The Stretch

For those who missed it first time round, Sky One presents another chance to catch this critically acclaimed drama. The legendary acting partnership of Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson (EastEnders) is re-united for the first time on television in The Stretch, a two-part drama written by best-selling author Stephen Leather and produced by Paul Knight (London's Burning).

Sam Greene (Anita Dobson) is a woman whose world is completely shattered when Terry Greene (Leslie Grantham), her husband of over 20 years, is sentenced to life for a murder he says he didn't commit.

However, there is worse to come when Sam discovers that Terry has been living a lie all these years. His businesses have been a cover for a criminal empire, spanning drug deals, protection rackets and armed robbery.

Sam realises she has a choice: to walk away from the criminal empire he's built up, or to take it over.

Against all her moral judgement but in order to survive, Sam agrees to continue the process of financing two major deals to which Terry had committed himself, one, a cannabis shipment from Spain and the other, a million pound counterfeiting syndicate.

At the same time she sets about trying to prove her husband's innocence and finds herself immersed in a shady underworld she never knew existed...

During the two gripping and often uncompromising episodes, The Stretch re-ignites the explosive chemistry between Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson that kept a nation spellbound for three years in EastEnders, culminating in a record audience of over 30 million for the Christmas Day episode in 1986. Producer Paul Knight says of this electric casting combination, "It was Anita herself who suggested Leslie Grantham to play her on-screen husband. Over the years they had talked about working together again, but nothing had appealed before The Stretch." Grantham adds, "When I read the script, I felt as though the lead roles had been written with me and Anita in mind."