Biaritz, France 1928 finds Harry (Jeremy Piven) gambling again and living the high life and he tells everyone he has under his gambling control.
Back in London, Harry heads to the Colleano club which is doing better than ever and listens to a nightclub singer sing about no one wanting to know you when you're down and out. Some early foreshadowing here of events to come.
A new unveiling of the statue "The Queen of Time" outside the store, which is still here today is about to take place. Harry calls it 'the best of times' and there's no better way of marketing the store than this. Grove (Tom Goodman-Hill) says it'll be here even after they're gone. Everyone's flouting around, "the Earl of Oxford Street" title now. It's Grove's birthday and he's been at the store 20 years. As Mr Crabb (Ron Cook) says but Harry says they started the store in 1909 which strictly speaking is 19 years. Anyhoo, being pedantic.
Frank (Samuel West) mentions the black boxer, Joe Langford (Bentley Kalu) who can't fight cos of the colour bar and Victor's (Trystan Gravalle) hosting the match at the club. Lady May (Katherine Kelly) returns to London with more woes for Harry. Seems her husband, Renard is cheating on her and his latest conquest doesn't want to remain a mistress, so he's divorcing her and she doesn't get a penny. Nor can she go to court since she can't have a scandal. Thus she must sell her shares to live. Harry wants to help her but she won't let him. And lets her stay at Violette's flat. She's got a fashion boutique but it's only small. Of course that marks the beginning of the end for Harry, since the store will eventually get taken over and he still can't stop splurging. He asks May to stay, at least for the unveiling of the clock.
Rosalie (Kara Tointon) talks of how Harry needs to find a proper woman for himself and she has a daughter now. But Serge is in Paris and up to no good. He's also been having an affair with a Countess, probably with mother's approval. Which Lord Wynnstay (Robert Pugh) has gotten wind of as the Countess is willing to tell her story. He tells Frank that Harry wants advertizing but he has a personal story for him. Later telling him of this, as he also meets Rosalie and makes small talk. Frank and Wynnstay also discuss the emancipation of women and he comments on how he'll get their votes cos they'll vote the way his paper wants them to.
Grove's eldest daughter, Meryl (Lottie Tolhurst) has found a teaching job but just wants to work at the store like her mother, Doris, did. But Grove doesn't like what "shop girls" get to see. Though she doesn't give up. The nanny leaves and he misses Ms Mardle who's in New York. He tells Crabb they had a mutual parting, a clean break, since she couldn't be mother to five children. Meryl later asks Harry for a job and he says she could work in fashion with her father's approval and he finally relents. Harry saying Violette asked him for a job and he didn't let her have it, which was a mistake.
Kitty (Amy Beth Hayes) and Frank have moved into a new extravagant house and she invites George (Calum Callaghan) and Connie (Sacha Parkinson) for dinner. Where she tells Kitty she's having a baby, leaving Kitty jealous as she's feeling clucky too. Frank however is at the boxing match organized by Jimmy Dillon (Sacha Dhawan) a man with a scandalous past himself, apparently his mother had an affair with a Maharajah in India and he's self made. That match looked so fixed, as Harry bets on the American, Joe and obviously the Englishman would win. Who says Britain wasn't racist? Jimmy saying he won cos Harry made all the punters bet on Joe after he did. All the while Jimmy watches May. He wants to get 'cosy' with her, but she doesn't and Harry feels he had to defend her which she doesn't like. Especially cos of his reputation with the women and those Dolly sisters, but she's capable of speaking for herself. All out for a good time and Harry saying he knows some movie producers as the sisters want to get into talkies! Ha. Yeah with their voices! Think Singin' In the Rain is all I can say, Lina Lamont.
Connie gives May the idea of making affordable ready to wear clothes which the French already have, knowing it'd so well and Harry wants her to design them. They didn't have pret a porter for nothing you know. Gordon (Greg Austin) returns after being sent to the provincial stores and Harry has no time for him. He and Grace (Amy Morgan) have two sons now and she hopes he doesn't fall out with them. Harry is also approached by the London Civic group, Keen (Oliver Dimsdale) who wants to meet him as they're shareholders, but he ends up meeting Gordon instead. See Harry's so flippant and not concerned about the store so much as he is with the people and his friends.
At the unveiling he reveals the "Queen of Time" Harry steps back and has a fall. See yet more foreshadowing. This final series 4 opener was a bit slow to get off the ground (no pun) setting up storylines for future episodes like Kitty wanting a baby, Gordon and Harry's relationship not boding well for the store. But particularly as the Dolly sisters make their presence known.
Jenny(Zoe Richards) and Rosie (Emma Hamilton) who were actually Hungarian, Jancsi and Roszica. They were showgirls, as they said and Harry became enamoured with Jenny, lavishing expensive gifts on her, buying her a chateau and furnishing it with antiques. But she never married him. She had her own affairs and in 1933, she suffered a car crash along with a French mobster/gangster named Max. She was terribly disfigured and in 1941, Jenny hanged herself, after suffering from depression and loneliness. Harry paid all their gambling debts and "squandered" his fortune on them.
What happened to Frank's book he was writing about the soldiers and also no mention of Harry's housing project.
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