Fiona Gillies
Amanda is a corporate highflier who needs a slacker so she can have a baby and keep her career.
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. The series was axed on 30 January 2002 and ended on a literal cliffhanger when two of the series' main characters plunged off a cliff. Viewers wrote to ITV in their thousands and a petition for one last episode was set up by website Peak Practice Online. However, all pleas were unsuccessful and ITV said they would not make any more episodes. Cardale was based on the Staffordshire village of Longnor for the final series, but was previously based in the Derbyshire village of Crich, although certain scenes were filmed at other nearby Derbyshire towns and villages, most notably Matlock, Belper and Ashover.
Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky, who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced. The twelve episodes, broadcast between 1993 and 1995, were directed by Bob Spiers and produced by Andre Ptaszynski for independent production company Pola Jones. The show is semi-autobiographical; it was inspired by the then-recent separation of Moffat and his first wife. Some of the episodes in the first series followed a non-linear parallel structure, contrasting the rise of the relationship with the fall. Other episodes were ensemble farces, predominantly including the couple's friends Robert and Tracy. Paul-Mark Elliott also appeared as Trevor, Becky's lover. Scheduling problems meant that the show attracted low viewing figures. However, it scored highly on the Appreciation Index and accrued a loyal fanbase. One fan acquired the home video rights from the BBC and released both series on his own DVD label.
In the early 19th century, Dr. Frankenstein (Patrick Bergin, Sleeping with the Enemy) discovers the secret of life – how to create a perfect man – powerful, intelligent and immune to disease. But something goes wrong in the laboratory and the doctor’s hideous creation (Randy Quaid, National Lampoon’s Vacation) disappears into the night. At first, Frankenstein hoped that the horrible monster would perish in the wilderness, but now he senses that it’s alive and sets out for him. Dr. Frankenstein tracks the creature to the Arctic, where the two must battle to decide who will become the master of the other’s life…or death. “Nobody’s ever done a Frankenstein like this one and nobody’s ever done a better one” (Houston Chronicle).
Starring Nigel Havers as a recovering WWII pilot trying to adapt to life after being shot down. After suffering horrific facial burns when the bomber he is piloting is shot down, Hugh Fleming (Havers)'s once promising future lies in ruins. Abandoned by his girlfriend, and forced to sit out the war while his former colleagues fight on, Fleming's only hope lies with an offer of help from renowned plastic surgeon Angus Meikle (James Fox).
Mother Love is a British television drama that first aired in 1989. It was adapted by Andrew Davies from Domini Taylor's novel concerning a mother's obsessive love for her son, vengeful hatred of his father, her ex-husband, and the effect on her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It starred Diana Rigg, David McCallum, James Wilby, and Fiona Gillies, and was directed by Simon Langton. Christopher "Kit" Vesey and Angela Vesey, a British yuppie couple, enjoy a seemingly idyllic life. Yet there is one troubling factor in their lives - Kit's mother Helena, an eccentric and often difficult woman consumed by anger with Kit's father, a famed concert musician with whom she believes Kit has no contact. Her oddness is confirmed in a series of incidents involving her ex-husband and his second wife, Ruth, an artist. Flashbacks throughout the series reveal bits of Helena's troubled past. Little by little, the young couple's life begins to fall apart as Helena begins to act out her feelings of intense jealousy and desire for revenge, implicating a dear old friend and leading to murder.
