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Series 1, Episode 1

Butterworth's, a national supermarket chain which is struggling in the tough current economic climate, has relocated its head office to Leeds and its staff must adapt to their new location.

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Monday Monday. Image shows from L to R: Steven (Tom Ellis), Sally (Morven Christie). Copyright: TalkbackThames

Butterworth's, a national supermarket chain which is struggling in the tough current economic climate, has relocated its head office to Leeds and its staff are adapting to their new location. Sally, the PA to Christine, Head of Human Resources, is also adapting to a broken engagement. She's persuaded by her flatmate and best friend, Natasha, to go out for a drink with the other PAs, but goes to the wrong pub and meets a handsome man, Steven, who she invites back to her place. Unfortunately the night of passion is curtailed when she feels sick from too much drink.

So she's mortified when she turns up at work the next morning to find that Steven is now working at the desk next to hers. She's even more mortified when she finds out that he's having an affair with the new Chief operating officer, Alyson Cartmell. They eventually talk and decide to be just good friends - though it's clear that Sally has stronger feelings for him, particularly when she's warned off subtly by Alyson.

Christine is struggling with the move too. She feels very threatened by Alyson who's obviously going to be much less lenient than Roger, the CEO, who turns a blind eye to Christine's incompetence and evident drink problem. When Christine panics over a presentation, gets drunk, and humiliates Sally in public, announcing that it's no surprise that her fiance ran off with her sister, Sally punches her. Having sacked Sally, Alyson tells Roger that they'll also have to get rid of Christine. Roger, however, is concerned that Christine knows too much, particularly about some dark secret that he shares with his PA called Uxbridge Holdings. Roger finally stands up to Alyson and tells her that he refuses to sack Christine and wants Sally reinstated. Christine persuades Sally to come back and promises to sort herself out.

Max Chambers is determined to be made acting head of marketing while his boss is away on sick leave. He tells the two PAs in his department, Natasha and Vince, that they'll need to impress him in order to win the promotion to marketing assistant but when Natasha realises this involves sexual favours from her, she tricks Vince into offering his services instead.

Broadcast details

Date
Monday 13th July 2009
Time
9pm
Channel
ITV1
Length
60 minutes

Cast & crew

Cast
Fay Ripley Christine Frances
Morven Christie Sally
Holly Aird Alyson Cartmell
Neil Stuke Max Chambers
Peter Wight Roger Sorsby
Jenny Agutter Jenny Mountfield
Tom Ellis Steven
Laura Haddock Natasha
Saikat Ahamed Vince
Miranda Hart Tall Karen
Jodie Taibi Small Karen
Guest cast
Colin Edwynn Comedian
Daniel Tatarsky Dull Man at AA
Daniel Poyser Barman
Writing team
Ben Edwards Writer
Rachael New Writer
Jenny Robins Script Editor
Production team
Roger Goldby Director
Alison Davis Producer
Margot Gavan Duffy Executive Producer
Matthew Tabern Editor
Jackie Ophir Editor
Tim Hutchinson Production Designer
Simon Lacey Composer

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