Surendra Kochar

As a young couple discuss the idea of giving up smoking, the sounds of a neighboring argument spill into their flat. The argument makes them question their own marriage, while doing nothing about the neighboring situation. Meanwhile, a young teenager argues with his mother as he tries to sneak out to a party with friends. His mother blackmails him into staying home, using his guilt against him.

As they finish yet another long shift in the kitchen, six workers discuss their aspirations and failed dreams, while the boss upstairs counts his takings.

Naveen Andrews plays the charismatic Karim, a half-Asian, half-English, wholly hedonistic chancer who is mortified when his civil servant father (Roshan Seth) plunges into an affair with the exotic Eva and begins passing himself off as a spiritual guru. This brings Karim into contact with Eva's wayward son, Charlie, and ostensibly offers an escape from suburbia. The story follows his break-out, from London to New York, constantly snagging himself on cultural barbwire and falling into situations a raconteur would die for.

Farah is an independent young British woman who manages to reconcile her modern lifestyle with her Pakistani heritage. As a Muslim in love with a married man, she can become his second wife - especially as his first marriage to Maryam seems to exist in name only. But with all three under one roof, Farah becomes increasingly insecure.