Ron lies on his bathroom floor with his eyes shut, and the pain makes him remember a far worse ordeal from his youth. In the early 1970s, while on a West Midlands picket line, Ron deliberately provoked a young police officer into hitting him because a press photographer was nearby and the image would help the cause. Instead of a single blow, the officer and other police beat Ron repeatedly, dragged him into a van, drove him to a country lane, and left him battered in a muddy ditch.

That memory underscores Ron’s present condition: he is not being beaten now, only suffering an extreme hangover after Joanna and Paul’s wedding. Ibrahim sits with him and presses a cold flannel to Ron’s neck while Ron groans, recalls drinking far too much, and learns that Mark drove them home. Pauline is in the kitchen making breakfast, and the easy banter among the three shows how much Ron depends on their patience and affection.

When the doorbell rings, Pauline announces that Jason has come to see Ron. Ron assumes this is manageable because Jason has seen him in bad states before, and Ibrahim at least pulls Ron’s trousers up before the visit. Lying there, Ron reflects that he is lucky to have Pauline and Ibrahim caring for him, and he imagines a quiet recovery on the sofa with food, television, and sleep.

That plan vanishes when the visitor turns out not to be Jason alone but Kendrick, Ron’s energetic grandson. Kendrick bursts in delighted to see his grandfather and immediately asks what they are going to do. Realizing there will be no restful recovery, Ron forces himself upright through sheer willpower, jokes that he was listening for trains through the bathroom floor, and gets to his feet to go and play Lego, too distracted to question why Jason and Kendrick are visiting on a Friday morning.