Set in 1930 during the Depression hit Britain, this period drama starts with Irish maid servant Anna Fitzgerald (Prunella Gee) walking down a country road, followed by her lover (played by a young Nigel Havers), having decided to abandon both him and her job for a new start in life. Along the way she comes across a surly stranger (John Nolan) camping in a field, trying to cook a sausage and despite efforts by him to put her off the chatty Anna ends up stopping the night with him (on a platonic basis, I hasten to add). He lets her know his name, Nick Faunt, and she learns he is an aspiring artist, and the next morning, despite his initial reluctance, he allows her to accompany him up north to Manchester. What she doesn't know yet is that he is the son of a millionaire, Sir George Faunt, who has rejected his wealth in order to be free to try and make it as an artist. However, that only skims the surface of why he's left his past behind him, but he is not the only one with secrets. For despite Anna's assertions that she is happy following Nick to wherever he ends up, it turns out she too has a reason to be in Manchester. That's apparent when she meets Nick's artist pal Anton Broune and his girlfriend Rachel Rosing (Sharon Maughan), with both women showing equally cold disdain towards each other. That's because they know each other and also that Rachel's brother Jacob (or Mo, as he is known to his friends) has been looking after Anna's child for the past five years, father and circumstances unknown.
This becomes a period drama where nearly everyone has secrets of one sort or another, either when we meet them or as the drama unfolds. It takes a time to get going from the first two episodes, and at first Nick Faunt is a miserable git compared to the nearly ever cheerful Anna. But he does improve as it contrasts between the artistic glamour (such as it is) of Nick and Anton among the upper classes as they try to make their name in the art world, and the clear poverty that Jacob and Rachel Rosing inhabit as they try to make ends meet as Jacobs looks after Anna's son Brian. But the contrast between the two siblings could not be more different. While Jacob is happy enough in his run down council house, living his life through Brian, his sister Rachel is determined to escape that life and hangs around Anton in the hope of achieving the more glamorous lifestyle to which she aspires.
However, as the drama progresses so does the realisation that aside from a few characters in this, most of them are selfish, inconsiderate people who do not consider how their actions may affect others. One such example is Anna herself, who turns up out of the blue after five years away to inform Jacob that she wants to take her son to live with her. No consideration as to the bond that he has formed with her son, or the hard work or love he has lavished to raise him or that he is settled with Jacob. She just looks upon it that he's been caring for him for a bit until she decides to claim him. The decision devastates Jacob, who in desperation asks her to marry him so that the boy can stay with him. But she refuses him, and unable to cope with this he decides to leave, eventually ending up being taken in by Joe and Olga Kepple, a couple of Communist rabble raisers he sees preaching on the street. Jacob is one of the few characters who you constantly feel for and Howard Southern does a beautiful job at making his total decency as compelling as he is heart breaking. And even though Joe Kepple is a Communist agitator, played by Ray Mort he makes him most engaging and human as he rallies against the mass unemployment that is affecting the area, with the irony of the strikes he is organizing only leading to more workers unable to work due to the factories shut being lost on him. In contrast to them, the lead characters are a somewhat more conceited bunch and considerably less likable.
What is remarkable in this drama is how every character in some way has a connection to another in the surprisingly intricate plotlines. Even the arrival of the Kepple's daughter Jenny midway through the series proves vital to the story, as secrets are gradually brought to light and the plot twists one way, then another in devastating fashion. One dominant factor in the series is Nick and Rachel's animosity towards each other. Neither like each other much (probably because they are similar in personality), but it soon develops into a love-hate affair that only adds to complicate matters in the grand scheme of things, not least with Anna, who grows to love Nick but cannot understand why he refuses to sleep with her. The reason for that is that she reminds him of his past, but to say more would only spoil things. Rachel is hard to like, a cold and seemingly calculated woman who is determined to get what she wants - or thinks she wants. Even when things get hard for her, it's hard to really feel for her. But worst of all is Nick himself. Thinking of himself as an artist who must be free of restraints in life to do his work, it becomes apparent when the full secret of his estrangement between him and his father comes to light that he is just a selfish man who wants to renege his responsibilities to live a Bohemian life and to hell with everybody else whose lives he has messed up.
The way the plot twists in the latter episodes make this a compelling watch as secrets are revealed and people do seemingly innocuous things that only trigger greater revelations or tragedies. But ironically, despite the self absorbed lifestyles of the main characters, it is the human drama of it's lesser characters and the general poverty of Manchester that you empathise with most of all and stays longest in the memory. Despite her character's inconsiderate nature, Prunella Gee still makes Anna a most engaging figure, full of fun. I quite enjoyed her meetings with the old gentleman (Patrick Holt), oblivious at first that he is actually Nick's father Sir George Faunt. Holt adds a lot of old fashioned charm to Sir George, who complicates matters further by falling for Rachel Rosing, but even he reveals himself to be a self centred character in the end. Despite all this I enjoyed this series, though a ignored newspaper article at the end of the last episode summed up the characters perfectly in this. It may have a slow start, but despite it's rather selfish main protagonists it also has a great theme tune and a heart for it's neglected and downtrodden characters. John Nolan makes a suitably glowering lead in Nick Faunt, but for me Prunella Gee is much better as Anna. But best of all is Howard Southern as the truly decent Jacob "Mo" Rosing. He gives this drama it's heart and soul, and one that will haunt you long after this series is finished.
