the Mexfield Weekly News, runs a feature called “It’s a Dare!”. Readers are invited to send in unusual or interesting challenges for Kay, and each dare accepted wins £10.00 for the reader.
Other Appearances:
Kate Baxter takes over her dad’s taxi business when he is injured. She is being helped by Maxie, a cat with strange powers that appeared out of nowhere.
According to an old family curse, flaxen-haired Rosemary Polworth is not to see the second full moon after her thirteenth birthday. Rosemary does not believe it, but runs away rather than see her parents suffer on the night she is foretold to die. However, the parents send an agent out to find her, and he is not a pleasant type.
Sue (renamed Ann in the reprint) and Helen Harrow feel their widower father needs a new wife to help look after the family and farm. So they set out to find a suitable woman, without telling him, but are not having much success.
