After You've Gone Series 1, Episode 5 - School Of Hard Knocks - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)

Jimmy and Alex bond through vandalism.

Further details

When Alex's teacher writes home to say that "Alex is possibly gifted but we'll never know because he has the attention span of a gnat," Jimmy, surprised by this comment about his son, latches onto the "gifted" part while Diana's focus is on Alex's "not living up to his potential".

Molly is delighted that Alex is given all this attention which gives her the chance to fly under the radar and do what she wants for a while. In an attempt to get to know his brilliant son better, Jimmy enlists his help to finally finish his DIY in the back room only to discover how unfocused Alex really is.

When Alex tells Jimmy, "I don't want to make anything of my life: I want to be like you," Jimmy is forced to re-evaluate himself and comes to the frightening conclusion that maybe he would have benefited from someone like Diana in his life to motivate him. Diana runs with this notion and in the process, runs Jimmy into the ground.

Meanwhile Siobhan and Kev commiserate about the amount of time Jimmy is spending with his family leaving them both feeling like spurned lovers.

Broadcast details

Date

Friday 9th February 2007

Time

8:30pm

Channel

BBC One

Length

30 minutes

Cast & crew

Cast

Nicholas Lyndhurst Jimmy Venables
Celia Imrie Diana Neal
Ryan Sampson Alex Venables
Dani Harmer Molly Venables
Amanda Abbington Siobhan Casey
Lee Oakes Kev
Vincent Ebrahim Bobby

Guest cast

Roxanne Ricketts Ellie

Writing team

Katie Douglas Writer
Andrea Solomons Writer
Dan Tetsell Writer
Ian Brown Writer
James Hendrie Writer
Fred Barron Writer

Production team

Tony Dow Director
Rosemary McGowan Producer
Kenton Allen Executive Producer
Fred Barron Executive Producer
Mark Wybourn Editor
Harry Banks Production Designer
Jamie Cullum Composer