BBC One-offs

 The Good Housekeeping Guide

Starring: Alan Davies, Michele Gomez, Doon Mackichan
Written by: Tony Basgallop

Things are going badly for Raymond Fox. His high-powered wife, Jenny, has left him for a younger man, and looking after his teenage kids and his gorgeous suburban family home is his only consolation.

But now Jenny has found happiness with Joe she’s keen for the kids to live with her and plans to buy their home and put Raymond out on the street.

Returning home unexpectedly early from a holiday, Raymond is shocked to find that his cheery neighbour Lydia hasn’t just been watering his plants. She’s also been working as a prostitute to supplement her and her daughter’s lifestyle and has been using his house to do it.

Raymond is desperate to raise enough money to put a stop to Jenny’s plans, but there aren’t many opportunities for failed mechanics turned house-husband. So while he’s initially shocked at Lydia’s activities, he soon realises that his housekeeping skills are surprisingly transferable.

“The litmus test for me with any script is whether I can finish it in one sitting,” says Alan Davies (Raymond). “If I get 30 pages in and drift off, it’s obviously not working. But when, for instance, Russell T. Davies’ scripts for Bob and Rose arrived, I read all three episodes in one go. I was up till three in the morning, absolutely glued to them. Suffice it to say, I read The Good Housekeeping Guide in one sitting, too! It’s so nice to get such a great script _ there aren’t that many of them around, I can tell you.

“When Raymond finds out that his neighbour is working as a prostitute, he realises that there are large sums of cash to be made by opening his house as a brothel,” continues Alan. “He suddenly sees a way of holding onto the house.

“It’s very much a comedy,” he observes. “All the same, it’s important that it has credibility in the way it portrays working girls. Doon [Mackichan, who plays Lydia] was very keen to make sure we understand why someone might find herself in Lydia’s position. In many ways, Lydia is very similar to Raymond - her partner has walked out, too.”

Angel Cake

Starring: Sarah Lancashire, Vicky Hall, Rita Tushingham
Written by: Keith Temple
Produced by: Celador Productions

Elaine Wilson is a put-upon housewife, and gifted cake-maker, living on a grimy estate. One day, a batch of buns emerge from Elaine’s oven bearing a remarkable resemblance to the image of the Virgin Mary, and all around her miraculous things start to happen.

“It is a well-written, sweet piece with an original ear to it,” says Sarah Lancashire (Elaine). “And it is the sort of piece that works on a number of levels, which appeals to me.

“There’s the very funny strand going through it with the cake and Elaine’s mum, Millie, and all the little miracles that seem to be happening, but then at the same time, you’ve got this rather serious storyline going on between Elaine and Ed, and what’s happening in their marriage. So it works on a number of levels.”

Keith Temple, who wrote the drama, says: “The idea for Angel Cake wasn’t some great revelation but instead the result of a fascination with stories which kept appearing in the news about weeping statues and strangely shaped buns. Each time such a story turned up I found myself both amused and intrigued; why were they always religious images - Jesus or Mary usually - why not Homer Simpson or Margaret Thatcher?

“I wanted to explore the phenomenon, particularly the miracle aspect. In this modern, cynical age, how would people in a small community react if something like this were to happen?”

Magnolia

Starring: Ralph Ineson, Chris Bisson, Dawn Steele, Mark Benton
Written by: Dave Spikey (Phoenix Nights)
Produced by: Red Production Company

Ex-con Paul is desperately trying to keep his business, A to Z Decorators, afloat. His workmates are fellow ex-prisoners - the volatile Terry and bookish ex-drug addict Dino - and their clients aren’t exactly big time.

As the cheques start bouncing and the debts pile up, two potential contracts stand between them and oblivion. But one depends on Paul winning over Gregg, the obnoxious, racist site manager of the dodgy Hag Moor Estate; and the other, a potentially lucrative maintenance contract at the luxury private Willows estate, seems to have been sewn up already by the King brothers.

According to Ralph Ineson, who plays Paul, the character is “very much about looking after his mates. Prison is hanging over him. He shouldn’t have been inside and while he was there he was looked after by Terry and Dino. He feels he wouldn’t have survived it without them so he feels a debt of gratitude.

“He’s a painter and decorator by trade so when he gets out he sets up this firm and employs Dino and Terry, with varying degrees of success. But however bad it’s got, however frustrated he is with them, there’s just this core thing that he’s got to make amends for what he’s done and for the way they helped him get through it.”

Berry’s Way

Starring: Lenny Henry, Ron Cook Written by: Kim Fuller, with Lenny Henry

The BBC Press Office have been less forthcoming with this, the final in the run of one-off plays. What we know so far is this: Berry Cottrell (Lenny Henry), in his forties and recently divorced, has his hands full with a tearaway son and the family’s ailing dry-cleaning business. Frustrated, Berry embarks upon an Open University course in English Literature to prove to everyone, including himself, that he still has a brain.