Robert's Robots

With Angela away on holiday in Australia, and Aunt Millie trying to cope with her new robot parrot, Robert busies himself with his latest invention: a headset that allows its wearer’s actions to be mimicked by a robot; but things go wrong as usual, and the experiment ends with Katie wiping his feet on Eric’s back. Meanwhile, Marken meets his new associate, Plummer, who has taken over the spying operation after Gimbert quit. Facing the sack from his bosses, Marken decides to bribe Sommerby into handing over his secrets; however, his meeting with the inventor doesn’t go according to plan, as Robert’s new headset has since jammed, leaving him and Eric stuck making the same moves as each other. Making a hasty retreat from the duo’s strange behaviour, Maken and Plummer then decide to kidnap Robert; unfortunately they capture the inventor’s robot double instead – and when they take him back to Maken’s houseboat, the android runs straight through the side of the vessel and sinks to the bottom of the canal...

Having recaptured the duplicate Robert, whom they now believe to be the inventor’s twin brother, Marken and Plummer watch in dismay as the canal water inside the robot’s body overheats, causing steam to pour out of his head; terrified that their prisoner is seriously ill with a dangerous disease the two spies immediately dump him outside Robert’s research laboratory. Meanwhile, Eric learns of the government’s cut to Robert’s funding, and decides to help; setting up a secret meeting with his fellow robots, Eric goes over his first idea for a money-making venture: a baby-minding service..

Fleeing from Eric and Katie’s “repaired” Mini car, Marken and Plummer are arrested by a suspicious policeman; when they finally get released, they decide on a last desperate attempt at infiltrating Robert’s laboratory, by disguising themselves as government officials. Meanwhile, Robert resolves to deal with the spies himself: he begins spying on them, and when the duo leave Marken’s houseboat dressed in bowler hats and badly-fitting suits, he sneaks aboard and begins to search for information. Back at the lab, Eric has created a beautiful female robot counter-spy, Desiree, to deal with Marken and Plummer; programming Desiree as a ‘femme fatale’, Eric sends her to seduce the spies; but when she boards the houseboat, she meets Robert instead – and promptly tries to seduce him...

Wanting to keep a close eye on the spies, Robert has successfully blackmailed Marken and Plummer into coming to work for him as security guards. The next day; with Eric and Katie’s “help”, Robert moves to different quarters to make room for his new employees. But Eric is still suspicious of the new recruits, and after seeing how much Marken likes Desiree, he programmes his female robotic creation to try to ensnare the spy with her beauty and uncover his schemes. Desiree accepts Marken’s offer of a dinner date in his room, and together they enjoy a somewhat strange evening getting to know each other. Meanwhile, the duplicitous Plummer sneaks into Robert’s lab to steal back the incriminating documents that the inventor has confiscated from Marken...

Plummer’s attempt to break into Robert’s safe results in him and Marken getting blown up by Katie; Robert is furious, and threatens to report the spies to the police unless they take their new jobs as security guards seriously. Later, Robert reveals his latest money-making venture: opening a restaurant. Unfortunately the sight of human food causes all the robots to suffer from electronic nausea, and they immediately collapse; undaunted, Robert appoints Eric as head waiter and instructs him to train his fellow automatons to handle food without being sick. Opening day comes two days later: but with the robot waiters still feeling sick at even the mere mention of what’s on the menu, Robert’s restaurant is doomed to be a recipe for disaster...

Robert closes his restaurant for a few days while he attempts to repair the damage done to the robots, a result of their revulsion to human food. Meanwhile, Marken and Plummer actually do their jobs and see off a couple of reporters from ‘The Clarion’. Worried about more negative publicity, after the newspaper printed a damning review of the restaurant written by the vicar’s wife, Robert shows the two reporters, Mr Holroyd and Miss Digby, around his laboratory to convince them that the place is safe and normal – but unfortunately he and his staff just come across as being completely mad. Meanwhile, Marken and Plummer learn that Robert has hidden their papers inside one of his robots, and they set about determining which one. The next day, Holroyd and Digby’s report condemning Robert and his team as raving loonies is published in all the national newspapers. Robert agrees to go on the television show ‘Yesterday’ to account for himself, taking Eric and Desiree with him; but things don’t go to plan: Eric and Desiree go bonkers, and then Katie decides to join them in the studio…

It’s Christmas at Little Stockbrush: Robert and Aunt Millie have put up the Christmas tree and the robots have put up their stockings. Robert and his robots have also been tasked with organising a children’s party at the village hall, and while the robots get the decorations ready, Robert tests his new computerised electronic organ. Meanwhile, Marken gets into the festive spirit by dressing up as Santa and, together with a rather ‘humbug’-ish Plummer, takes Robert’s robot sleigh out for a test run – and then returns covered in oil after the thing crashes. When Marken tells the robots a (badly-translated) story about Father Christmas, Katie gets all emotional and decides to give him a present: the leg of robot George, which contains the papers Rober confiscated from Marken. Now free of Robert’s hold over them, the elated Marken and Plummer attempt to make a break for it; however, Katie realises his mistake and confesses to Robert and Eric. As the spies drive off on the motorised sleigh, Robert, Eric and Katie give chase...