Showing results for "friendship" in 20th Century

Norfolk, 1939. When the residents of Great Plumstead, a small and charming community in Norfolk, offer to open their homes to evacuees from London, they're expecting to care for children. So when a train carrying expectant mothers pulls into the station, the town must come together to accommodate their unexpected new arrivals....

Bristol - 1953. It’s Coronation Year. A new beginning in the aftermath of war, but there are still battles to be fought and secrets to be kept. Charlotte Hennessey-White copes with the shortcomings of her marriage and throws herself into helping refugees unwelcome by some and exploited by others. Edna Burbage has three beautiful children and considers herself lucky until the advent of a deadly twentieth century disease makes her think otherwise. Polly Chandler still hopes for a better life, but there are too many obstacles standing in her way.

Kent, 1953. The Woolworths Erith store, a beloved cornerstone of the community, faces closure if the December turnover fails to increase. And, as if store manager Betty Billington doesn't have enough on her plate, personnel shortages and a troublesome new employee add to the strife. With Christmas on the horizon, Betty and her staff must strive to find solutions to improve business and keep the store running – from special events for late-night customers to a festive group trip into central London.

With Mulberry Lane's favourite pub, The Pig & Whistle undergoing renovation, proprietors Peggy and Able Ronoscki leave the chaos behind and head off on a trip of a lifetime to America. But disaster hits and Peggy finds herself in a critical condition in hospital. Meanwhile, business is booming for young entrepreneurs Fay Ronoscki and Maggie Rowan with their new restaurant and catering empire. Neither has time for love. But when fate throws a famous global singing sensation and glamourous racing car driver into their paths, falling in love with Jace and Greg seems beyond their control.

Pearl has given up on her dreams of being a journalist after being denied a promotion because of her gender. Joining the WAAF as a radio telephone operator for Bomber Command, Pearl's new job at RAF Fenthorpe serves two purposes – providing an income for her grandmother, and keeping a close eye on her younger sister, Thea, an instrument repairer at another Lincolnshire bomber station.

After having given up her baby at seventeen, Sonya is inspired by her work at an orphanage to discover what happened to her daughter twenty-five years ago. Reunited, they struggle to bond whilst braving the war together. Nurse Lily has returned to St Ives to finish training as a midwife. But when old flame Tristan is brought in wounded, she must put the past firmly to bed in order to care for him. And working at Tristan’s convalescent home, Mary longs for the romance she reads of in her novels. But her overprotective mother is making that more difficult at every turn.

It is 1910 in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Fourteen-year-old Rosie Waterhouse lives with her father, Sam, well-known as the local poacher, in a cottage on the Thornsby Estate. The land is owned by William Ramsey, a harsh and heartless man, determined his only son, Byron, should marry well and produce an heir. Rosie is quick to learn the tricks of her father’s trade and it’s when she’s poaching fish from the estate’s stream that she meets Byron.

May 1945 – VE Day. After battling against the odds, the three friends are uncertain of their futures. With a new dawn, there are high hopes and boundless dreams. Can the Tobacco Girls unite once more to overcome life’s troubles and find the happiness they so deserve?

Alice is nursing an injured hand and a broken heart when she moves to the village of Churchwood at the start of WWII. She is desperate to be independent but worries that her injuries will make that impossible. Kate lives with her family on Brimbles Farm, where her father and brothers treat her no better than a servant. With no mother or sisters, and shunned by the locals, Kate longs for a friend of her own. Naomi is looked up to for owning the best house in the village. But privately, she carries the hurts of childlessness.

Lavender Road boasts a pawnbroker, a pub, two rows of terraced working class homes and, at one end, the big house owned by the local brewer. When war breaks out, the lives and fortunes of the families who live in Lavender Road are changed out of all recognition. For Joyce, it means a struggle to keep food on the family table; for Jen it may mean the end of her dream to become an actress; and for Pam, there is the sickening seesaw of emotions as she fights attraction to her handsome lodger and a growing distance from a husband who is judged not fit to enlist.

In 1915 three women start work at a toffee factory in the market town of Chester-le-Street, Durham. Anne works for the enigmatic owner Mr Jack. She is highly efficient and whips Mr Jack's disorganised office - and Mr Jack himself - into shape. However, behind her business-like façade, Anne hides a heart-breaking secret. Elsie is feisty, fun and enjoys a good time. However, her gadabout ways get her into trouble when she falls for the wrong man in the sugar-boiling room. And there's dependable Hetty, who's set to marry her boyfriend when he returns from the war.

April 1940. Violet Millington, is ready to rediscover the joy of living. As she waltzes into the Palais, to begin her new life of boosting morale in war swept London, she must leave her family's sorrow behind her. But soon Violet discovers she's not the only one with something they're running from. Violet quickly befriends gutsy American Nancy, the diamond of the dance hall, flame-haired Renee with her enviable foxtrot, and Temperance, who must overcome her bullies to achieve her dreams.

Happily married, Rose has her hands full with staffing problems at the Lyon’s Teashop now that many women are taking on war work. The girls left all have their own worries while the war rages on. Katie has always wanted a large family, but is worried that she is still not pregnant. So when young Jennie is invited to lodge at Doctor’s Cottage now that Rose and Ben have their own home, Katie finds she needs all her mothering skills to keep the younger girl on the straight and narrow.

Everything has finally fallen into place for Renee. So when vicar Roger asks her to support a new dance hall, it should be a great way to give back to the community. Except Renee has a terrible secret she is holding onto. One that Roger can never know about. Nancy will keep Renee's secret. But she's got her own problems: handsome GI Jack has turned her head, and the American soldiers are causing a stir. Temperance has made a new friend - but now that she has someone who can understand the challenges she faces, will her relationship with Archie survive?

Edi and Ash have been best friends for over forty years, a bond formed by a lifetime of memories. Since childhood they have seen each other through life's milestones: stealing vodka from their parents, REM concerts, unexpected Scottish wakes, marriages, infertility, children. As Ash notes, 'Edi's memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine.' When Edi is diagnosed with the final stages of terminal ovarian cancer, she makes the painstaking decision to leave behind her husband and son to move to a hospice down the road from Ash.

After losing her beloved fiancé at Ypres in 1917, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Billington faces a lonely future estranged from her upper-class parents due to her association with Charlie Sayers and his working-class family. No longer able to live under her parent’s roof she is taken in by Charlie’s father, escaping the suffocating demands of her parents. Betty soon learns all too well about the realities of life after an accident at the Woolwich Arsenal munitions works.

Elsie Barker is desperate for a new start after her husband leaves her. When her friend Izzy, herself planning an escape from her abusive boyfriend, tells her about the jobs going for women as narrowboat crew on the canals between London and Coventry, she jumps at the chance. Their new boss, Dorothy, is kind and fair, but it's clear she has a secret of her own. Their crew is completed by Tolly, searching for a new vocation now that her dream job has been snatched away. The work is hard, but the girls forge close friendships that will see them through the darkest times.

Thank you for the music....It's 1939, and the war in Europe casts a long, all-encompassing shadow. In a sleepy town in Suffolk, the generous and determined widow, La, forms an amateur orchestra to entertain the locals and soothe her own broken heart. She recruits Felix, a refugee from Poland, to play the flute, and a touching friendship emerges. When the war is over and the orchestra disbands, La is left pondering her next move. What role can she play in her community now the war is over?

Paris 1930s. Childhood companions Fleur and Colette make a vow, under the trailing ivy of their secret garden, that they will be secret sisters forever. But as they grow up, the promises of childhood are put to the ultimate test. For Colette is the daughter of the house, and her life is all jazz clubs, silk dresses and chilled champagne, while Fleur is the orphan niece of the housekeeper and doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. Years later, in 1939, life as they know it will never be the same.

When Jess bumps into Milan unexpectedly, sparks are reignited, and she wonders if she made a mistake finishing with him in Amberton. But matters are complicated when a film company arrives at Bentley Priory to make a morale-boosting film about the RAF. The lead actor is none other than Leonard Steele, a man from Jess’ past who could ruin everything she has worked so hard to build.