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Des Res

A black comedy by Ed Jones about a scriptwriter who loses his TV job and has to downsize from a leafy suburb to the dark heart of Salford

AKA:
The Friday Play: Des Res
Genre:
Comedy Drama
Broadcast:
2009  (BBC Radio 4)
Episodes:
1
Starring:
Ian Puleston-Davies, Szilvi Naray-Davey, Luke Broughton, Michelle Tate, Warren Brown, Fiona Clarke, Natasha Byrne, Greg Wood, Richard Whitmore
Writers:
Ed Jones
Production:
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Luke, a writer, loses his TV job and has to downsize from a bohemian terrace in a Manchester suburb to a house in Salford. The house is a bargain, although it is in a less attractive area, and he believes he can put up with the people who use his front doorstep as a youth club by befriending them. After all, he lived in this sort of area when he was a student in the early Eighties.

However, they are a constant low-level nuisance. Drainpipes are damaged, they graffiti on walls, spit and throw litter everywhere - and have even tried to break in once or twice. But usually a quiet word with the perpetrators resolves things.

Luke gets the feeling that even though they don't understand him, his neighbours accept him and even show some respect.

But then he gets some tenants who happen to be Slovakian and Polish and things begin to turn nasty. He receives a visit from a large man in a balaclava who wants to do him serious harm.

Our Review: A really dark and worrying, but at the same time intriguing and enthralling, imagining of what it must be like to live a dysfunctional life in a depressing and crime-overloaded council estate.