Rab C Nesbitt is a drunken, string vested lay about who lives with his long suffering wife Mary and his two sons in the working class area of Govan in Glasgow. When he's not getting drunk with his pals that include the devious, womanizing Jamesie Cotter. He's offering his philosophical outlook on life to whoever will listen.
Rab is spending a lot of time at his newly acquired allotment, which causes Mary to look for her own excitement with an old boyfriend.
Rab is thrown into a grimy police cell for being drunk and disorderly and is shocked to find a guard pointing a gun at him.
After a visit to the doctor, Rab is diagnosed with a cancerous growth and has to undergo chemotherapy treatment.
Rab and Jamesie get caught up in a series of misadventures while trying to fulfill the last wishes of an old dying woman.
Rab decides to take the family up to the highlands for the weekend.
The new minister arrives at Rab's church with two serious drawbacks - she is a woman and English.
After waiting three days for Rab to come back from the butcher shop on what should have been a routine purchase, Mary moves out and leaves Rab and their sons to look after themselves. Rab is comforted by his pals at the pub and things are made even worse when Rab is forced into work after being called into the job centre.
Rab gets involved in the local by-elections and Mary finds a rat in the kitchen.
When Rab returns home to find his bairns have been taken into care, he's so upset he can hardly finish his kebab.
Mary seems strangely calm when told that Rab's benefits have been suspended.
With Ella's biological clock ticking loudly and husband Jamesie less potent than a seedless orange, parenthood seems a pretty unlikely prospect. Fortunately, Rab offers to supply the wherewithal needed for such a delicate operation.
When a mobile phone mast appears in Govan, Rab turns rabble-rouser to fire up the community. It's driving everyone up the pole, but is it really damaging their health? Nesbitt seeks justice; the mob just want a nice bit of compensation.
Rab is told by the doctor that he only has a year to live, if he doesn't stop drinking that is.
When Rab returns home he finds out that Mary has kidnapped the government minister for work as revenge for losing her job. The couple have no idea what to do next when and after a full-scale siege develops, they are believed to be terrorists.
The drop-in centre falls victim to council cuts, so Rab fights back, but when a spot on local radio and a meeting with the council leader amount to nothing, he feels it is time for a grand public gesture - burning himself at the stake. As the string-vested hero prepares to become Govan's answer to Joan of Arc, Mary wastes no time in getting herself a new flame as she considers starting an affair with one of her cleaning clients.
Peaches chooses Rab as her role model for a school project, but when he recognises her teacher as a fellow member of his self-help group, he wonders how he can live up to her expectations when Miss Carruth knows he likes more than a tipple. Jamesie hits 60 and starts a much-needed business venture - a crack den for OAPs.
Rab finds himself at a posh supper for namesake Rabbie Burns. Rab locks horns with filth magnet Saunders McClure, a slimeball with designs on Mary's cleaning company. Features a guest appearance from John Michie.
Rab is living rough out on the local dump, when he gets some sad news concerning his mother.
Mary gets mugged while out walking, and Gash decides to leave his wife and go off with her sister.
Rab is in the hospital cancer ward and the constant attention of the hospital reverend is starting to get on his nerves.
Rab is suffering from a bad back, but that doesn't stop Jamesie from sticking an emotional knife into it.
After serving a jail sentence for setting fire to the house because Mary had gone off with Jamesie, Rab gets a job as a dishwasher but is still planning to get his revenge.
After a visit to the doctor to cure his feelings of restlessness proves pointless, Rab decides to explore his spiritual side in the local park.
Rab needs to wear glasses after having his eyes tested and Mary is reluctant to go for another smear test.
The Govan local tv station gets excited when both Rab and Jamesie are accused of committing murder.