Dex’s story this week, and there wasn’t really much to it so the hour was padded with a lot more of everyone else’s business than we’ve seen in the previous two weeks.  Only one real laugh too – the excellent scene in the sorting office where Barmpot "accidentally" lets on that Dex has left Amy.  And then outs him as a left footer, too.

Dex proposes to Amy, but although she says "yes" in the restaurant she backs off when they get home.  She’s scared of marriage (and even more to the point, divorce) having been through it once before.  But Dex is a committed, practicing Catholic (which I have to say, since I still see Dean Lennox Kelly as Kev from Shameless, I found totally  unbelievable), and is uncomfortable with the fact of their living "in sin" for five years.  He leaves her and moves in with Barmpot, an even more uncomfortable few days for the fastidious Dex as Barmpot is a complete slob.  Amy’s daughter Rosie tracks Dex down on his round – her Mum’s told her their problem is about him wanting kids.  "Aren’t we good enough for you?" Rosie asks poignantly.  "You tried to love us like your own kids but you just couldn’t."

Dex pays Amy a visit to set her and the kids straight, and is later followed by Barmpot pleading his case, which seems to get through to Amy because she turns up at quiz night and accepts Dex’s (repeated) proposal.

Although I’ve loved both Dean Lennox Kelly and Tracy-Ann Oberman in other work, I found this story very predictable and pedestrian.  I guess they did the best they could with the material, which tonight was lacking in any depth, emotion or credibility.  It was like a story grafted onto the available characters, rather than arising from their own existence as if it belonged to them.

In other news, Radge was persuaded by son Ryan to shop Charlie, which he does on quiz night.  Only Harry steps in at the last moment – because he’s finally come to terms with dead relationships, betrayal and human frailty after a couple of heart-to-hearts with Roisin – and the two go back to Harry’s place to share a bottle of whisky, during which the hospital call with the news that Kathy has woken up.

Barmpot almost gets off with Pippa – a fellow Labour leafletter – but is first jinxed by a drunk declaring to the rest of the pub that he’s trying to buy a condom, and later Pippa’d at the post by the rake Radge who charms Pippa into her own bed by telling her she’s got nice tits and that she looks like a screamer.  Lines like this should come with a government health warning – thousands of teenage lads all over the country will now think it’s this easy to get an attractive sophisticated woman into bed.  Wait a minute, (1) there aren’t any teenage lads watching BBC ONE at 9 o’clock on a Tuesday night and (2) they’ve all been watching either Love Island or Big Brother, so they were probably already under similar misapprehensions.  Well, whether or not English youth’s psyche has been endangered, the Barmpot storylines were the most amusing of this lacklustre episode.

One of the future stories with Jack and Nancy was set up tonight too, as she persuaded him to go to quiz night, defended his decision to protect Charlie from a kicking, and then left with him once the crisis blew over.