New Year's Day, and Slade Prison has a new intake of three: old hands Norman Stanley Fletcher and Heslop, along with the young Lennie Godber, experiencing his first time inside.

After his first week inside Slade Prison, Fletcher tries to take advantage of the gambling culture by setting up various bets. But in order to make sure everything goes smoothly, he has to stay a step ahead of the guards and Horrible Ives.

Lennie Godber is moved into Fletcher's cell after a prison riot, in what is said to be a temporary basis. When Godber tells Fletcher that he's struggling with prison life, Fletcher teaches him how to imagine it as a quiet night in.

Godber is looking forward to having his first day outside the prison since he was jailed. As it's a day as a work party, digging a trench, then Fletcher is less enthusiastic about the situation.

A chart-topping episode that sees Fletcher dejected while spending his sixth week in prison. When a fellow prisoner with a history of violence attracts Fletcher's attention, Fletcher decides to help him for both their sakes.

Fletcher is asked by a fellow prisoner, "Bunny" Warren, to help him read the letters he's receiving from his wife outside. But when Fletcher starts to write Warren's replies for him, many other inmates want Fletcher's literary services.