Dinner party (episode 1)

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It's actually a breakfast party and it's based on an episode in the book which goes by just as fast and is just as confusing, though there are some basic situations laid down that become important later. You are hit by a ridiculous new surprise every moment and it gets pretty funny.
This might help:
1. The Reverend Duchemin was an acquaintance of the great artists and writers of the previous generation (Pre-Raphaelites, including the poet-painter D. G. Rosetti). He used to live at Cambridge University, where he was known for very generous, good breakfasts to which it was nice for students to be invited ("Breakfast Duchemin"). He is now, as you say, bonkers, and has a keeper, a boxing champion.
2. Edith Duchemin tries to live an artistic and refined life, appropriate to her formerly wonderful husband, but it's not easy.
3. McMaster wants to visit the Rev. D. because he has just published a book on Rosetti and he wants the Rev. to say how good it is. In a sense, he is the reason for the party--he really wanted to meet the Rev. in person.
4. Chris tags along; because he is a gentleman born and McMaster is not, his presence makes McMaster shine a bit more in any situation. Both Chris and McMaster are former Cambridge students, so Chris has heard of "Breakfast Duchemin," but neither young man knows he is bonkers. Chris and McMaster recognize the boxing champion, because he taught Chris to box in college.
5. Valentine Wannop, the suffragette, lives with her mother in the neighborhood and is a friend of Edith. She knows all about the Rev. D. and is there to support Edith if he acts up. Also, her father was a professor of Latin and Greek, so she is highly educated and understands the naughty things that the Rev. says in Latin.
(6. Gertie, the other suffragette, was invited to the breakfast but is injured and also lying low because she is wanted by the London police. She is at the Wannop's house, where Valentine's mother is supposed to be taking care of her.)
7. Mrs. Wannop, Valentine's mother, is a novelist, the poor widow of the professor. Christopher's father was a good friend of the professor's and has provided some money to educate Valentine's brother and also gets Mrs. W. some jobs writing for magazines (Christopher doesn't know about that but knows who the Wannops are). Mrs. W. was not invited to the breakfast for some reason, but leaves Gertie and comes anyway, wanting to meet McMaster, whom she believes to be a literary critic who can promote her latest novel.
8-9 The silly curate and the deaf female relative round out the party.

I wish I could help but I have no idea what was going on through out all five episodes. I must be too stupid for this show because I just didn't get it at all.