'Clocking Off' Series 3 Episode Guide
The third series of Clocking Off originally aired on BBC One from the 31st January 2002 to 21st March 2002. It comprised 8 episodes.
Episode 1: Franny's Story
Air date: Thursday 31st January 2002
Synopsis: Franny is one of those people who cannot admit defeat. Whatever he's up against, he'll keep going, until it breaks him in two. And if he decides that a course of action is right, then he pursues it, no turning aside, no consultation. No matter what the cost. He's a cook in the Mackintosh canteen. Nice enough bloke, good at his job but something of an unknown quantity. Franny doesn't let people in, not even his wife Imogen. They are trying to conceive a baby, but he won't talk about it. Then his troubled sister, Terri commits suicide. Distraught, Franny discovers that she has had a child, now in foster care. Franny decides to sacrifice everything to try to adopt the child himself - will it be worth it?
Ratings: 5.96 million
Episode 2: Tasha's Story
Air date: Thursday 7th February 2002
Synopsis: Tasha is a textile design student, doing work experience at Mackintosh. She's a posh girl from a leafy suburb and she doesn't fit in. She desperately wants to but she comes from another world. She sleeps with Mack, and attempts to offer him advice about his current feelings of lonliness. Tasha's attitude is straightforward - if you've got a problem, then change it. This gets Mack thinking. But Tasha's mission to be one of the girls eventually goes wrong. Putting herself in the middle of one of their lives, she is way out of her depth. Flailing about to make things right, she only makes them a whole lot worse...
Ratings: 4.74 million
Episode 3: Mark's Story
Air date: Thursday 14th February 2002
Synopsis: Sometimes the reality of who people are is so terrifying, even to themselves, that it must remain hidden. Mark Talbot (James Murray) is one of these people. Someone with darkness in his past and in himself, a darkness from which he cannot escape, however much he wishes that he could. He seems like a nice enough lad, excitedly getting ready for his first day at Mackintosh. He's fit, clean, nice to his Mum - ex-army, Parachute Regiment no less, if his tattoo is anything to go by. However, after his first day at work, Mark is picked up by the police. He's obviously known to them and they are giving him some kind of warning now he's back in the area. But what has he been in trouble for? And why would the police be checking up on him if he's just out of the army? What secret is he hiding?
Ratings: 4.79 million
Episode 4: Julie Story
Air date: Thursday 21st February 2002
Synopsis: Julie is a Mackintosh old hand. She's a strange girl really - mid thirties, lives at home with her parents, popular, kind and generous but not truly close to anyone. As for a love life: non-existent. She feels a vague emptiness inside, but nothing she's ever dealt with. Life just goes on, day by day, same old thing. Its not as if she's actually unhappy. There's a new machinist at work, Vicky who arouses all sorts of emotions in Julie, terrifying, exciting, butterflies-in-the-stomach. Whenever Vicky's around, she feels like a nervous schoolgirl. But then her brother arrives with an exciting, tempting proposition for a future in Hong Kong. She'd see more of her nieces, earn loads of money, make a new start. But can she really leave Manchester and Vicky behind?
Ratings: Not available
Episode 5: Jenny's Story
Air date: Thursday 28th February 2002
Synopsis: Jenny has a pretty good life. She drives a forklift at Mackintosh alongside her best mate, Suzie, so work is a real laugh. Their eight-year-old sons, Tom and Ryan, go to school together. And best of all, Jenny is marrying Suzie's brother Sam, who she loves big time. Perfect. Except Jenny has created this life, like a house of cards. It is a fiction, based on lies, and all it needs is for one card to get knocked out of place, and the whole thing falls. And on her hen night, she sees someone she recognises and the house of cards comes caving in...
Ratings: Not available
Episode 6: Alan's Story
Air date: Thursday 7th March 2002
Synopsis: Alan is always the life and soul of the party. In his mid-forties, he's not quite one of the lads anymore but still sees life as a giggle. He has a wonderfully happy marriage to Sally, who although she's the much quieter, more sensible half of the partnership, watches all his shenanigans with fond amusement. They have two teenage sons, the oldest of whom Chris is about to go off to university, a cause of enormous pride for them both. For Sally's 40th, he arranges to have a vasectomy, so she doesn't need to take the pill anymore. But when he goes in for the operation, the doctors discover something unthinkable - they find out that he has a rare condition, which causes infertility - he has always been infertile. He could not possibly be the father of his beloved sons. As his happy life threatens to crumble into dust, Alan is faced with an appalling dilemma - does he keep this secret, eating away inside or does he bring it out in the open, where it could destroy everything...
Ratings: Not available
Episode 7: Gary's Story
Air date: Thursday 14th March 2002
Synopsis: Gary works in the off cuts department at Mackintosh, and has a beautiful, expensive home, full of costly antiques and erudite scientific tomes, everything just so. The only thing that doesn't fit is him. The problem is he's had a letter from a solicitor, informing him that he had been left a house and a substantial amount of money, in his biological father's will. It comes as a bit of as shock as neither he or his brother knew they were adopted. Then he meets Tina, one whirlwind romance later, they're engaged and Tina's moved in. A rosy future beckons. Until the day he discovers that he has been the victim of an accomplished con trick. As he tries to comprehend the calamity, he realises that Tina was not acting alone. The deeper he digs, the more obvious it becomes that someone close to him must be involved, someone he thought he could trust...
Ratings: 4.62 million
Episode 8: Mack's Story
Air date: Thursday 21st March 2002
Synopsis: Mack has never exactly been a bundle of laughs but over the last few months, his bitter disappointment with life has been increasing, day-by-day. Is the factory with its big pressures and small triumphs, all there is? As crisis point looms, Mack needs to carve himself a future that makes him happy. On the surface, things seem surprisingly good. Mackintosh is on the brink of the most lucrative deal ever and despite his disillusion, Mack is still a sucker for the pull of success, big money. He's also got a nice looking woman on his arm, Miranda. Then, Mack's good for nothing brother Eddie turns up. Mack has always been jealous of Eddie's responsibility-free life They behave like niggling children, each bringing out the worse in the other. Then, things start going wrong at work and he gets fed up with everything, keeping the factory going, making sure 320 people get paid every week. Let someone else deal with it; let Eddie have it. Its what he's always wanted. See how he copes. Mack wants freedom; he wants out. The question is, can he do it? When it comes to the crunch, will he be able to walk away from the love of his life, Mackintosh Textiles?
Ratings: Not available
Episode 1: Franny's Story
Air date: Thursday 31st January 2002
Synopsis: Franny is one of those people who cannot admit defeat. Whatever he's up against, he'll keep going, until it breaks him in two. And if he decides that a course of action is right, then he pursues it, no turning aside, no consultation. No matter what the cost. He's a cook in the Mackintosh canteen. Nice enough bloke, good at his job but something of an unknown quantity. Franny doesn't let people in, not even his wife Imogen. They are trying to conceive a baby, but he won't talk about it. Then his troubled sister, Terri commits suicide. Distraught, Franny discovers that she has had a child, now in foster care. Franny decides to sacrifice everything to try to adopt the child himself - will it be worth it?
Ratings: 5.96 million
Episode 2: Tasha's Story
Air date: Thursday 7th February 2002
Synopsis: Tasha is a textile design student, doing work experience at Mackintosh. She's a posh girl from a leafy suburb and she doesn't fit in. She desperately wants to but she comes from another world. She sleeps with Mack, and attempts to offer him advice about his current feelings of lonliness. Tasha's attitude is straightforward - if you've got a problem, then change it. This gets Mack thinking. But Tasha's mission to be one of the girls eventually goes wrong. Putting herself in the middle of one of their lives, she is way out of her depth. Flailing about to make things right, she only makes them a whole lot worse...
Ratings: 4.74 million
Episode 3: Mark's Story
Air date: Thursday 14th February 2002
Synopsis: Sometimes the reality of who people are is so terrifying, even to themselves, that it must remain hidden. Mark Talbot (James Murray) is one of these people. Someone with darkness in his past and in himself, a darkness from which he cannot escape, however much he wishes that he could. He seems like a nice enough lad, excitedly getting ready for his first day at Mackintosh. He's fit, clean, nice to his Mum - ex-army, Parachute Regiment no less, if his tattoo is anything to go by. However, after his first day at work, Mark is picked up by the police. He's obviously known to them and they are giving him some kind of warning now he's back in the area. But what has he been in trouble for? And why would the police be checking up on him if he's just out of the army? What secret is he hiding?
Ratings: 4.79 million
Episode 4: Julie Story
Air date: Thursday 21st February 2002
Synopsis: Julie is a Mackintosh old hand. She's a strange girl really - mid thirties, lives at home with her parents, popular, kind and generous but not truly close to anyone. As for a love life: non-existent. She feels a vague emptiness inside, but nothing she's ever dealt with. Life just goes on, day by day, same old thing. Its not as if she's actually unhappy. There's a new machinist at work, Vicky who arouses all sorts of emotions in Julie, terrifying, exciting, butterflies-in-the-stomach. Whenever Vicky's around, she feels like a nervous schoolgirl. But then her brother arrives with an exciting, tempting proposition for a future in Hong Kong. She'd see more of her nieces, earn loads of money, make a new start. But can she really leave Manchester and Vicky behind?
Ratings: Not available
Episode 5: Jenny's Story
Air date: Thursday 28th February 2002
Synopsis: Jenny has a pretty good life. She drives a forklift at Mackintosh alongside her best mate, Suzie, so work is a real laugh. Their eight-year-old sons, Tom and Ryan, go to school together. And best of all, Jenny is marrying Suzie's brother Sam, who she loves big time. Perfect. Except Jenny has created this life, like a house of cards. It is a fiction, based on lies, and all it needs is for one card to get knocked out of place, and the whole thing falls. And on her hen night, she sees someone she recognises and the house of cards comes caving in...
Ratings: Not available
Episode 6: Alan's Story
Air date: Thursday 7th March 2002
Synopsis: Alan is always the life and soul of the party. In his mid-forties, he's not quite one of the lads anymore but still sees life as a giggle. He has a wonderfully happy marriage to Sally, who although she's the much quieter, more sensible half of the partnership, watches all his shenanigans with fond amusement. They have two teenage sons, the oldest of whom Chris is about to go off to university, a cause of enormous pride for them both. For Sally's 40th, he arranges to have a vasectomy, so she doesn't need to take the pill anymore. But when he goes in for the operation, the doctors discover something unthinkable - they find out that he has a rare condition, which causes infertility - he has always been infertile. He could not possibly be the father of his beloved sons. As his happy life threatens to crumble into dust, Alan is faced with an appalling dilemma - does he keep this secret, eating away inside or does he bring it out in the open, where it could destroy everything...
Ratings: Not available
Episode 7: Gary's Story
Air date: Thursday 14th March 2002
Synopsis: Gary works in the off cuts department at Mackintosh, and has a beautiful, expensive home, full of costly antiques and erudite scientific tomes, everything just so. The only thing that doesn't fit is him. The problem is he's had a letter from a solicitor, informing him that he had been left a house and a substantial amount of money, in his biological father's will. It comes as a bit of as shock as neither he or his brother knew they were adopted. Then he meets Tina, one whirlwind romance later, they're engaged and Tina's moved in. A rosy future beckons. Until the day he discovers that he has been the victim of an accomplished con trick. As he tries to comprehend the calamity, he realises that Tina was not acting alone. The deeper he digs, the more obvious it becomes that someone close to him must be involved, someone he thought he could trust...
Ratings: 4.62 million
Episode 8: Mack's Story
Air date: Thursday 21st March 2002
Synopsis: Mack has never exactly been a bundle of laughs but over the last few months, his bitter disappointment with life has been increasing, day-by-day. Is the factory with its big pressures and small triumphs, all there is? As crisis point looms, Mack needs to carve himself a future that makes him happy. On the surface, things seem surprisingly good. Mackintosh is on the brink of the most lucrative deal ever and despite his disillusion, Mack is still a sucker for the pull of success, big money. He's also got a nice looking woman on his arm, Miranda. Then, Mack's good for nothing brother Eddie turns up. Mack has always been jealous of Eddie's responsibility-free life They behave like niggling children, each bringing out the worse in the other. Then, things start going wrong at work and he gets fed up with everything, keeping the factory going, making sure 320 people get paid every week. Let someone else deal with it; let Eddie have it. Its what he's always wanted. See how he copes. Mack wants freedom; he wants out. The question is, can he do it? When it comes to the crunch, will he be able to walk away from the love of his life, Mackintosh Textiles?
Ratings: Not available
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