Episode list

Angry to have lost his Child Benefit to Yvonne Frank gets her to pay him to baby-sit whilst farming the kids out to a woman in the pub at a lower rate. Maxine comes up with a novel way to declare her feelings for Carl in public whilst Karen finds she is pregnant. Suspecting that Joe might be the father she tells Mandy about their fling and asks her not to marry Joe. However Mandy is lured to Maureen's house where the older woman,desperate and deranged,aims to show Paddy what it means to lose a daughter and blows the house up,killing herself and Mandy.

Whilst Carl gets brewer's droop Ian finds himself oddly attracted to Mandy and Norma wakes up after a drunken night wondering why she is wearing a stranger's jogging pants - though the answer is a let down. Tom and Debbie find a young girl who has been raped and left unconscious and Tom is charged. Debbie is anxious to come forward but Tom forbids it as their secret will be exposed. However Frank admits to Debbie he has known all along and the real rapist is caught. Paddy subjects Shane to a violent beating in the Jockey over Kelly - before asking her to dinner. After all,she is family.

Paddy has gone cold turkey but Mimi still believes he betrayed her with Maureen and is hostile. After Frank has defecated in public Debbie throws him out and he shelters in a church confession box where he overhears Mimi planning to hire an assassin to kill Paddy. He tells Paddy who decides he will pay the hitman more to kill Mimi though in the event the gunman intends to kill them both but is knocked out by Mark,Debbie's new boyfriend. Joe proposes to Mandy and Ian plans to return to Spain despite Liam's efforts to get him to stay by using Micky as a potential lover.

Christmas 2004 brings mayhem and death to the Chatsworth estate.

As Fiona and Steve organize their wedding, his car is stolen and he's desperate to retrieve it.

Sheila asks Lip to water plants for a neighbor who's on holiday, but the place ends up burgled and he's wrongly accused and arrested.

Mandy becomes pregnant. However, as she is continually pretending to be Ian's girlfriend to hide the fact that he's gay, the Maguires threaten him with castration if he doesn't marry their girl.

As the housing officer and bailiffs continue to plague the Gallaghers, Frank feels the pressure and must deal with it.

Steve unexpectedly returns, but Fiona doesn't care. Elsewhere, Kash is running for Chatsworth's Councillor against dirty-dealing Bernie Creme, and Lillian's husband is killed in an accident.

The Gallagher clan are pleased when Carl starts bringing money into the household, but his mini-enterprise is at the wrath of the Maguires, just as Lip tries to maintain his relationship with Mandy.