I believe I do have a timeline of events that you might find illuminating.
Uncle Newt is telling Jerry a bedtime story. The final line says that the villagers sang “paeans of praise” to their returning hero.
When asked by Jerry, Uncle Newt explains that a paean is “a long poem about how wonderful you are”. Jerry asks if he can have one. Uncle Newt tells him that he can maybe have one for his birthday.
They wish each other goodnight, to which Jerry adds: “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
Jerry is celebrating his “unofficial” 8th birthday with Uncle Newt, with whom he is living during the war. His “official” birthday will be in December, when his parents are home on leave.
After first hearing Jerry’s latest poem, for which Jerry is paid his standard ha’penny, Uncle Newt gives him his birthday presents.
Jerry opens a gift to find a kazoo, which Uncle Newt admits he had just found at the back of a drawer.
Uncle Newt encourages Jerry to blow the kazoo, which cues Newt to deliver a “paean of praise” that he has written for Jerry. The paean tells of Jerry’s accomplishments and good deeds while living with his uncle.
Unbeknownst to Jerry, his mother, Vanessa, has taken leave from her war service, so that she can visit. She arrives in the room as Uncle Newt is finishing his paean. She delivers the final word: “Surprise!”
Jerry visits his mother, Vanessa, in hospital. She is wrapped in bandages. She informs Jerry that she sustained her injuries when she was hit by a bridge.
Vanessa tells Jerry that, once she is discharged from hospital, she will be returning home from her service on the narrowboat.
Jerry is partly disappointed by this news. This means he will stop living with Uncle Newt, who has been teaching him to write poetry.
During his National Service with the British Army, Jerry visits a shop near to where he is posted in Germany. He meets Hilla, who is working in the shop.
Jerry’s original reason for visiting the shop was to purchase a rubber stamp that could replicate a mark that he shows on his hand. This mark is to prove that he has completed a cross-country run, a task which he wishes to avoid in future.
Hilla says that her father could make the stamp, but questions why he should help a British soldier. When Jerry asks if this is because her father is still sore about losing the war, Hilla responds: “No, Solomon Goldfarb is not sorry that Germany lost the war.”
After more back-and-forth between the two, Jerry comes to the suggestion that he should save his money on the rubber stamp and instead buy tickets to the pictures for Hilla and him.
Hilla is surprised that baby Debbie wants to be fed more. Jerry suggests that it’s because she is ready for her pudding. However, Hilla is heard to ask “Well, don’t you want it?”, suggesting that Debbie ultimately doesn’t want her pudding.
The baby is making raspberry noises as Hilla deals with her. Hilla requesting that Debbie saves her “the raspberries of impatience”. This leads to Jerry composing an impromptu, fruit-themed, nonsense song on the piano.
Hilla helps him to find fruit names that correctly scan within the tune.
Jerry asks his mum, Vanessa, if Midnight & Noone ever made any records. She tells him that they had not.
Jerry asks if she remembers any of the pair’s songs. She tells him about The Fellow with the Cello and Woof, Woof, Woof, attempting a short rendition of each.
She tells Jerry that the joke behind Woof, Woof, Woof is that it is a nightingale doing the dog impressions.
Because of a need to finish some eggs they had, Jerry suggests that they have pancakes. Hilla is reading a book and absent-mindedly agrees.
Before she realises what she has done, Jerry retrieves and blows a kazoo to initiate a family ritual. Hilla tries to change her meal choice to omelette, but the children are already rushing into the room and it is too late.
Jerry and the children play out a rehearsed chant in which he acts as The Keeper of the Cakes of Pan. Myra is The Flour Sifter, Benji is The Egg Man and Deborah is The Tosh Chronicler.
Hilla, still reading her book, doesn’t join in the chanting in her role as The Flipster. Benji begins to protest, but Jerry (still in character) defends The Flipster’s right to silence.
Although she doesn’t join the chanting this time, Hilla does not want her lines removed from the ritual. She likes it sometimes.
In a meeting with the Soho Systems Sound Design, Jerry performs a song that he has written to be used in one of their adverts.
The song is a variation of Woof, Woof, Woof. In this version, a nightingale visits Soho Systems Sound Design to achieve the low notes she needs to do impressions of dogs.
The company express some concern over copyright because of an allusion to A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square at the end of the song. Hearing this, Jerry has to confess that the whole thing is based on an old Midnight & Noone song.
On the evening of Jerry’s 50th birthday, he and his wife, Hilla, reflect on the events of the day.
Although he enjoyed the day, Jerry feels a tinge of melancholy. His feelings were unintentionally hurt by a ‘What would Dad say?’ round in a quiz that Deborah had composed. He worries that the high scores in the round indicate that he has become a “predictable old fart”.
Hilla comforts him by saying that, although they may know what he might say, they could never predict what he will do next. She cites, as an example, him training crows to fetch batteries.
Feeling better, Jerry bids her goodnight. As he does so, she intones “don’t let the bed bugs bite” along with him, but he protests that that doesn’t count.
At Uncle Newt’s funeral, Jerry gives a eulogy in the form of a poem that he has composed about Newt.
In the poem, Jerry tells the audience of the years he spent living with Newt during the war. It was there that Jerry first started writing rhymes, for which Newt would pay him a ha’penny each (on condition that they scan).
He praises Newt as a teacher, storyteller and friend, before concluding with the lines:
Well, since you ask me for a toast…
O Nightingale! O Uncle Newt!
Myra, Deborah, Benji and Russ are helping Jerry to sort out his things and clear space.
Jerry becomes unexpectedly upset when he realises that they have deflated his lilo. In his shock, he shouts: “What have you done? Oh, you cockers!”
He quickly regains his composure and apologises to them all. He explains that he was keeping the lilo blown up because his wife, Hilla, had been the one who inflated it before she died.
He consoles himself and the others with hugs and his refrain of “half a glass”.
He apologises again for swearing at them. However, they are able to reassure him that his lingering aphasia has actually saved him from doing so. They comfort him by joking that “cockers” was at worst akin to “spaniels”, and agreeing that they had indeed behaved like “complete spaniels”.
Jerry is checking in for his COVID-19 vaccination.
He is extremely buoyant to be seeing people in the real world. In his excitement, he repeatedly extends his arm to shake hands, despite reminders of the social distancing rules. He can’t stop himself from giving verbose and eloquent answers to simple yes-no questions.