Each 8-episode series of The Two Ronnies features a serialised story line that develops from episode to episode. The serial for this series (No.8) is "The Worm that Turned", a look into the future of "the year 2012", in which women - with their own leather-outfitted, Gestapo-like army - are in charge of society, and the roles (including clothing styles) are completely gender-reversed. The males sit at home, dressed in frocks, sipping tea, while the females go to work to earn the family's living. Even the names are gender-reversed. The story focuses on characters played by Corbett and Barker, whose names are Janet and Betty, respectively. Big Ben was renamed Big Brenda, and the Tower of London was now being called Barbara Castle. The choice of this topic for the serial clearly was influenced by the election of Britain's first female Prime Minister in 1979 (the year before this series appeared). In the first episode exposition of the premise, her picture is shown, and the narrator (Barker) tells us, "It all started with Margaret Thatcher."