True Dare Kiss (BBC-1 2007, Lorraine Ashbourne, Dervla Kirwan)

True Dare Kiss is a pitch-black comedy charting the ups and downs of a dysfunctional family trying to cope with the suspicious death of their estranged dad.

When prodigal daughter Phil returns for the funeral to the siblings she abandoned a generation ago, she finds the carpets and curtains of her childhood home unchanged, but her family virtually unrecognisable.

There’s Nita, who’s so busy being a model wife, boss and parent that she fails on all three counts; Beth, whose extreme behaviour isn’t restricted to Saturday afternoons on the terraces of her beloved Manchester United; and Dennis, her agoraphobic brother who’s saving up for a boob job. Not to mention Alice, who was still a child when Phil left – and is still a child 20 years on. And then there’s her ex- lover, Nash, who’s keen to pick up where he and Phil left off – despite the fact that he’s now married to Nita.

In her reluctant attempts to put her sisters and brother back on track, Phil unearths a swirling conspiracy of mysteries and lies, including patricide, IVF and hooliganism. But that’s nothing to the sinister secret that’s lurking within the family home…

production details
UK / BBC One / 6×50 minute episodes / Broadcast 28 June – 2 August 2007

Writer: Debbie Horsfield / Script Editor: Julia Walsh / Music: Ruth Barrett / Production Design: David Butterworth / Executive Producers: Kate Harwood, Debbie Horsfield / Producer: Marcus Wilson / Director: Jeremy Webb

cast
Pooky Quesnel as Nita McKinnon
Lorraine Ashbourne as Beth Sweeney
Paul Hilton as Dennis Tyler
Paul McGann as Nash McKinnon
Dervla Kirwan as Phil Tyler
Esther Hall as Alice Tyler
Brendan Coyle as Kaz Sweeney
Ciaran McMenamin as Bryce Waghorn).
David Bradley as Stan Tyler
Nicky Bell as Ethan
Elliott Tittensor as JJ
Carlton Dickinson as Georgie
Samantha Blakey as Lola

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