Elaine Collins
In Glasgow, Toni Cocozza, age 28, aspires to be a lounge singer; his repertoire is strictly Sinatra, backed by Bill, an aging piano player and his only friend. Toni dreams big and enters a local television talent show. About that time, a local Mob boss decides Toni is great entertainment and invites him to be his guest at a casino. Toni chats up Irene, a cigarette girl, he gets an odd job or two from Chisolm, the mobster's number two, the audition goes bust, and Toni's future is uncertain. One thing leads to another with the Mob. Is Toni at a crossroads, or is there in reality no turning or going back?
Gentle Scottish Road Movie . Eight years ago, Gavin artistic son of an Scots/Italian ice-cream dynasty, turned his back on Glasgow and moved south to London to make his name illustrating children's books. Now, frustrated and broke, his Uncle Sal appears with an offer. Gavin's father has sold the family business. To get his share of the proceeds,Gavin must return home for his father's birthday party. Swayed by the money, he sets off north and picks up a hitchicker with a secret. Their journey is difficult but ultimately rewarding.
Franz Kafka has been stricken with a serious case of writer's block on Christmas Eve. He's trying to get started on his latest short story, "The Metamorphosis", but he isn't sure what his protagonist Gregor Samsa should become. As Kafka struggles with indecision, he has to contend with a loud holiday party downstairs, several unexpected guests, and a sinister knife salesman who has a bone to pick with him.
In 1981, Gerd Heidemann (Jonathan Pryce), a war correspondent and reporter with the German magazine Stern, makes what he believes is the literary and historical scoop of the century: the personal diaries of Adolf Hitler. Over the next two years, Heidemann and the senior management figures at Stern secretly pay 10 million German marks to a mysterious 'Dr Fischer' (Alexei Sayle) for the sixty volumes of 'Hitler's diaries'. However, to the dismay of all, it is discovered after the publication of first extract that the diaries are crude forgeries, faked by Stuttgart criminal Konrad Kujau.
Hapless bank clerk Willie Melvin dreams of being a successful writer but is held back by his own incompetence, the dodgy dealings of his best friend Chancer, and lack of support from his mother, the bank's manager Adam McLelland and his obsequious fellow teller, Brian.
Four students working in a factory cause emotional, as well as industrial catastrophe, for when theory and reality meet it is the 'Silly Season'.
Jake lives in the shadow of his dying grandfather, who was once the town's toughest hard man. Despite their hatred of each other, Jake's sole aim is to be as tough as the old man was. One day in Jake's life, as he drifts, drinks and fights, leads to a bleak realisation.
An anonymous phone call draws two brilliant detectives into a confrontation over an old murder case, one a young woman in the early stages of her career; the other a well-connected man determined to protect his legacy. The series touches on issues of race, institutional failure, and the quest to find common ground in a polarized Britain.
