Steve

25 year-old Steve tries to be laddish and usually fails. He's unemployed, living on benefits, with no desire to work, no definable dreams or goals - and he's not bothered.

He likes eating, sleeping, drinking and having sex. He's witty but easily outfoxed by Becky. They're a great couple, and he loves her dearly, but Steve will never fathom the inner workings of the female mind...

Becky

Becky is 24. She's pretty but definitely not a girly girl. She's also living on benefits because work is too much hassle. Like Steve, she likes eating, sleeping, drinking and having sex.

Becky is popular - her friends and family adore her but she can never be bothered with them. She's no angel, and can be sarcastic sometimes to the point of meanness, seeing straight through Steve. But in Steve she knows, deep down, she's finally found her soulmate.

Dan

Dan lives above Steve. He's in his late 20s and going through a bit of a crisis. He's unemployed, lonely and needy - he often knocks on Steve's door just for a chat when all Steve wants is to be alone with Becky. But Steve can't be mean to him because he knows Dan's troubled.

Throughout the series, Dan is looking for love, getting over his ex-girlfriend Anita and going through a series of self-improvements in the hope that one day a girl will fall for him.

Laura

Laura is Becky's sister, a few years younger. She adores Becky. But the pair couldn't be more different - whilst Becky is sweet and caring, Laura's demanding, self-centred, very dramatic and increasingly downright horrible.

Laura has a somewhat tempestuous relationship with her boyfriend, later fiancé, Paul. Their relationship lacks the honesty of Steve and Becky's, and her uncompromising, uncaring manner could very well be at the heart of the problem.

Paul

Paul is in his late 20s and is engaged to Laura. Little like Steve, he has a job at stationery shop Ryman (albeit perhaps just to pay for Laura's demands) and is quite the tough, rowdy lads' lad.

Steve is amoral and becomes easily violent when the mood takes him. Henpecked by the ferocious Laura, he's not unfamiliar with sleeping around - but there is the occasional glimmer of a softer side, buried somewhere within him.

Shelly

Shelly is Laura's best friend, of sorts. In so far as she is Laura's only friend and verbal punch-bag, anyway.

She's soft, kind, very sweet and caring, but lacks any trace of self-esteem to stand-up to Laura - or anyone else.

She has a young son whom her world revolves around, but she's often forced to do the night shift at the supermarket where she works.