A Passionate Woman - Episode guide

Billie Piper (Doctor Who) returns to BBC One this spring as Betty, a young wife and mother who falls deeply in love with a Polish neighbour, with disastrous consequences, in Kay Mellor's A Passionate Woman.

50s Betty Stephenson is played by Billie Piper; 80s Betty by Sue Johnston; Craze by Theo James; 50s Moira by Kelly Harrison; 80s Moira by Barbara Marten; 50s Donald by Joe Armstrong; 80s Donald by Alun Armstrong; and 80s Mark by Andrew Lee Potts.

> Read our interview with Billie Piper.


Episode 1
Sunday 11th April 2010

It's the Eighties and an agitated Betty Stevenson is in her loft, trying on a dress that used to fit around 30 years ago. Surrounded by mementos from her past, Betty is transported back to the Fifties, to a dance hall full of boys in blazers dancing with girls in full-skirted dresses. It was the night she met Alex Crazenovski – or Craze; a gorgeous bad boy who she later discovers lives below her in a run-down tenement block in Leeds.

Despite knowing Betty has a husband and being married himself, Craze pursues Betty and she can't help but respond to his advances. Nobody has ever made her feel the way Craze does – especially her husband, Donald. Betty's relationship with Craze awakens a part of her she didn't know existed and, as the couple take more and more risks to be together, she realises she would give up everything to have a life with him. However, she wonders whether he would leave his wife, Moira.

Weeks later, Betty is driven to desperation when Donald proudly announces he's finally saved up enough money to put a deposit on a house in a better area. When she discovers that Moira is pregnant, Betty is close to hysterical. She is furious with Craze for what she sees as the ultimate betrayal. On moving house with Donald and baby Mark, Betty soon slumps into depression, terrified of living a life she now sees as empty and passionless.

Betty then receives a letter from Craze, begging her to run away with him. She manages to escape from Donald but their planned rendezvous is thwarted by the arrival of Her Majesty The Queen on a visit to Leeds. Betty is distraught when, after arriving late, Craze doesn't show. A few days later, she discovers the shocking truth – Moira found a letter from Betty and shot her husband dead in a jealous rage.

The arrival of Betty's now grown-up son, Mark, jolts Betty back from the Fifties and he can't understand why his mother is in the loft – it's his wedding day! Betty placates her son and promises to return to the wedding party. As Mark leaves to get a step ladder to help his mother down, Betty drops the loft hatch and pushes a chest on top of it. Turning round, she sees Craze, large as life, standing in her loft: "So what happens now, beautiful?"


Episode 2
Sunday 18th April 2010

Betty was left with no option but to return to her previous life after Craze was killed. For the last 30 years, her son Mark has been her world. Now he's moving out and she feels she will have nothing left.

Mark is eventually forced to reveal that he and his fiancée Jo intend to move to Australia – an announcement which leaves his mother reeling. Later, a tearful Betty has her own revelation – she tells Mark he is the only thing that keeps her going and she has never really loved Donald. She stuns Mark by admitting she did love someone once, and confesses to him about her affair with Craze, and the traumatic way that ended.

Aware that Jo came to Leeds to find her birth mother, who gave her up while she was in prison, Betty becomes convinced that Jo is Craze and Moira's daughter. She becomes desperate to trace the connection to provide a reason that might prevent Mark from marrying Jo. But, as the wedding day approaches, Betty is in for another shock...

Betty struggles to get herself through the morning of the wedding. As the ceremony begins, she runs out of the church, desperate to reach the sanctuary of home. Betty is horrified to discover Moira waiting for her after hearing from Ingrid. The two women then have an explosive argument where Betty finally reveals the truth. Betty stumbles into her house and climbs into the loft – shutting herself in with her memories of Craze. When Donald and Mark eventually find her, she clambers onto the roof, threatening to end her life to be with Craze.

On the roof, Donald has the most honest conversation he has ever had with his wife and Betty is staggered when he admits to already knowing about her affair. He has always loved Betty, and thought if he could only hang in there, she would come back to him one day. In a desperate attempt to save his wife, Donald slips and is left dangling off the roof. A stunned Betty must decide between joining her dead lover or saving her husband, who loves her more than she ever realised...