Keith Clifford

Reflective drama of pioneering nurse, writer and noted statistician Florence Nightingale

Robson Green and Mark Benton co-star in Christmas Lights, a one-off comedy drama for ITV1 centred on two lifelong friends who have always competed with each other. The festive season brings on new challenges and takes their rivalry to extremes resulting in the two friends forgetting what Christmas is really about. Can anything bring them to their senses?

Tommy is a vacuum cleaner salesman gripped by the fever of closing the deal. He lives on puffa rice stored in his glove compartment, listens to motivation tapes of his own voice shouting 'Sell, sell, fucking sell' and his punters are up to their eyes in debt. Even Tommy admits his 'soul's in holes'. He's sure the Golden Vac (the holy grail of vacuum salesmanship) can be his - if only he hadn't been saddled with Pete, a meek sales trainee trying to help his girlfriend quit stripping.

Deric Longden and his wife, Aileen, come to terms with the fact that his mother, Annie, is getting too old to live on her own. Annie suffers her first stroke and a nursing home is the obvious solution, but which one and where?