The story of the ascension to the throne and the early reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, the endless attempts by her council to marry her off, the Catholic hatred of her and her romance with Lord Robert Dudley.
Brian and Charlie work for a gangster. When the boss learns they want to "leave" he sets them up to be killed, after they help rob the local Triads of their drug dealing profits. B&C decide to steal the money for themselves, but when their escape doesn't go to plan, they have to seek refuge in a Nuns' teacher training school.
Two provincial newspaper reporters - one a young idealist starting out on his career, the other an embittered man who previously wrote for a failed national daily - swap views.
In August 1913 a strike at a Cornish clay pit leads to Welsh police being sent to keep order. Having no other source of income, a striking miner is forced to take in one of the policemen as a lodger. They soon become friends, but escalating tension at the mine means that conflict will become inevitable.
A forgotten and aging actress tries to recapture her youth through her actress daughter's life. Her husband understands what is going on but invariably blames the daughter for his wife's disappointments.
England, 1645. The cruel civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians that is ravaging the country causes an era of chaos and legal arbitrariness that allows unscrupulous men to profit by exploiting the absurd superstitions of the peasants; like Matthew Hopkins, a monster disguised as a man who wanders from town to town offering his services as a witch hunter.
