derek, a childhood friend of pauline fowler (wendy richard), reappears in her life through her involvement in the community theatre. pauline makes a play for him but he reveals he is gay. they decide to stay friends and derek moves in with pauline, becoming a new father-figure for her son martin (james alexandrou). he helps out with the fruit and veg stall, teaches martin to drive, and takes the blame when martin is caught growing cannabis. derek gets in touch with his estranged son and daughter, alex harkinson (ben nealon) and mary harkinson (mary woodvine), and alex's son danny harkinson (josh alexander). he has a long string of arguments with pauline in 2005 and goes to live with alex.