 A running subplot is Billy's pursuit of romance, often at the encouragement of Ernie Hadfield; this later ends with Billy's marriage to old schoolfriend Mary Braithwaite - who had originally been set to marry Ernie.The setting for the show is the fictional Yorkshire town of Oldshaw during the 1920s and 1930s.The writer, Dick Sharples, chose this period as this was the time when undertakers were switching from horse-drawn to mechanical hearses.