A Family At War
The Forty-Eight Hour Pass
TV-PG
S2 • E5 Dec 9, 1970 60mIt is May 1941. David Ashton is home on an unexpected 48-hour leave. Robert is back from a voyage to Africa, laden down with presents. Neither knows yet that Margaret is expecting an illegitimate child. Nor that their mother, Jean Ashton, has taken the news very badly. The relationship between David Ashton and his wife Sheila is as bad as ever. He never bothers to write and seldom spends his leaves with her. She is worries that he is growing away from her and the prospect that he may soon be elevated from flight-sergeant to pilot officer terrifies her. Sheila still gets poison-pen letters about Peg, the girl he made pregnant at basic training camp. When David arrives home, he is surprised to find Sheila sharing the house with a lodger - Doris, one of Sheila's friends from the Naafi.
