Episode list

Joe continues his affair with Alice and they spend a highly-sexed long weekend together. He suggests she gets a divorce and goes away with him but she tells him that her husband would ruin them out of spite. He gets into a drunken pub fight with Jack Wales over Susan, with whom he has resumed his relationship and who is aware of the affair with Alice, telling him to dump her. Susan's father offers to set him up in business if he will leave town but when Joe refuses Mr Brown suggests Joe work for him and marry Susan - but he must never see Alice again. After Joe rejects her he hears that Alice has got drunk and died in a car crash. Distraught, he gets involved in another pub fight but eventually marries Susan, now ambitiously aware that he is heading for a job at the top.

Young Joe Lampton arrives in post-World War Two Warley to work at the town's treasury office and rents a room at the top of the house of kindly Mr and Mrs Thompson. Through their friends, the Storrs, he joins the local amateur dramatics group where he meets the older, unhappily married Alice Aisgill and they soon hit it off. At Alice's suggestion, he dates innocent young Susan Brown even though she has a boyfriend in student Jack Wales, but his friendship with Alice soon turns to a sexual affair. He nonetheless pursues Susan, who is flattered by his attentions. At a civic ball, Jack tries to humiliate Joe but Joe impresses Susan's wealthy businessman father with his candour. Soon Joe and Susan are having sex and declaring their love for each other - even though Joe is also in love with Alice.