Nick Simon (John Hannah) is going through a rough patch.  He's a widower with a 10-year old daughter, no romantic prospects, and his job as a reporter for a British tabloid is in danger.  When he gets set up on a blind date with Polly Moreton (Susannah Harker who also appeared in Ultraviolet) things go well.  They seem to hit it off, and a drunken Polly tells Nick that her father, Peter John Moreton (Michael Gambon) a member of Parliament, has been having an affair with his secretary.  She's hoping that he'll print the story to get back at a father whose caused her and her mother so much pain.

Nick really likes Polly, so he keeps the story, one that could save his career, under his hat.  That is until she stops returning his calls.  She's scared off by the fact that he has a daughter, and isn't sure she wants to get involved with someone with baggage.  When he doesn't print the story about her father though, she realizes that he's a true gentleman, and they start dating.  The only thing is that Nick has given the story to his paper, and now they are stalking Peter trying to catch him in the act.

So begins Nick and Polly's on-again, off-again relationship which is plagued by many twists and turns of fate.  Peter is trying for a prestigious position in the government so he cools off the affair for a while, Nick's boss (played by Connie Booth of Fawlty Towers fame) thinks he made up the story to save his job.  Then there's subplots involving the court case that Peter Moreton is involved with and the battle between Nick and his wife's parents for custody of his daughter, Faith.

This was a serviceable show, but it never really grabbed me.  About half way through I grew weary of all of the amazing coincidences that take place, and the fact that much of the drama would be lost if people were just honest with one another.  Nick lies to Polly (mostly by omission) throughout most of their relationship starting from when they meet and he lies about his job.  She's not much better, rifling through his wallet on their first date while he's not looking to find out what he really does for a living.  There were just too many times that the plot would have fallen apart if people would have been just a little honest that I found it hard to suspend my disbelief.

All of the turns and twists that the plot meanders through made this feel like a soap opera more than anything else.  It didn't seem like a natural story unfolding, like the best mini-series do, but more like an endless string of plot devices aimed at elongating the story for no real purpose. other than to create a really long show.  A lot of these devices didn't seem realistic either.  After one blind date Nick falls for Polly?  I found it a little hard to grasp that he would get terribly upset when she didn't want to see him again.  He's an adult after all, he should know that happens.  There were many, many more sections that just seem to stretch reality just a bit which gives the show a soap opera feeling.

The acting was good, but not outstanding.  Hannah does a fine job as the rather wimpy and introverted reporter, but I never really identified with his character.  Harker was also adequate in her role, but I never really believed her motivation either.  Overall not a great show, but not horrible either.

This 3 ½ hour mini-series comes on two single sided DVDs housed in a single width keepcase.  There is no insert.

Audio:

This show was presented with a stereo audio mix and no subtitles.  The lack of subtitles really was a pain in a few instances.  There are some phrases and sentences that are hard to catch, especially with everyone's accents, and subtitles would have been nice to hear what was being said at those times.  Aside from that, the audio is standard fare.  This is a dialog based show, and though some things are hard to hear, that's fairly rare.  The music is sometimes mixed a little high, but it's not a major problem.  A solid, if unimpressive, audio track.

Video:

This DVD is presented with its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.  The picture quality was about average for an British TV show.  The image was fairly soft, with details not being as crisp as they could be.  The colors aren't as strong as I'd like them either.  There is some aliasing when the camera moves over diagonal lines and mosquito noise in large patches of color, but other digital defects aren't present.  A passable transfer.

Extras:

There are no extras.

Final Thoughts:

This was a mediocre mini-series, but not a great one.  When you find yourself yelling to the screen "Just forget about her and get on with your life!" you know it's not an outstanding series.  I had a hard time relating to the characters, and found the plot to be a bit contrived and unnecessarily conveluted.  The events didn't seem real, more of something that you'd see on a soap opera.  If you don't mind show with an artificial feeling, there is a lot of drama in this show that some people would find interesting.  Make it a rental though.