I believe I do have a timeline of events that you might find elucidative.
Patrick appears as a reluctant guest on Desert Island Discs. He is short and dismissive when asked questions and denies any interest in music.
His first choice of record is titled Strangers on the Shore, which he chose because it concerns the seashore as you might find on a desert island.
Russ returns home from fishing with his dad, Cliff.
His daughter, Toby is hostile to the idea of fishing and confronts him as he arrives in. Russ explains that he doesn’t actually use a hook, so all he is really doing is “fish feeding”.
After Toby leaves, Russ and Alex talk more about Russ’ pretend fishing. Apparently, Cliff doesn’t know that Russ deliberately doesn’t catch fish. He just thinks that Russ is bad at fishing, which he enjoys teasing him about.
By waiting silently in a room with him, Deborah works out that her grandfather, Walter, is blind.
He admits that he has been blind since the war, but never brings it up. Deborah questions how he manages, to which Walter says that his wife, Vanessa, is a great help to him.
As if to demonstrate, Vanessa enters the room at that moment. She says:
“Ah, Walter. There you are. Oh, and Deborah too. You look very cosy over there, dear, in that window seat.”
Vanessa uses indirect comments like this to help Walter place people and objects in the room.
Jerry is auditioning a satirical song that he has composed about “comfortable men”.
When he finishes, the auditioner points out a major snag regarding the object of his satire – the generation above him served in the war, so can’t be said to have never stood up for anything that mattered.
The auditioner does compliment Jerry’s ability to write lyrics that scan, but still sends him away.
While sharing a drink, Vanessa asks Uncle Newt questions about her parentage. She had put off asking the questions before now, even though she had her doubts for a while.
Uncle Newt is able to tell her that Susanna Noone was indeed her mother, despite Vanessa’s resemblance to Aunt Gally.
He does go on to say that Gally would have loved to have been Vanessa’s mother, and that, really, she was one of her two mothers in every meaningful sense.
When Vanessa asks what her father looked liked, Newt only says that he never met Major Noone.
Patrick’s next choice for Desert Island Discs is a sound effects track depicting the sounds of a desert island, which he says he wouldn’t play anyway.
Russ, Alex and Toby are walking their dog, Oswald, when they see a group of magpies. Toby counts through the One for Sorrow rhyme, but she only knows it up to four.
Alex recites a version of the rhyme that goes well beyond the traditional seven, culminating in the revolution of the magpies and the beginning of the thousand-year age of magpies.
With mock shame, Russ reveals to Toby that Alex used to be in a sketch group.
On Jerry’s 60th birthday, Deborah introduces him to give a speech.
Jerry’s ability to express himself is affected by aphasia, but he and the family choose to embrace it. Deborah reminds the audience of how well everyone did on the ‘What would Jerry say next?’ round from his 50th birthday. She jokes that Jerry has now truly turned the tables on that.
Jerry opens by saying “Gently, ladybird, here we come”. Although the speech that follows is very confused and difficult to interpret, it is warmly received by the family.
When he is finished, Jerry raises a toast “To glassware!”, which may be his attempt to say “Half a glass!”.
Vanessa and Queenie are aboard the narrowboat in which they are serving during the war. They are stuck behind a horse drawn barge because the horse will not move.
The horse driver is indignant that there is nothing he can do to move the horse if it doesn’t want to move, but Vanessa is able to get it moving by first blindfolding it.
Newt knocks on the door of a hotel room. Susanna opens the door and greets him by saying: “Mr. Noone, I presume.”
Susanna thanks Newt for “filling in” and goes on to say: “I’m terribly sorry about breaking your duck.”
Despite not usually drinking, Newt takes a swig from a hip flask that Susanna has brought, since she points out to him that it is “rather a day for doing things you don’t do”.
They exchange awkward, but affectionate, conversation as they mentally prepare themselves for what they came to do.
Gally warns her brother, Newt, that she has a “super colossal” favour to ask him.
Through cryptic references to Susanna’s pretend husband, Major Noone, Gally asks if Newt would father a child with Susanna, which Gally and Susanna could then raise together.
Newt is reluctant to do so. In his life generally, Newt has no interest in the required activity and never intends to try it. He remarks that there are other ways of achieving the same effect.
At this point, Gally begins to speak more plainly. She had particularly hoped that Newt would do this for them, so that the kid would be the closest possible thing to being Gally’s own child.
This convinces Newt and they agree to the plan. He asks to be part of the child’s life in the role of an uncle.
Gally begins to explain the practicalities of the arrangement by asking if Newt knows Crewe.
Patrick’s final choice for Desert Island Discs is By the Sleepy Lagoon, once again following his literal desert island theme.
He declines to choose a luxury to bring with him, but then surprises the host by choosing The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter as his book.
When asked why, he simply states that it is his favourite with no further elaboration. The host sighs and thanks him.
On the way to the reception of Myra’s wedding, Uncle Newt, Vanessa, Jerry, Deborah and Russ share a car. They represent five generations of the family.
Deborah is surprised to hear Jerry ask if he should start his speech with a poem, since she had just assumed that he would.
Vanessa and Deborah swap theories about the marital status of the registrar at the service, based on their observations of biro marks and reading glasses.
As they travel, Russ starts to feel unwell. Uncle Newt offers his top hat, should it be needed.
In an attempt to distract Russ, they all start to play a storytelling game by each saying one word at a time, but this fizzles out as Russ feels worse.
Next, they try to think of a song which they all know so that they could sing it to Russ. Uncle Newt is too elderly to know Yellow Submarine and Deborah is too young for Knees Up Mother Brown, but there is one song which spans the generations of the family.
Jerry counts them in and they all sing Woof, Woof, Woof together.
Unfortunately, they cannot prevent the inevitable, and Deborah is forced to apologise to Uncle Newt.
Newt replies: “Oh, not at all my dear. It was a very old hat.”