Mutual Friends: Series 1 - Episode guide
Marc Warren, Alexander Armstrong and Keeley Hawes star in a new BBC One comedy drama series following the trials, tribulations, highs and lows of the increasingly entangled lives of a group of old friends.
Episode 1
Tuesday 26th August 2008
Following the suicide of his best friend, Carl, solicitor Martin's world falls apart when his wife, Jen, tells him at the funeral that she slept with his late friend – twice. As the once-happy couple struggle to hold their marriage together, Martin's pathologically immature but endlessly charming friend, Patrick, re-enters their lives and decides to help Martin through his troubles in his own inimitably hedonistic way.
Meanwhile, Jen receives support and advice from her best friend, Liz, who also happens to be Patrick's ex-fiancée. To make matters even more complicated, Liz has now hooked up romantically with Patrick's business partner Harry who, in turn, is trying to force Patrick out of Qcumba, his mail order catalogue business.
Episode 2
Tuesday 2nd September 2008
Patrick tries to help Martin cope with his marital problems by subjecting him to an energetic reintroduction to the life of a single man, involving vigorous mountain bike-riding, rounds of golf and marathon computer games sessions – fuelled by a diet of pizza, beer and skunk – as the comedy drama continues. On Liz's advice, Jen decides to apply for a job – only to discover that it is based in Norwich. She can make a new start and leave Martin, taking their young son, Dan, with her.
Martin, meanwhile, discovers that Carl had a second mortgage on another house and, as a result, his widow Leigh is now bankrupt. He is also under pressure from his boss, Sarah, to hang on to the lucrative Qcumba case and attempts to arbitrate between Harry and Patrick – who are both refusing to budge in their battle for control of the company. Martin's embarrassment is later multiplied when he walks in on Patrick and Sarah in bed together.
Desperate to prevent Jen from leaving for Norwich, Martin goes to see her new employer, Darren. Jen, however, is not pleased. Patrick later sabotages the Qcumba spring launch, which Harry has organised, and gets sacked. Patrick and Liz have set up a meeting between Martin and Jen, but it doesn't go well and Martin takes a joint from Patrick and has a psychotic episode in a supermarket – prompting Jen to rush to his hospital bedside.
Episode 3
Tuesday 9th September 2008
Following his massive intake of cannabinoids, Martin leaves hospital and is reconciled with Jen, but he's frustrated when she won't have sex with him, as the comedy drama continues. Patrick, meanwhile, vows to launch a new global clothing company and starts viewing unsuitably grandiose potential offices.
When Leigh's house is repossessed, a guilty Jen asks her and her three young sons to come and stay. Martin, however, who is trying to get his marriage back on track, is not happy. To let Jen, Leigh, Liz and Anita have a boozy girls' night in, Patrick and Martin take Dan and Leigh's troublesome eldest son to a snooker club with unfortunate consequences. Patrick offers Liz a lift home and she drunkenly sleeps with him.
At Anita and Dev's anniversary party, Dev tries to kiss Leigh. Liz warns Patrick that sleeping with him meant nothing, while Martin and Jen finally revive their sex life. Emboldened by this change of fortune, Martin attempts a reconciliation between Patrick and Liz, but discovers that Patrick is entertaining another woman.
Episode 4
Tuesday 16th September 2008
Jen and Martin start trying for a baby, but Martin's "sub-optimal" sperm proves to be a stumbling block, as the comedy-drama series continues. Patrick, once again smitten with Liz, decides to break up with Martin's boss, Sarah, with whom he has been enjoying a bit of a lively fling – only to find out that she is "late". Leigh, meanwhile, moves into her new council house but is far from happy with the unwanted attentions of Dev.
Martin thinks he will get a partnership in his law firm, especially now that Sarah, his boss, is pregnant. Instead she warns him that unless he drums up more business he will lose his job. Patrick persuades Martin to handle the sale of a local bookshop on a no-win, no-fee basis. Together, Patrick and he face down a City lawyer only for the bookshop owner to pull out of the deal at the last minute, leaving Martin without a job.
Patrick decides that he wants to play an active part in the upbringing of his child with Sarah – only to be told that the child is not his. Then, to his horror, Liz and his former business partner and rival Harry announce their engagement...
Episode 5
Tuesday 23rd September 2008
Although Jen persuades a jobless Martin to meet her employer, Darren, he considers the jobs on offer to be "beneath him", as the comedy-drama series continues. Martin reluctantly volunteers to teach reading at Dan's school.
Having been dropped by Sarah for failing to pay any fees, Patrick talks Martin into taking on his case against Harry over the ownership of Qcumba. Martin tries to keep this a secret from Jen. Sarah is now acting for Harry, who offers Patrick a large pay-off if he agrees to stay away from Liz. Patrick refuses and gets Martin to try to steal secret files from Harry's office.
In the midst of her wedding preparations, Liz begins to have doubts about her real feelings for Harry. Meanwhile, Dev's mad passion for Leigh comes to an embarrassing head at a boating regatta. When the Qcumba case comes to court, Martin is on fighting form, but the trial does not go to plan and Patrick loses. He returns to Qcumba to clear his desk, only to find that Martin is now working for Harry.
Episode 6
Tuesday 30th September 2008
The wedding looms and there is an atmosphere of impending mayhem as everyone converges on the country house hotel where the reception is to be held, in the last episode of the comedy-drama series. Humiliatingly, Martin is now a dogsbody at Harry's beck and call, and even has to take on the job of stand-in when the first choice best man misses his flight.
Patrick, denying he is upset by Liz getting married, turns up at the hotel and runs up a huge bill against Harry's account, while Anita finds out about Dev's misplaced crush and confronts a startled Leigh.
Later, Harry orders Martin to keep Liz's divorced parents apart. Martin is pleasantly surprised when his schoolboy crush, the gorgeous Ally, is one of the wedding guests. She is now divorced and delighted to see Martin again. Jen and Ally, however, do not hit it off. Liz's dad, Frank, goes missing and Martin recruits Patrick to help find him and get him to the church. Patrick vows to tell Liz his feelings. He and Martin have to take a lift on a tractor in their dash to get to the wedding on time.
