Kay Mellor’s everyday story of life in a country veterinary practice returned tonight for the first episode in an extended run of 12 and as you might have expected if you’d watched the first series, “everyday” doesn’t really do it justice, especially when that day is the funeral of the head of the Williams family.

Yes, poor old George has croaked. Rushing off in the family Land Rover after Claudie as she’s driven away in a police car for questioning about her strange line in pension credit, he pulled out of the drive into the path of an oncoming vehicle and was killed instantly.

The family’s mourning was disturbed by the arrival of Claudie’s sister Paula, who’s been kicked out her beauty salon for non-payment of rent after misunderstanding the VAT rules (i.e. you have to pay some). It’s clear right from the off that Paula is cut from the same cloth as her sister: financially clueless except when it comes to spotting where the money actually is. While Paula was busy unloading the contents of her salon into the Practice waiting area, another emergency arrived ten minutes before the funeral service in the shape of a pair of dogs that had been involved in a fight.

And so it went on. As always with a Kay Mellor drama there’s never a dull moment, even if things never stray much deeper than skin. Tom is still living in a room at the local pub, having been kicked out at the end of the last series when Anna discovered his ages-old, one-time infidelity. The object of his transient affections, Fiona, has a surprise in store when her estranged father turns up. Sadly there were no surprises there for us, as the fact that he is Anna’s *real* father was telegraphed more-or-less from the moment he appeared on screen. The best I can say about that particular plotline is that at least Mellor didn’t attempt to “keep us in suspense” until the last episode. Frank revealed his truth to Fiona in the dying moments of tonight’s show. Now all we have to do is watch how long it takes that truth to percolate through to Anna. Something tells me that might not be such a rapid process.

The hapless Rick is still stuck in his marriage to the awful harridan Deborah, and still drawn inexorably to the delightful Clare. Inexorable is not the word I’d choose for her attraction to him though. No. Inexplicable would be more like it. Still, hot to trot they are, and finally their passions overcame them in the kennel room. Where better to behave like dogs on heat, you might think, except that there didn’t appear to be a lock on the door, so the indiscretion was witnessed (audibly only) by Deborah, who was on the other side in so many ways that I couldn’t possibly list them. Props to her though. Rick might be an indecisive (if lucky) sod, but she had his bags packed and ready for him, along with his alphabetised CD collection, by the time he got home. Only trouble is, Clare has already run off screaming that she can’t cope with being a homewrecker, so it looks like it’ll be a visit to Mrs. Palm and her five lovely daughters for poor Ricky boy for the foreseeable.

There’s the predictable wrangling about who owns the practice and the house, which doubtless will run throughout the entire series. George promised it to his daughters, handed it over to them on his wedding day no less, but never put anything in writing, so Claudie is sitting pretty and so, now, is her sister. Meanwhile Sarah’s hatred for Claudie continues to grow almost as fast as her love for Adrian, to the extent that they announce their engagement at the funeral. The only way they could have beaten that for a romantic venue would have been to do it at a communal sheep birthing or something. I predict the river of romance will not run smoothly for them though, not now the darkly handsome Sebastian Montgomery is back on the scene. Or will it be Anna who will receive his attentions first?

Oh, yes, and Margaret continues to sweat. A more one-dimensional character I have yet to see in any drama, anywhere. She’s menopausal. End of.