Elizabeth Spriggs

Ken Stott plays Eddie McKenna, a double-glazing salesman who moonlights as a DJ for hospital radio in a Scottish mental asylum - St Judes. He nurtures close friendships with the patients there including Francine, a self-harmer and Campbell, a manic depressive, with whom he shares a dream to make it onto the commercial radio scene. Campbell's inspired antics promise to bring the pair closer to their aim, but the pressures of life outside of the hospital begin to tell on Eddie. A vindictive colleague leads his small-minded boss to ban his activities at 'the looney-bin' and his eccentric grandmother returns suddenly to Lithuania leaving him peniless and alone. Eddie finds himself drawn to the troubled Francine, but when the radio is threatened with closure it is to another 'wee friend' he turns for comfort as slowly we watch the roles reverse.

Fox is writer Trevor Preston's magnum opus about a South London family who have lived in the Clapham area for generations. A microcosm of London and the way it has changed, the series follows the ups and downs and conflicts within the family. The patriach who rules his family with a mixture of benevolence and depotism, "King" Billy is a retired Covent Garden porter and his family consists of his second wife, Connie and five sons: Vin, Ray, Joey, Kenny and Phil.Written and directed on a scale which is seldom attempted on television nowadays, each of the thirteen episodes brings a depth and richness to both the characters and situation - from Billy's 70th birthday to Kenny's horror at accidentally killing his boxing opponent, from Vin trying to cope with a deaf son to Ray's brushes with the law. The script, direction and acting are pitch-perfect and this is arguably the best, most involving series that Euston Films produced throughout its twenty years.