London's Burning (1986)
London's Burning is a British television drama programme produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network that focused on the lives of members of the London Fire Brigade, principally those of the Blue Watch at a fictional fire station called Blackwall. It was broadcast between 1988 and 2002 in the United Kingdom and was shown in Canada on digital television station CBC Country Canada. In the UK, Discovery's entertainment channel, DMAX have also shown repeats of the later series, mainly 11 through 14.
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Episode 1 - Episode 1
Release Date: 1994-05-24Blue Watch are happy with their new uniform clothes and Maggie reads a letter from ex-fireman Colin to everyone. Forced to quit the brigade after an accident, he's found an office job now. A lorry driver crashes into a wall, which collapses and buries a kid with his bike beneath. Blue Watch is called to free the driver and the kid. Bayleaf loses his temper when another fireman takes the piss out of him because of his accidents.
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Episode 2 - Episode 2
Release Date: 1992-05-31ACO Bulstrode visits Nick about the prison incident and the stolen uniform, wondering why it's always Bayleaf who gets into such trouble. Bayleaf himself is pissed off that even his kids make fun of his accident. George and Kelly complain about the state of their flat to the landlord, but he says it's their own fault. Blue Watch represents the fire brigade in a charity action for the Children's Hospital Fund at a supermarket, where they have to build little houses in time. Billy had told Pearce that it would be fancy dressing, so he's the laughing stock when he appears in a chicken's costume. Patti's misplaced nun costume doesn't stop her from talking to Nick about Hallam's job offer and hopes for Geoff's promotion, taking Nick by surprise. Sicknote takes Jean on a romantic weekend in the country, but spoils her hopes for romance, when he meets an old guy called Douglas who gets him drunk first and takes him golfing the next day. Nick makes Hallam talk about the job, but he says that he won't quit the brigade. Maggie tells Bayleaf that she's invited a friend from Thailand - unaware that he has brought the whole family. During night shift, Blue Watch is called out to tackle a fire in the library, where a blind woman is trapped in the cellar. Ariadne tells Nick that she'd cancel the wedding to Petros if he'd be willing to make a commitment and marry her.
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Episode 3 - Episode 3
Release Date: 1992-06-07Hallam asks Nick who told him about the job in the first place and he admits that it was Patti. Blue Watch's old enemy Scase appears, newly promoted to District Officer. He requests a drill and catches Billy with missing personal items and Sicknote forgetting to book Sally out. Nick knows that he's only looking for trouble, but reprimands Billy and Sicknote nonetheless, reminding them how important it is to follow procedures. Sally goes to Rotherhithe as stand-by driver. She gets along fine with the firemen, but the female Sub Officer has no sense of humour and tells her that she only joined the fire brigade to get the men's attention, which won't work with her. Blue Watch must help to free people from squashed car wrecks in a huge accident. They realize that a very pregnant woman is involved and can't be freed in time. Pearce has to assist her and help delivering the baby in the car Sandra happens onto Patti in the supermarket. Patti asks how she feels about Hallam declining the job, taking her by surprise. At home, Sandra yells at Hallam for not telling her about his decision. Pearce tells Patti about the baby, but she won't have any of it. Laura is visited by Ben's teacher and realizes that he is permanently skiving school. Kevin moves in with Billy for a while, Sally goes swimming on the brigade team and George is involved in a haulage to earn some extra money. It ends in disaster when a piano drops onto the street from the fourth floor.
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Episode 4 - Episode 4
Release Date: 1992-06-14A mentally disturbed kid named Donald hangs out at the station, much to Pearce's dismay. Bayleaf explains that he means no harm and only admires the fire brigade, Billy sends him to buy some papers. Scase appears again during an exercise to check Blue Watch's books. Kevin flirts with Sally and Bayleaf tells George that he considers leaving after all his accidents. The exercise is interrupted by the alarm bell - an elderly woman has called the brigade because she fears that her neighbour got trapped in a tank. An army tank, that is. A group of kids, including Ben, raid a little newsagents' store. Kevin and Billy go out with two girls, one of which gets into a drunk stupor. Kevin is kind enough to take her home and gets yelled at by her father. Patti calls Hallam to check the fuses after she was left in the dark and makes a pass at him. He is saved by Pearce's return. Ariadne and Nick have a secret meeting in the church and she urges him to make a decision, but he's stubborn. During night shift, one crew has to go on stand-by at another station. Recall and Sally talk about his problems with Ben, Pearce confesses to Hallam that Patti has always been chasing after other men and that she was also the reason for them leaving Bristol, after she made a pass at the station officer and the gossip got around. They are called out later to rescue a policeman who got stuck in a muddy pool with his motorcycle after chasing a group of young yobs. Laura reports Ben missing.
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Episode 5 - Episode 5
Release Date: 1992-06-21Billy tries to poison Pearce by pouring a lot of salt into his milk, but he doesn't even notice, much to Billy's and Kevin's surprise. They are called out for a little fire in a letterbox and Pearce yells at the kids for destroying the letters for nothing. Recall asks the whole watch to distribute search notices about Ben. Even Donald wants to help finding him. Patti barges in on Hallam with the excuse to lend some eggs though she only tries to seduce him again (without success). Claire learns that she has inherited a lot of money. Patti upsets Laura even further by suggesting that Ben could be injured in hospital somewhere. Sicknote goes golfing with his new friend Douglas and his mates, but he vanishes half-way through the game, feeling stupid. Ariadne marries Petros despite her feelings for Nick. While asking around for Ben, Donald gets beaten up by some young thugs. Recall and Laura go searching for Ben in the West End. Meanwhile, Blue Watch has to tackle a huge blaze at a futuristic games' club. Ben, who is roaming Soho, is terrified by a gay dirtbag who seems to be following him and seeks refuge at Soho Fire Station where he is finally reunited with his parents.
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Episode 6 - Episode 6
Release Date: 1992-06-28Sandra catches Hallam on the phone to Patti and grows suspicious. Billy allows Donald to sit at the wheel of the pump ladder and switch the blue lights on, but then the alarm goes off and Pearce catches them out, yelling at Donald to get lost. Desolate and hurt, Donald seeks refuge in an old factory, where he has built a model fire station. Meanwhile, Blue Watch arrives at a City Farm, where a smith has set the straw on fire. They tackle the blaze and evacuate the animals. Sicknote rescues a scruffy, extremely ugly mongrel and decides to adopt it. Billy jokes about Kevin and Sally, so that Kevin pushes him. Hallam interrupts them and sends Billy to evacuate the pigs, but he falls into the mud while chasing after them and the others hose him down. Sandra confides in Jean about her worries about Hallam + Patti. Pearce meanwhile decides to go home by bus instead of getting a lift from Hallam like always. Jean is horrified when Sicknote appears with the mongrel and resolutely locks him up in the garden shed. George goes to sell chips and hot dogs from a van, but he can't handle a group of teenagers and the van goes up in flames. Red Watch appears to tackle the blaze and George is the laughing stock. Sandra and Hallam have a row about Patti and Sandra decides to go and tell her to keep her hands off her husband. In the resulting quarrel, Pearce takes Hallam's side, saying that he believes him that nothing happened, but Patti doesn't budge. Maggie's friend prepares a Chinese dinner for Blue Watch during the next shift. Pearce catches Donald at the wheel of the pump ladder and yells at him once more, telling him to never set foot in the station again. Bayleaf tries to smoothe things, but Donalds runs away. He goes playing with his model fire station, but the little fire gets out of hand and sets the old factory on fire. Blue Watch comes to tackle the blaze. Pearce goes to save Donald from the roof, but he's too terrified to let him come near, steps back and falls down into the yard. Sally is woken up in the middle of the night by police who are investigating her boyfriend's drug-trafficking. Next day she's so tired that she blows the swimming competition for the brigade. Nick goes to see Diana Bulstrode, but she tells him that he only loves Ariadne. Kevin goes to visit Sally to comfort her and they kiss.
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Episode 7 - Episode 7
Release Date: 1992-07-05Bayleaf and Claire go to take a look at the restaurant they'd like to buy with her money. Nick and his crew go on a fire precaution inspection to a restaurant, which has been turned into a nightclub. Billy manages to chat up one of the strippers, Lauren. Sally rejects Kevin's new advances and he vents his anger by attacking Billy over a stupid remark. Jean declares war on the mongrel and tells Sicknote to take him to the station with him for the next night shift, so that she can sleep again. Hallam tries to make up to Pearce about the Patti-incident. Kevin moves into a house boat and Billy comes to visit him with Lauren. During the next night shift, Blue Watch is called to a burning house, where kids have set up an illegal radio station on the roof. Two of them are now trapped in a lift. The firemen have to tackle the blaze and fight off the young yobs, who hinder their work and take things away from the pumps. When they return to the fire station, Nick finds Sicknote's mongrel in the cellar, where it has ripped an old uniform to shreds.
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Episode 8 - Episode 8
Release Date: 1992-07-12Hallam is sent to train on the fire brigade river boat on the Thames and Pearce takes over as Sub. Jaffa attacks Sicknote about fleas in the station and Nick has a go at him about the dog. The whole watch has to clean the station from attic to cellar as Nick fears another surprise visit from Scase. Down in the cellar, Billy finds some old uniforms. Blue Watch is called to a block of flats, where a young woman has cracked up and locked her husband and child on the balcony. She attacks Recall and Sally with a knife when they enter the flat, but they can overpower her. Bayleaf signs the contract to buy the restaurant and George starts another job as watchman in a theatre. Sandra, sick of Hallam's attitude, has a job interview herself. Billy is preparing another prank on Pearce and pours foam pulver into the toilet, but it almost turns into disas ter when Scase appears at the station and intends to use the toilet, which is blocked. When he leaves, Billy sends Pearce to check on the blocked toilet and he unblocks it - getting covered in masses of foam, much to the watch's amusement. A blaze on the Woolwich Ferry brings Blue Watch together with Hallam and the river boat crew. Uncle Yanni tells Nick to leave Ariadne alone now that she's a married woman. Sally's boyfriend turns up at her flat and they have an argument just as Kevin appears. Kevin punches him, thinking that he's doing Sally a favour, but she yells at him.
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Episode 9 - Episode 9
Release Date: 1992-07-19Bayleaf and Claire start working on the restaurant. Nick seeks help with Dimitri, but he also tells him to leave Ariadne alone. After the shift, Billy takes the old uniforms , but he is caught by Pearce who is immediately suspicious. Kevin invites everybody to a party on his new boat, but Sally refuses - officially because she's got swimming training, but in truth because she's still angry with him. George goes to work in the theatre, where he saves the Russian primaballerina Larissa from a little blaze. The rest goes to Kevin's party, but he's not chuffed when - uninvited - the Pearce's turn up as well. When the party is over, Kevin cleans the boat and is attacked by two thugs who beat him up. At the station Kevin accuses Sally, but she says she has nothing to do with it. Dimitri thwarts Nick's attempts to get in touch with Ariadne. Fake firemen sell smoke-detectors to pensioners and run off with the money. Boys are playing in an old water tower and one falls down into a very deep well. Nick is rigged up in rope and let down into the well, hanging upside-down to rescue him. After this heroic effort, even DO Scase is willing to pay him respect.
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Episode 10 - Episode 10
Release Date: 1996-07-26Road workers discover a bomb near the fire station, while Nick's crew is just dealing with a little fire in a garbage can. Sally, who's on standby in the pump receives a call about the bomb. Blue Watch has to evacuate the street around the fire station and are refused entry, while army experts come to defuse the bomb and take residence in the station. Meanwhile, a careless car driver knocks over a little school girl and furious mothers stage a protest on the street against maniac drivers. Blue Watch has to watch how the bomb experts are working and don't know what to do. One crew goes to have lunch at another fire station where the food is miserable and the firemen obnoxious. The other crew is just about to have lunch at a fast food joint, causing raised eyebrows in their uniforms, when they are called to a block of flats where a guy is trapped in a lift. When they want to go up in the other lift, it gets stuck as well. The others have to come and get them all out of the lifts. While Blackwall is on stand-by at another station, they are called to a burning flat, where a young woman passed out after burning some letters from her ex-lover in the trash can. Hallam's crew can't proceed, because they are stuck in the street where the mothers are protesting against car drivers, so Nick's crew has to tackle the blaze on their own. He risks his life and for once has to be grateful to Pearce who rescues him. Hallam gets into a furious argument with the leader of the protest, but not to much avail. At least they can all return to Blackwall Fire Station. While Pearce and Sicknote muse about the bomb and the damage it could have done, Billy scares them to death by throwing a trash can onto the ground next to them. When they enter the station, they realize that the army guys have devoured all their supplies in the kitchen, but before they can get too excited the alarm bell goes off again.
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Episode 11 - Epiosde 11
Release Date: 1992-08-02Sicknote starts worrying about his balding skull, but Jean only laughes at him. Charisma returns to Blackwall after some years and is joyfully greeted by his old friends. Nick, though, is rather stunned about his glib talking. George asks Jaffa to take over one-two hours for him so that he can start working at the theatre in time. The fake firemen are caught out by an old lady whose grandson is in the brigade and recognizes the old uniforms. Blue Watch is just doing a ladder drill, when the alarm bell goes off. Nick's crew leaves while the others continue the exercise on their own. They enter the kitchen in BA and frighten Maggie, who accidentally kicks a hose. The jet goes off and sprays the whole kitchen. Sandra's new boss makes a pass at her and Claire goes investigating about bouncing cheques. George leaves the station early and Jaffa takes over for him, just as Blue Watch is called to a huge explosion. A gas depot is on fire and all the gas bottles go off like missiles, setting houses on fire and making work dangerous. Just as Jaffa is calling for reinforcement, one gas bottle hits the pump which explodes in a huge ball of fire.
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Episode 12 - Episode 12
Release Date: 1992-08-09The gas explosions continue. Jaffa is badly burnt but still alive. Scase and Nick are at loggerheads again, when Scase cancels the helicopter Nick had requested for Jaffa's transport. But Nick later apologizes and says that Scase was right - no helicopter could have landed with all the debris flying around like missiles. Hallam and Sicknote try to evacuate a worker from the burning gas depot and get almost blown away by a new explosion. George hears about the huge blaze in the theatre and phones the station, just as Blue Watch returns. He is shocked to hear about Jaffa's accident and goes to see him in the hospital. Jaffa's wife tries to convince him that it was his own decision, but George feels shitty, knowing that he should have been in Jaffa's place . Kevin wants to visit George at home, but only finds Kelly who says that she simply can't get through to him at the moment. Meanwhile, George tells Larissa about the whole thing and she comforts him. Sandra slaps her boss when he tries to make another pass at her, knowing that it will cost her her job. Nick learns that Ariadne has given up her job at a playschool, but Yanni refuses to give an explanation. Charisma gives Sicknote a lotion for new hair growth. Nick gets a memo about the fake firefighters. Pearce goes to tell him about seeing Billy with the old uniforms. Billy gets summoned to Nick's office and he says that he'll be sacked if this is true.
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Episode 13 - Episode 13
Release Date: 1992-08-16George is still racked with guilt about Jaffa's accident, but S.O. Suffolk tries to cheer him up as well. Sicknote wears a cap all of a sudden, but he only reveals to Charisma that his lotion has caused an ugly rash on his head. Nick and Pearce attend a coroner's inquiry about Donald's death at the blaze. Pearce has to admit that he was too rude to the boy and even feels guilty, but the coroner states that the incident will be treated as a sad accident. Pearce is truly humbled when Donald's mother tells him how fond he was of the brigade and gives him a drawing he had made of Blackwall. Meanwhile, Blue Watch is called to a flat, where a guy is stuck in the heating with his arm. His flat is full of yukky animals, causing Bayleaf to flee. He is called back to assist after Billy obviously "collapsed", but when he opens the medicine bag, a huge spider crawls out, shocking him, while everyone laughs. Sally goes out with her brother and after some chat, he tells her that their father is really bad and would like to see her again. Billy gets the old uniforms back from the guys to whom he lent them, unaware of their mischievous plans. While the watch exercises with dummies and first aid gear, he secretly returns the uniforms and tells Nick. Nick is frustrated about Ariadne's disappearance and quarrels with Hallam to vent his anger. Blue Watch is called to a car accident, where a guy has been run through by a pole. On returning Nick learns that there's been a call from Cyprus for him.
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Episode 14 - Episode 14
Release Date: 1992-08-23Jean is just taking a parcel from the postman, when Sicknote returns from night shift and snatches it away from her. It turns out to be a hair piece. Sally visits her father in Wembley. Larissa says goodbye to George and gives him a signed programme of the ballet company. She invites him to visit her at the hotel later, but he resists temptation and returns home to Kelly. Nick gets a phone call from Ariadne who's been taken to Cyprus by Petros. He agrees to fly to Cyprus and fetch her home. Bayleaf and Claire want to confront her brother, but he's vanished. Suffolk catches Sicknote with the hair piece in the bathroom and warns Blue Watch. They all act as if they don't notice - much to Sicknote's disappointment. Ariadne and Nick escape from Cyprus, chased by Petros and his friends. Scase appears at the fire station about the fake firemen incident, but everyone keeps mum. Scase summons Pearce to the station office, but he refuses to say something. Unbeknown of this, Billy later attacks him for talking to Scase. They almost fight, but Hallam interrupts them. On returning home, George finds Kelly in tears. She has found the signed programme and accuses him of infidelity, but he swears that there was nothing between him and Larissa. Charisma joins Kevin and his friends for a card game, Nick and Ariadne come home.
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Episode 15 - Episode 15
Release Date: 1992-08-30Nick returns to the station and reprimands Billy and Pearce about the fighting. A man sets the flat and himself on fire in a room full of paint cans. George overreacts when trying to save him as if trying to compensate for Jaffa's accident. Pearce had seen that Sandra is on job-search again and not surprisingly, Sandra meets Patti at the job centre. Uncle Yanni and his friends appear at the station to confront Nick about Ariadne in front of the whole watch. Nick then visits ACO Bulstrode. Scase appears at the office, trying to pick on Nick, but Bulstrode takes his side and has a go at Scase. Sally tells Nick that she considers a transfer to the Northwest to be closer to her ill father. The fire brigade holds a charity raft race for burn victims in hideous costumes. Nick appears in public with Ariadne for the first time, causing gossip. George is called away from the race after the first leg, because Kelly has gone to hospital to have their baby. He appears at the hospital in his silly pirate costume and punches Kelly's brother who makes stupid remarks . The others get into a sea fight with officers, using fire extinguishers and flour bombs. Scase rips off Sicknote's hair piece by accident, which terrifies him so much that the officers lose the battle. Ariadne tells Nick that she's pregnant.