Radio 4
1999 (six episodes)

Katie Hims’ comic drama told the story of a battle against the odds and, as is usually the case in these situations, revolved around an oddly-matched group of individuals thrown together by fate.  Jimmy (Gerard McDermott) works in the small Manchester catering business run by his brother Kingsley (Mark Straker), who has fallen in debt to loan sharks.  At the end of the first episode Kingsley disappears, along with most of the furniture, and Jimmy discovers he has six weeks in which to find £2500.  Luckily, Kingsley’s disappearance coincides with the arrival of Martina (Catherine Harvey), a young nun on sabbatical leave from her convent, who persuades Jimmy to hold the business together and keep the order book open.  With the aid of South American dentist turned kitchen assistant Juan José (Roger May) — who complicates matters somewhat by falling hopelessly in love with Martina — they relaunch under the name ‘Bangers and Mash’, supplying premium quality traditional food, and recruit the book-keeping skills of Carol (Jane Whittenshaw), another down-on-her-luck individual latterly working as a kissogram.  Generating the necessary cash remains a desperate race against time, however, especially when half the takings are mislaid in a coffee tin…