Top-rated
Tue, Oct 6, 1998
Miss Fozzard, a spinster in late middle age who works in a department store, is slightly ridiculous, but aware that she is. Her emotionally-impoverished life takes a definite turn for the worse when she's forced to take in her disabled older brother, to whom she's never been close and who, since his brain injury, openly mocks his sister. Then some slight foot trouble brings her to the attention--and brings her the attentions--of a podiatrist. In a way that's not what she dreamed of or would have imagined, Miss Fozzard is about to get a taste of life.
Top-rated
Tue, Oct 13, 1998
Celia is a covetous antiques dealer who brazenly aids elderly neighbours for the sole purpose of being in a good position to buy their treasures on the cheap when they die. She's particularly put out when one elderly woman whom she's visited, living in a house chock full of antiques, dies and leaves everything to a distant Canadian relative. Celia is somewhat soothed when the Canadian gives her a small box of the woman's things, which includes a curious drawing of a finger. Celia is particularly pleased that she makes a hundred pounds selling the frame around the picture, but then later learns to her horror that the drawing is a lost Michelangelo masterpiece worth millions, which the buyer says on national television he bought in a "junk shop." The figure is a study of the central image of the hand of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Top-rated
Tue, Oct 20, 1998
Wilfred is, we discover over time, a reformed paedophile living under a false identity and working as a much-praised maintenance man in a public park. However, as a superior begins to pressure him for bureaucratic historical information to include in his personnel file, the pressure causes Wilfred to resume his old ways with horrifying results. Incarcerated, he contemplates his condition, remarking 'It's the one part of my life that feels right - and that's the bit that's wrong.'
Top-rated
Tue, Oct 27, 1998
Clean freak Marjory gradually comes to realise that her husband, Stuart, who works in a slaughterhouse, is using his employment to cover the fact that he's a particularly dangerous criminal. He regularly goes out with his Alsatian, Tina, (whom Marjory has barred from entering the house), and returns late at night. This usually culminates in brutal sexual advances which Marjory finds distasteful but feels powerless to reject. She is so alienated from the outside world that she subsumes all emotion in her domestic routine - her control of which becomes gradually more threatened as her husband becomes the subject of both police and media attention. When he is arrested and tried for a series of murders, Marjory struggles to maintain a low profile, and to continue with her routine as normal, but in the process discovers a damning piece of evidence which links her husband to the killings. However, she receives a telephone call announcing that he has been acquitted (due to lack of evidence) before she is able to decide upon a course of action. When he returns home, Marjory now has to deal with the horrific realisation that she'll be sharing her home with a serial murderer. As an ultimate sign of her lapsed control, Tina finally gains entry into the house. Marjory contemplates making the evidence known.
Top-rated
Tue, Nov 3, 1998
Rosemary Horrocks is a lonely woman whose husband is intent on moving them both to Marbella. Unknown to him, Rosemary does not wish to go. She takes it upon herself to tend to a female neighbour's garden after the latter is arrested for murdering her abusive husband. The two women become close friends in a tender relationship which has the potential to bring both of them real happiness. As the case of her newfound friend is investigated, a darker and more perverted side of Rosemary's own husband is revealed. Sadly, Rosemary's neighbour dies of cancer before the potential of their friendship can be fully realised and Rosemary must passively continue with the non-marriage she has with her highly repressed, golf-playing husband.
Top-rated
Wed, Nov 11, 1998
Violet is a confused, elderly woman in a nursing home who has been told by the excited staff she will soon be receiving a congratulatory telegram from the Queen in honour of her one hundredth birthday. This, however, perplexes Violet as she wanders far back in her memory to an age where telegrams brought news of death on a battlefield. Violet ruminates about a long-lost love to her only real friend, a gay male nurse at the home named Francis, who ultimately dies of AIDS.