Budgie was the eternal failure, with every scam, and every attempt to make his fortune landing him further and further into trouble, either with the police, or with his untrustworthy sometime boss, the cynical Charlie Endell, a respectable club owner on the surface, and underworld villain. All attempts to put Budgie on the 'straight and narrow' his girlfriend and awful ex-wife were in vain, and he bounced in and out of prison on a regular basis as the series progressed.