Men Only

Men Only is a provocative new two-part drama by first-time writer Richard Cottan, about the dark side of modern masculinity. What do men want, what do women want from them, and can the two ever be reconciled?

Our men are a five-a-side football team from South London. Only they're too old, too slow, too under the thumb at home to waste their precious Tuesday nights kicking a ball around and losing every time. So the football stops and the excitement starts. They begin in lap-dancing bars, but soon they want more. Porn. Violence. Sex. Class A's. What happens on Tuesday nights should never go home. But one night they finally go too far, and the two worlds look set to collide.

Jamie (Martin Freeman) is a call operator, a job he despises. His lack of self-belief is affecting his relationship with his partner Louise (Kerry Godliman) and he becomes increasingly sexually dysfunctional.

Mac (Marc Warren) is a Senior House Officer desperate for promotion, but he doesn't have the contacts or social skills he needs to further his career. He is under pressure from his partner Katie (Esther Hall) who is failing to conceive, despite their best endeavours.

Des (Daniel Ryan) is an affable bloke who loves his kids. His wife Lyn (Jenna Russell) grabs every opportunity to back out of family life, while Des is left balancing his job as a security guard with running their home.

Dwight (Razaaq Adoti) is a fitness instructor, working hard to keep his life on track, but constantly at odds with his father Vic (Earl Cameron) who can't leave the past behind him, and keeps undermining his son.

Jason (Stephen Moyer) is managing a club that is going nowhere. He doesn't care, so long as he has mates around him and he can get all the best waitresses. He is always trying to prove himself, secretly filming his sexual conquests to brag to his mates.

In the opening episode, the pressure is beginning to build in each man's life. Jamie is sacked. Des sees his wife with a younger man on a CCTV camera. Jason's boss Gemma (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) tells him to turn the club around. Dwight is struggling to break his ties with his father. Mac can't deal with Katie's demands so instead indulges in some serious flirtation with Alice (Zoe Telford), a young nurse at work.

When Alice tags along with Mac on a lads' night out, the dynamic suddenly shifts. Until now, Tuesday nights have been their secret world. This time, they all end up high on an adrenalin-fuelled mix of alcohol and drugs, and eventually get back to Jason's flat, still with Alice in tow.

Jason disappears into the bedroom with her and when he emerges, leaving the door open, the others converge on the room. Whatever happens now, Tuesday nights will never be the same again..

In the concluding part, seven days have gone by and at the weekly team meeting only four of them turn up. The tension in the group is palpable although Jason, still the lynch pin, is impervious. Mac is suspended pending a tribunal over the theft of Ketamine and tries to see Alice, terrified that she will talk, only to find that she has moved on to another hospital.

The entire group is at breaking point as they refuse to confront what they have all done, until Mac receives a photo of the night with Alice - a still from a video. How much of their secret might be revealed, and to whom?