The WORST episodes of Waiting for God

Every episode of Waiting for God ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst 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: 9/13/2024Network: BBC OneStatus: Ended
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Daisy Takes Charge
star
6.52
42 votes

#1 - Daisy Takes Charge

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/19/1991

Baines threatens Diana with expulsion unless she removes the partition but they both have more pressing matters to consider as Daisy becomes completely domineering, taking over the home with her ideas and threatening to get current staff sacked. Finally, Tom organizes a revolt against her, causing her to leave . . . and Diana to remove the partition.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Welcome to Bayview
star
6.83
59 votes

#2 - Welcome to Bayview

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 6/28/1990

Tom Ballard is put in Bayview retirement home by drunken daughter Marion and her weak husband Geoffrey. Many of the residents are very passive but not retired journalist Diana Trent, whose mission in life is to annoy 'the idiot Baines' - Harvey Baines, the home's manager. Initially she thinks Tom is rather dotty but when he tries to organize the residents into action against the home's poor food she knows she has found an ally.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Young People
star
7.25
12 votes

#3 - Young People

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/31/1991

A group of students comes to Bayview and Baines bribes Bob, one of them, into being seen in a compromising situation with Diana. This will enable him, under an old church covenant from the 1600's which was bestowed upon the home, to have her thrown out for immoral actions. As it happens Bob much prefers Marion and goes off with her instead.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Seance
star
7.33
12 votes

#4 - The Seance

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/7/1993

Whilst Mr. Kwok demonstrates karate to the Bayview males, who vie with each other to impress Jane, Tom is introduced to Jane's psychic, Marjorie Evans, and asks to be put in touch with his dead wife. A seance is duly organized, but Marion has bribed the medium to give a fake message, saying that Tom's wife disapproves of his relationship with Diana. Diana,however, exposes the plot.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Counselling for the Dying
star
7.36
14 votes

#5 - Counselling for the Dying

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/5/1991

Following the death,alone, of a resident, Tom puts himself forward as a counsellor to aid and comfort the terminally ill. A new female resident arrives and has afternoon delight with old Basil. Some time later Basil seems to be dying and Tom rushers to counsel him but he is merely suffering from exertion after sex with the lady. However, the lady dies and Tom organizes a splendid send-off for her.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Harvey's Fiancee
star
7.42
12 votes

#6 - Harvey's Fiancee

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/1/1992

Baines meets a girl-friend, Lucy Maitland, at the hunt ball. His mother is coming to visit before going to stay with his sister so Jane poses as Lucy Maitland to put Mother off Harvey's new fiancee whilst Tom and Diana ham it up mercilessly pretending to be Baines' parents talking to Lucy. The result is that Lucy does not stay around and Jane has got her Baines back all to herself.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
A Double Wedding?
star
7.43
7 votes

#7 - A Double Wedding?

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/27/1994

After confiding her doubts about marriage to Sarah, Diana has a raucous hen night with male strippers whilst Tom's stag night is a very staid affair. The befuddled Dennis Sparrow is to conduct the two wedding ceremonies separately but due to a double booking involving a funeral, a double wedding is on the cards after all - despite Marion's efforts to sabotage Tom's marrying Diana. She need not have worried because, whilst Jane becomes Mrs. Harvey Baines, Tom and Diana happily agree not to marry after all but to live in sin.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
A Royal Visit
star
7.43
7 votes

#8 - A Royal Visit

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/22/1994

A letter from the mayor's office suggests that a royal personage will be gracing Bayview with a visit. Diana, already even more crotchety than ever, due to a painfully swollen foot, does not share Tom's monarchist views and holds forth on the pointlessness of the royals. Just as predictably the royal visit turns out to be very much less 'royal' than expected.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Trouble with Men
star
7.50
8 votes

#9 - Trouble with Men

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

Diana and Jane are both taken aback by the bizarre ways of men, following their respective marriage proposals. Tom's proposal to Diana has brought on a shock and she collapses and is taken to hospital. Jane's decision that she will become a nun after all has tempted Harvey to consider joining the priesthood.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Psychiatrist
star
7.53
15 votes

#10 - The Psychiatrist

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/2/1990

Baines decides that if Diana and Tom are seen to be mentally incompetent it will give him power of attorney over them and end all his troubles, particularly as the home is in financial difficulties. So he refers them to psychiatrist Dr.Darrow, for whom they act out a well-rehearsed pantomine of odd behaviour, leading the doctor to conclude that they are not mad, just a touch eccentric, with unexpected help coming from Sarah.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Estate Agent
star
7.57
14 votes

#11 - The Estate Agent

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/1992

After she has been accused of selfishness, Diana goes to work as a volunteer at a charity for elderly people and takes up the cause of an old lady about to be evicted by unscrupulous estate agent Janet Follett. Diana learns that Ms. Follett is Baines' new girl-friend and she has plans for Bayview which will not go down well with the residents. With a little help from Tom and her media background Diana sets out to expose Ms. Follett.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Foreign Workers
star
7.57
14 votes

#12 - Foreign Workers

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/24/1991

In order to cut costs Baines decides to employ illegal immigrant workers at Bayview. To Diana one incompetent foreigner, the gardener, is enough and, after the residents have staged a protest, order is restored. Tom has been overdoing physical exercise in his efforts to get as fit as Linford Christie and his collapse leads Diana to persuade him to slow down.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Thief
star
7.58
12 votes

#13 - The Thief

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/26/1991

Resident Betty claims that her sewing basket has gone missing and Tom and Diana decide to investigate. Not fully believing Betty's story they follow her and Tom intervenes when they see her apparently shop-lifting. Tom is arrested and conducts his own court case, being found not guilty of theft, but guilty of contempt of court. Later, Diana recalls that she had the sewing basket all along, having borrowed it from Betty and forgetting she still had it.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Partition
star
7.58
12 votes

#14 - The Partition

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/12/1991

Tom is depressed because he is missing his late wife but Marion and Geoffrey are not keen to have him home on respite. He turns his attentions to Diana and suggests that they shack up together, a proposition that offends her so much that she has a partition built between their two rooms. Her mood is not helped by the arrival of new resident Daisy, who has a strong personality like herself and with whom she soon clashes, though Tom gets on well with her.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Looking for Work
star
7.60
10 votes

#15 - Looking for Work

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/1992

It's April and yet it's still very cold so the residents do not appreciate it when Baines turns off the central heating and suggest the residents go jogging to keep warm. Tom and Diana decide to get jobs to get out of the icy-cold home. Tom gets a job working with Geoffrey, but he is such a pain that ,in order to get rid of him, Geoffrey pays Baines to put the heating back on.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
Fraulein Mueller
star
7.60
15 votes

#16 - Fraulein Mueller

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/26/1990

Jane wants to become a nun so Baines sacks her and brings in stern German matron Greta Mueller, who is a tyrant and tells Sarah where Diana hid the Porsche. Tom cons Baines into making him the head of the Residents' Association and gets up a petition, which Baines thinks is to get rid of Diana, so he signs it. Actually it's to get rid of Greta, so he is forced to fire her and reinstate Jane.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Funeral
star
7.62
13 votes

#17 - The Funeral

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/10/1992

Depressed vicar Dennis Sparrow is conducting the funeral of ex-Bayview resident Jimmy, but is making heavy weather of the eulogy and later he tells Tom and Diana that he is losing his faith. Geoffrey is back with Marion but their life is far from being a bed of roses and it's suggested Dennis tries to help them sort out their marriage. Not long afterwards Geoffrey announces that Marion and the vicar are now living together in Wales. Baines, meanwhile, is looking for a wife - a plan which involves Jane, though, sadly for her, not as a possible candidate, but as a helper.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
The Boring Son
star
7.67
9 votes

#18 - 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
The Helicopter
star
7.67
15 votes

#19 - The Helicopter

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/9/1990

With upcoming by-elections Councillor Ferguson is courting the grey vote and comes to the home. At the same time Diana, once a photo-journalist, takes Tom up in a helicopter to take aerial shots of local houses to sell to their owners. Among her shots is one of Ferguson and the Swedish nanny being very naughty on the lawn. This comes in very handy at scuppering Ferguson's plan to support a Japanese spare parts factory being built next to Bayview.

Directors: Gareth Gwenlan
Watch Now:Amazon
A Trip to Brighton
star
7.67
21 votes

#20 - A Trip to Brighton

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/5/1990

Diana rows with chief carer Jane for calling her a senior citizen and Tom does his best to ignore Marion and Geoffrey. Diana's niece Sarah has left her Porsche at the home so Diana drives Tom to Brighton in it. Harvey Baines reports it missing and the couple are stopped by the police but explain that Diana has her niece's permission to use it and Harvey is threatened with arrest for wasting police time.

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

#21 - 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
The Promotional Video
star
7.75
12 votes

#22 - The Promotional Video

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/14/1993

A promotional video is being made to extol the virtues of Bayview and several residents are to have speaking parts, including Basil, who sees himself as the new James Bond, Tom and Jenny. The excitement is such that few will heed Diana's view that it is just another money-making scam by the idiot Baines - except Tom, who joins her in sabotaging the project by substituting footage of Marion and Geoffrey giving a rather more realistic look at life.

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

#23 - 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
Cheering Up Tom
star
7.80
50 votes

#24 - 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
Watch Now:Amazon
Living in Miserable Sin
star
7.91
11 votes

#25 - 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