The BEST episodes of Waiting for God

Every episode of Waiting for God ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Waiting for God!

When Tom Ballard moves to Bayview Retirement Vilage, he meets Diana Trent, a fiesty old woman who complains about everything and wants nothing more than just to die. Much to the dislike of Harvey Baines, the head of the home, the two form a friendship and eventually a romance, helping each other out of tight situations. Tom's son, Geoffrey, and daughter-in-law, Marion (whom Tom doesn't particularly like) are constantly stopping in and Jane, a worker at the home, is Diana's worst nightmare being constantly cheerful. Together, though, Tom and Diana make it together while they are waiting for God.

Last Updated: 12/30/2023Network: BBC OneStatus: Ended
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The Conference
star
9.17
6 votes

#1 - The Conference

Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/11/1993

There is to be a conference on the needs of the elderly held, and Diana is asked to be the local representative. At the same time Tom is waiting on tests to see if he has prostate cancer, and so Diana researches the subject for the conference. Although the results of the test are as yet undisclosed, Tom declares his love for Diana.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Sleeping Pills
star
8.63
8 votes

#2 - Sleeping Pills

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/5/1992

Diana collapses and is rushed to hospital where Baines tries, unsuccessfully to cop off with the lady doctor. Diana, wrongly, gets it into her head that she is dying of cancer and asks Tom to get her some sleeping pills so that she can end it all quickly. For Tom, however, there are limits as to what he will do for his best friend.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Scandal
star
8.54
13 votes

#3 - Scandal

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/15/1992

Resident Dave Cartwright has died and at the wake the drink flows freely amongst the inhabitants of Bayview. Tom and Diana certainly have knocked it back and next morning wake up in bed together. Jane is shocked but Tom suddenly becomes very popular with the ladies in the home's bowling team.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Great Aunt Diana
star
8.50
8 votes

#4 - Great Aunt Diana

Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/12/1992

The residents are getting wet waiting for a bus but when it arrives the driver claims that they cannot get on for free for another four minutes as they are too early, so Diana hauls him off the bus and Tom hi-jacks it on behalf of the residents. Later this will come in handy when a very pregnant Sarah arrives, seeking Diana's reluctant help to deliver her baby. Ultimately a girl arrives, unsurprisingly, Sarah calls her Diana.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Living Together
star
8.50
8 votes

#5 - Living Together

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/1993

To Jane's disapproval, Diana and Tom are now living in sin, or rather together, but already they start arguing, since they can't decide whose furniture they should be using. A new resident, Mrs. Kent from Gwent, arrives. She is withdrawn and nervous so Tom and Diana put on an act of being very happy together in order to bring her out of her shell. As it happens they do get a result - but only when she sees what they are really like.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Waterworks
star
8.50
8 votes

#6 - Waterworks

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/4/1993

After drinking a lot at a reunion, Tom has trouble passing water and becomes very sensitive about it. He tries to keep it from Diana but his secretive behaviour initially leads her to believe that he is seeing another woman. Ultimately, he sees a doctor and goes to hospital and she is upset that he had not told her the truth.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
After the Operation
star
8.43
7 votes

#7 - After the Operation

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/8/1994

Diana visits Tom in hospital. His operation to clear his prostate cancer has been a success and he returns to Bayview with her. Unfortunately Geoffrey, who has had yet another falling-out with Marion, decides he wants to move in with them again. Baines is rejected by an exclusive golf club because he is unmarried.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Sent To Coventry
star
8.40
5 votes

#8 - Sent To Coventry

Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/28/1993

A strange reversal of fortune overtakes Bayview with the hospitalised Baines seen as the victim and Diana his tormentor. She is sent to Coventry and there are threats of staff strikes unless she goes. Help comes from a most unexpected source - Marion, whose pharmaceutical knowledge leads her to see that Baines is faking his condition. Diana is vindicated though Tom has made her apologize to Baines in order for her to be allowed to stay. He knew Baines was faking it but thought the humility would do her good.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Bungee Jumping
star
8.40
5 votes

#9 - Bungee Jumping

Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/20/1994

Whilst planning his pre-nuptial agreement with an eager Jane, Baines is told that he is not a proper priest and that any attempts he makes to get money from his ordination will lead to fraud charges. Diana is of course delighted but she has more pressing matters - Tom's threatened bungee jump. She agrees to marry him if only to stop the jump from going ahead but insists on her own pre-nuptial conditions.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Financial Difficulties
star
8.25
8 votes

#10 - Financial Difficulties

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/9/1993

Diana is horrified to find that she is unaccountably in the red and goes up to London to cause a fuss, only to discover that all her investments have gone into receivership. Back in Bayview, Tom's room is suffering from severe rising damp so Tom comes up with a solution that will sort things out for them both. They will live together in one large room. Diana accepts this but draws the line at being carried over the threshold.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Adult Education
star
8.25
8 votes

#11 - Adult Education

Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/21/1993

When Tom and Diana's life drawing art classes at the local college are terminated and complaining yields no joy, they decide to instate their own at Bayview. Baines is to be the model, posing as Julius Caesar, bare beneath his toga for authenticity (or so Diana tells him). When an inspector calls at Bayview, Diana unties the knot holding the toga in place and leaving Baines publicly nude. As a result, he has to go to a clinic where Jane reports that he has had a breakdown.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Sabotage
star
8.18
11 votes

#12 - Sabotage

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/22/1992

Whilst Baines is ecstatic about his new car Tom and Diana plan a little holiday and start a vacation fund. Unfortunately, Geoffrey decides to invest the money in the new intensive care wing that Baines is having built for Bayview. When Tom finds out he and Basil show how creative they can be when somebody conveniently leaves a bulldozer lying around and the holiday is on.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Bayview Conservation Society
star
8.14
7 votes

#13 - The Bayview Conservation Society

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/15/1994

Baines is hiring Mr. Nakamura, a Japanese hotel consultant, to advise on the building of a new,space-saving wing to be built at Bayview - thereby enabling him to pack in more residents. Tom starts the Bayview Conservation Society, eventually enlisting Diana, to demonstrate that any such building would damage the wildlife and the natural environment, thus stopping the plan from going ahead. Jane and Geoffrey get close, Marion and Baines get intimate, more down to her desperation than his enthusiasm as she initially mistook him for Geoffrey.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Tell the Truth
star
8.00
12 votes

#14 - Tell the Truth

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/3/1991

Tom 's belief that one should always tell the truth offends Jane, who has made herself look glamorous to appeal to Baines and Tom says she looks hideous. He also upsets Marion by telling her what he thinks of her, leading to a big row. Sarah introduces her boy-friend Sam, who is looking for investors for his proposed beauty salon franchise, but Diana and Tom suspect he is a con-man and Tom - to make his peace with Marion - 'persuades' Sam to let his daughter run her own beauty salon for free.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Hip Operation
star
8.00
12 votes

#15 - The Hip Operation

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/10/1991

Diana falls and breaks her hip whilst throwing a brick at the home's incompetent Portuguese gardener. She is taken to hospital where she rows with the Welsh doctor over a hip replacement operation and Sarah, about to marry Sam, comes to visit. Sarah knows that Diana dislikes Sam and wonders if she will try to stop the wedding..or even attend. In the end Diana turns up for her niece's big day, using a Zimmer frame. Marion, meanwhile, is not making a success of the beauty shop and Tom suggests Sam take back the franchise.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Glamorous Grannies
star
8.00
12 votes

#16 - Glamorous Grannies

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/17/1991

Tom has a bet with Diana that she can't be nice to people for a week. Such untypical actions only lead to confusion. Baines wants to organize a glamorous grandmother contest for the old ladies in the home, the prize being a cruise for two. Since Basil wants to marry Betty, Tom approaches his son-in-law Geoffrey, whose firm are sponsoring the contest to let Betty win, but when Betty gets cold feet and refuses to enter, Diana, having made sure a journalist friend is present to expose any 'fixing' the contest; replaces her and wins. She lets Betty and Basil have the prize.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Shelves
star
8.00
11 votes

#17 - Shelves

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/30/1993

Geoffrey is getting on Tom's nerves with his obsession with shelves, which he keeps putting up all over the unit and it's a blessing when he gets a call from Marion, asking him to get back with her. Tom is not the only resident missing Diana as she is seen as a source of advice, but Diana herself, a thoroughly incompetent nanny, is missing Bayview and, after ruining a fashion show goes 'home' to Tom.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Diana's Diet
star
8.00
8 votes

#18 - Diana's Diet

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/29/1994

Diana's foot shows no sign of healing and Tom is anxious for her to see a doctor. For all of her brash facade she is reluctant to seek medical advice in case she is given the worst possible scenario. However, she complies and is told that she has diabetes and must alter her diet. A relieved Tom proposes. Baines also proposes to Jane, in order to get his golf club membership, but she turns him down.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Harvey the Priest
star
8.00
7 votes

#19 - Harvey the Priest

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/13/1994

A combination of genuine feelings for Jane, whom he is used to having around, plus the desire to still join the golf club, causes Baines to become a priest of the Order of the Flaming Sword of Las Vegas - by post. He proposes and Jane accepts this time. Jane thinks Diana should accept Tom, who is now taking driving lessons to impress her. However, he has an accident and Diana has to go and bail him out, causing confusion when she meets arresting officer Sergeant Watt. With Diana still refusing to marry him Tom considers very drastic action.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Christening
star
7.95
21 votes

#20 - The Christening

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/19/1990

Tom is going to the christening of his nephew and wants Diana to accompany him but she is not keen because her arthritis is playing her up. Because she failed to declare it on her application form, Baines tries to get her evicted from the home. Tom doctors a 'naughty' photo of Baines to blackmail him into changing his mind but Diana uses her old press contacts to 'persuade' the committee to let her stay.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Living in Miserable Sin
star
7.91
11 votes

#21 - Living in Miserable Sin

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/23/1993

Living together is not the bed of roses that Tom and Diana were expecting. He criticizes her sloppiness and her funny little ways, such as feeding acorns to squirrels with a sling-shot. She decides to move out and goes to stay with Sarah to be a nanny to baby Diana but this is not her forte. Tom misses her, especially when Geoffrey decides to move in with him again.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Cheering Up Tom
star
7.81
48 votes

#22 - Cheering Up Tom

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/12/1990

Tom really thinks that he won't have to wait for God much longer when he says he is dying and is rushed to hospital. He is discovered to have had a heart attack but he becomes very depressed and talks about suicide,writing 'die on Thursday' in his diary. In order to talk him out of what she believes to be his plan to end it all Diana threatens to join him.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
The Boring Son
star
7.75
8 votes

#23 - The Boring Son

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/7/1991

In addition to her alcoholism, Marion's fling with Bob becomes the last straw for Geoffrey, who finally decides to leave her. But where can he go? Answer, move in with his father at Bayview but Geoffrey is so boring that before long Diana and Tom are planning to get him back with Marion.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Politics
star
7.75
8 votes

#24 - Politics

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/29/1992

Diana decides that she would like to enter politics and stands as an independent candidate for the Residents' Party. Baines has been asked to stand for the Tories so Tom decides he will have some fun and join in the race too. Diana is forced to stand down when Baines threatens to sack care worker Jenny but Diana makes sure that this is used against him too and his political career is a non-starter.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Two Nasty Children
star
7.75
12 votes

#25 - Two Nasty Children

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/17/1992

Blaming Tom for introducing Marion to Dennis Sparrow, Geoffrey asks him to baby-sit his two children Skye and Tarquin, but they are little monsters who run rings round them. Fortunately, Diana is on hand to put them in their place. Baines decides to try computer dating to find his wife but Jane decides to put her oar in.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon