Annie (Penelope Wilton), the youngest of three siblings, lives with her invalid mother in the old family house. Her brother Reg (Richard Briers) and his wife Sarah (Penelope Keith) arrive to take care of mother while Annie gets away for a holiday. But soon Sarah finds out that Annie has planned to go away with Norman (Tom Conti) for a "dirty little weekend." Sarah insists that Annie cancel her plans--in part concerned at the effect it will have on Annie's would-be boyfriend Tom (David Troughton), but mainly because Norman is married to Annie's sister Ruth (Fiona Walker).
Sarah and Reg insist on staying for the weekend to look after mother, and to keep Annie from sneaking off with Norman. Norman--his hopes dashed--seeks comfort in a large bottle of nettle wine, finally passing out drunk on the carpet. Tom--not quite comprehending what's going on, or what he should do about it--hangs about the house looking bewildered. Finally, Ruth is called in to collect Norman, and the atmosphere becomes thick with recriminations. Norman, once he sobers up, sets about to not only win back the affections of Annie, but of Sarah and Ruth as well.
Norman, an assistant librarian and self-confessed "three-woman-a-day man" is no ordinary gigolo. While hardly handsome (Annie describes his as "resembling a badly built haystack"), he is irrepressibly charming, and has an uncanny ability to sense other people's feelings and play them to his own advantage.
Since the action moves from room to room, each play, showing the action in just one room, unfolds like a comic jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces that are later filled in by the other two plays. The best way to watch the three videos is over the course of three days, or maybe a long weekend.
--From Design Lines, November/December 1989