Set at the fictional Bayview Retirement Home near Bournemouth, the show was based on Diana Trent and her relationship with Tom Ballard, a former accountant with semi-feigned dementia.

Her frustration at the prospect of years of being alternately patronised and ignored at Bayview is soon channelled into attempts to subvert the régime of the retirement home and taunting the staff regarding their flaws and corrupt nature.

A widower for at least a decade, his increasingly eccentric behaviour leads his alcoholic and adulterous daughter-in-law Marion and henpecked son Geoffrey to move him into Bayview where he finds himself living next door to Diana.

The two form an unlikely partnership and discover that they are able to wreak havoc amongst the younger staff and management in the home in order to create a more tolerable living environment for themselves and their fellow residents.

Tom's optimistic, cheery demeanour and unencumbered Anglican Christianity contrast Diana's dark cynicism and avowed atheism, as both attempt to influence the other's world view.

Bains is a penny-pinching weasel whose management style involves trying to run the retirement home profitably while keeping the residents (whom he variously dubs "oldies", "inmates", "units", "wrinklies', or "droolers") passive in order to make himself look good before the eyes of the board of directors.

One character, Basil Makepeace, is forever propositioning the female residents of the home, bragging about his innumerable conquests (on one occasion he muses about the indignities of growing old, commenting that now "three or four times...a night is all I can manage").

The other source of humour comes from the lengths that Harvey Bains will go to in his quest for success and how he and Marion scheme to separate Tom and Diana, the two blights on their mutual existences.

A constant thorn in Bayview manager Harvey's side, Diana often irritates those around her with her bleak outlook, and admits it is the only thing that keeps her going; however, it is borne out of a genuine sense of right and wrong, and she can be ferocious when protecting those she cares about (particularly Tom and her niece Sarah).

Tom affects a mild dementia and frequently takes imaginary trips to other places (mentally checking out of the retirement home), telling tall tales of his exploits, often involving celebrities.

Jane Edwards (Janine Duvitski) – Harvey's prudish, homely and devout Catholic assistant who always looks on the bright side of life, despite Diana's constant attempts to bring her down to earth.

She often thinks up new ideas for the home, often backed up by Tom, and whilst Diana is irritated by Jane much of the time, she recognises the good in her and more than once protects her from Harvey's attempts to get rid of her.

Geoffrey Ballard (Andrew Tourell) – Tom's good-hearted but incredibly dull son, whose chief interests in life are DIY and real ale.

Geoffrey and Marion have two children, Tarquin and Sky, who appear in one episode of Series 3, in which they are very rude and obnoxious towards Tom, but are soon firmly put in their place by Diana.

Marion Ballard (Sandra Payne) – Geoffrey's pill-popping, gin-swilling wife; a generally unpleasant woman who sees Tom purely as a financial burden.

Jenny (Dawn Hope) – A care worker at the home who, unlike Jane, sees through Harvey's dodgy ways, and often agrees with Diana's protests against the Bayview regime.

The Reverend Dennis Sparrow (Tim Preece) – The world-weary and inept local vicar, who becomes a semi-regular character from Series 3 onwards, and can generally be relied on to make a hopeless mess of any church service that he attempts to conduct.

It was announced in 2013 that series creator Michael Aitkens would be staging a play, Heaven Forbid!, based on Waiting for God, at The Hawaii Theatre, starring Patty Duke and actor and TV newscaster Joe Moore.

[4][5] In April 2017 a theatre version, also called Waiting For God, written by series creator Michael Aitkens, premiered at the Broadway Cinema, in Letchworth Garden City.

The play was directed by David Grindley and starred Jeffrey Holland as Tom and Nichola McAuliffe as Diana, featured Joanna Bending as Sarah Chase, David Benson as Geoffrey Ballard, Peter Cadden as Dennis Sparrow, Samuel Collings as Harvey Baines and Emily Pithon as Jane Edwards, as well as Corinna Marlowe and Anna Westlake.