Behaving Badly (TV serial)
| Behaving Badly | |
|---|---|
DVD cover
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| Written by |
Catherine Heath Moira Williams Based on the novel by Catherine Heath |
| Directed by | David Tucker |
| Starring | Judi Dench |
| Theme music composer | Stephen Oliver |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Humphrey Barclay Moira Williams |
| Running time | 200 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Humphrey Barclay Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | Channel 4 |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | 20 February – 13 March 1989 |
Behaving Badly is a 1989 British television serial directed by David Tucker. The teleplay by Catherine Heath and Moira Williams is based on Heath's novel of the same name. It was initially broadcast by Channel 4. The series was released on DVD in 2005.
The plot focuses on Bridget Mayor, a middle-aged housewife and part-time teacher who is forced to re-evaluate her life when her husband of twenty years abandons her for a younger woman.
Five years after her divorce, Bridget is living in a small flat purchased for her by her ex-husband Mark and seeking to improve her life by participating in a variety of evening adult education programs, including a pottery class. At the request of her local clergyman, she attends services at a predominantly black parish in Croydon, where she is unsettled by young pastor Daniel, who regards her as an intruder. She unintentionally departs with a Bible borrowed from one of the congregants. Frieda, her aging, demanding, and sharp-tongued ex-mother-in-law who detests her son's second wife Rebecca and makes every effort to destroy their marriage, is left alone when the couple take a weekend holiday in France. When they return, they discover Bridget not only has moved back into the house she once shared with Paul, but is determined to stay indefinitely.
Mark desperately tries to find someone who can convince Bridget to return to her own home, while at the same time she and Rebecca begin to bond. Bridget and Mark's daughter Phyllida sees a photograph of Daniel on the church newsletter tucked into the Bible her mother took and, finding his looks appealing, decides to return it to him. At first he resists her obvious flirting but soon finds himself attracted to her as well, although he is conflicted in his feelings, certain his community would disapprove of a relationship with a white woman.
Phyllida, who shares a flat with bisexual Giles, straight Jonathan, and Serafina, a teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown, finds her home life disrupted when Giles' crotchety grandfather Herbert is unceremoniously dumped on their doorstep. Although estranged from her father and his wife, Phyllida opts to move in with them to escape the overcrowded conditions, whereupon Bridget takes her daughter's place in the Battersea flat. She finds herself enjoying her unofficial role of mother and caretaker.
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