In the Bleak Midwinter

Out of work actor Joe Harper (Michael Maloney) volunteers to help try and save his sister’s local church for the community by putting on a Christmas production of Hamlet, somewhat against the advice of his agent Margaretta D’Arcy (Dame Joan Collins). As the cast he assembles are still available even at Christmas and are prepared to do it on a “profit sharing” basis (that is, they may not get paid anything) he cannot expect, and does not get, the cream of the crop. But although they all bring their own problems and foibles along, something bigger starts to emerge in the perhaps aptly named village of Hope. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}