John Norton

It is the mid-1980s. The economy has not improved. For 17 years Professor Frank Merrick has been ensconced in a research lab of a provincial university working on a cure for the common cold. He is very near success. Can he avoid becoming yet another victim of the eternal cutbacks?

Simon Simpson runs an entertainment agency in Liverpool. At one of his regular auditions in The Bootle Railway Club he sees an aggressive young man fresh from the dole queue who dreams of becoming a professional comedian. Simpson believes the boy has talent and starts to groom him for 'stardom'.

"The British Brothers leave Hackney at 4.30 today and will march with bands and banners through the Jewish quarters of White-chapel and Bethnal Green." The story of Jewish immigrants in London's East End in the early 20th century.

In 1960, at the age of 56, Dr. Barbara Moore became a national hero by walking from John O'Groats to Land's End. One of the last great English eccentrics, even though she was Russian.

Katie, the 14-year-old daughter of a travelling family, is left in charge of an ailing mother and her nine brothers and sisters in Dublin whilst her father is in England seeking his fortune.