- Hyacinth delegates Richard to go and collect Daddy from the police station, incognito of course. While Richard is on this special mission, Hyacinth manages to convince Elizabeth (with some help from Emmett) to take her on a tour around the countryside looking for a property to buy. Richard however is terrified that Hyacinth will get carried away and buy something they can't afford.—Nadia Nassar
- Elizabeth is outside gardening when a poor, unsuspecting policeman comes up Hyacinth's drive and asks her which house is the Bucket residence. Elizabeth explains to him that he is at the right address but warns him that Hyacinth pronounces it "Bouquet", not Bucket. He goes to the door and as soon as an aghast Hyacinth sees it's a uniformed policeman she drags him inside and slams the door, hoping no one will notice. She then of course takes his shoes and puts them outside. Elizabeth watches in secret and then hurries in to tell Emmet what she just saw. Emmet hopes the policeman has come to arrest Hyacinth and take her away, and expresses no surprise at all that she made the officer remove his shoes, saying that not even the Prime Minister would be allowed to mess up her floors.
The Policeman, bewildered, explains that all he came to tell Hyacinth was that they found her elderly father wandering around, delirious and believing he was back in the war again. They have him in the police station for safekeeping until someone can come to get him and take him home. Hyacinth is furious her father was "arrested" and panicked that word might get out and cause a scandal, though the policeman tries to assure her it is not as bad as she thinks and that it's hardly newsworthy.
Meanwhile, Rose discovers Daddy is gone. She and Daisy search the house for him but to no avail. They come back and inform Onslow that Daddy's nowhere in the house and that his army uniform is gone. Onslow asks if Daddy's bugle has also gone - it has, confirming that Daddy is indeed "back in the war" again. They start to search for him, not knowing he's already been rescued by the police.
Hyacinth assures the policeman they will get her father, and makes the policeman leave with a forced smile on his face so hopefully the neighbors won't suspect anything is wrong. She then tells Elizabeth he was the son of a friend, and it was a friendly visit. Richard is delegated to go get Daddy because Hyacinth already had it in her head to go out and view some properties because she is looking for a second home in the country for them. Richard is terrified at the idea. He would rather go look for properties and let her collect Daddy from the police station because he knows Hyacinth's penchant for spending too much money even with his guidance and fears that without him there she will buy something enormous and plunge them into debt. However, Hyacinth will not be seen at the police station, so she sends Richard, in disguise complete with sunglasses and trench coat, to complete the task, warning him under no circumstances to let anyone that knows them see that it is him and Daddy coming out of the police station.
Richard goes off on his errand, hoping to get it done quickly before Hyacinth buys anything. Meanwhile, she calls Elizabeth on the phone and tells her to drive her into the country to look at some houses she has brochures for. At first Emmet is frustrated that Elizabeth didn't put up a fight or say no, because she doesn't want to go, but when Elizabeth explains what Hyacinth wants her to do and why, Emmet is suddenly overjoyed by the prospect of Hyacinth being gone a few days a week at her country home and orders Elizabeth to make sure Hyacinth doesn't come home without having purchased a property. He then heads off to work.
Richard gets into town and starts to walk to the police station. Unfortunately Emmet recognizes him and offers to walk with him, and Richard has to walk past the police station and to a fictitious destination in order to keep his promise to Hyacinth.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth is forced to put up with Hyacinth's incessant passenger-seat-driving as they head off to inspect the first house on the list, Marsdon Hall. They arrive at the gates but miss the turn and Elizabeth backs up to go into the gate. Hyacinth runs out into the street and stops traffic while she does this, and nearly causes a wreck in doing so. They then go into the grounds and discover a vast mansion with a lake view. Before the house agent even arrives to show them around, Hyacinth falls in love with it and has Elizabeth drive all over the grounds so she can look at it from every angle, eventually leaving the car behind. Finally, the house agent arrives and complains that she had to walk because the drive was blocked halfway down (by Elizabeth's car) and shows them around the grand mansion.
Richard tries again to sneak into the police station but meets an old friend and has to walk to another fictitious destination to shake him. Finally, he gets to the station and collects Daddy, only to have Hyacinth call him at the police station and tell him she's picked out their country house. He gets the address from her and begs her not to sign any papers until he's there. He hurries Daddy to Daisy and Onslow's house so he can go after Hyacinth, only to have Daddy - thinking Richard is the Enemy - remove the rotor arm from his engine while he isn't looking. Onslow, Daddy, Rose, Richard and Daisy all pile into Onslow's ancient car and rumble off towards Marsdon Hall.
Hyacinth looks around some more, while Elizabeth fetches her car from where she left it. The agent comes out of the house to get her own car and drive it the rest of the way and Elizabeth takes the opportunity to explain Hyacinth made her leave the car there. Richard and his party arrive - much to Hyacinth's dismay - and he runs out, begging the agent to tell him that Hyacinth hasn't signed anything. He nearly faints when the agent explains that she already has, but is relieved when Elizabeth explains the mansion is subdivided into flats and that was what Hyacinth intended to buy, and has in fact purchased. Much relieved, Richard goes to talk to Hyacinth, who is furious at him for bringing Daddy in Onslow's car. Richard manages to calm her when he explains what Daddy did to his car, and Hyacinth starts to gush about their flat, only to be interrupted by Daddy chasing the agent down the drive. They set off in hot pursuit while Daisy and Onslow sit down to watch the "show".
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