The lowdown: 'At Home With the Braithwaites' is an ITV comedy-drama starring Peter Davison and Amanda Redman 
as David and Alison Braithwaite. Four seasons were made, and were broadcast from January 2000 to April 2003. The
story begins with Alison being given a European lottery ticket by her youngest daughter. She happens to have the winning
ticket, worth a cool £38m. However, Alison is afraid of how such sudden wealth will affect her family, so she decides to 
keep her win a secret, and use the money to help others. She sets up a charity called the Jane Crowther Trust, and 
pretends to have gotten a job with the trust. The first season is largely about her efforts to keep the secret of the lottery 
winnings from her family. The humour in the show becomes progressively more black as it goes into subsequent seasons,
with infidelity, jealousy, a lesbian wedding and murder being part of its rich tapestry, not to mention the loss of the money 
due to a legal technicality and its subsequent return.

Peter Davison is excellent as the bank manager who is having an affair with his secretary, and discovers that his wife
was - and still is - in love with his brother. Davison's use of a northern accent means it is easy to dissociate yourself from
his time as the Doctor while watching 'Braithwaites', and his role as David Braithwaite is very different from his Time Lord
persona. While Redman is the star of this show, Davison puts in one of the best performances of his career, and we see
the gradual collapse of David's marriage and David's journey through unfaithfulness, tragedy, despair and pithos. Davison
is at his best when David Braithwaite has hit rock-bottom - the scene where he attempts to hold up a bank while drunk
and wearing a baby vest on his head as a disguise is a highlight of the show.

Who should watch it: If you enjoy offbeat and often over-the-top British comedy or drama, you while enjoy this series.
This is particularly so from the second season onwards, when the story shifts from Alison's efforts to keep the money a 
secret from her family to the complex and often complicated relationships between the dysfunctional Braithwaites, their 
family, friends and neighbours. Indeed, at times the issue of the money takes a back seat to the sweeping saga of a 
family that is often at war with each other.

Trivia: The opening credits of the show bore the title "At Home With the Braithwaite's", but the subsequent video and dvd
releases dropped the inappropriately placed apostrophe.
 
Quote:
  David (on Alison's new job): 'Have you thought this through - 
   coming home and having to start cooking and cleaning
   and God know's what'		 Video Clips:
Breakfast at the Braithwaites home  (4.5mb)
David and his secretary  (5.5mb)
Alison gets a job  (4.4mb)


           More pictures from 'At Home With the Braithwaites'
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