Lead Balloon

Rick and Mel are invited to the christening of a very ugly baby. Meanwhile, Rick fronts a TV recycling campaign that backfires. When it looks as though he's going to be accused in the tabloids of smoking cannabis, Rick asks Mel to pretend she has MS.

Rick decides to replenish his cutlery drawer by stealing teaspoons from Michael's café - but Michael exacts an expensive revenge. Rick is suffering from insomnia thanks to Wayne the paper-boy who is very punctual and very noisy.

Rick hosts an awards show for a manufacturer of obscure electrical components and gets into a fight with a drunken sales manager. Mel points out that Rick has mistakenly pledged a vast amount of money to Michael for a forthcoming sponsored charity event.

Rick confides in Mel and Marty that he may have inadvertently killed one of Britain's best-loved entertainers. Of almost equal concern to Rick is that his free shoe-organizer did not arrive with the set of storage boxes he ordered.

Rick buys a scooter but starts to worry that it makes him look gay. His paranoia starts to affect his work and, as Marty points out, the jokes he writes for the Annual Hairdresser Awards are downright homophobic.

Rick decides to take some exercise after being told on TV by chat-show host Adam Green that he's put on weight. At home, Rick finds elderly neighbor Doris' lost cat but then later on has to explain to her son why he accepted the substantial reward money.