Tommy's World

Billy Hopkins lived happily in a tenement home in Manchester with his large Catholic family. When war came, Billy was evacuated to Blackpool, where he was starved so his rations could feed his landlady's children. On his return to Manchester, cruel blows were dealt to his family, but nothing could destroy Billy's fighting spirit. Nostalgic, sad and funny, Our Kid recalls an upbringing and an environment now vanished.

When a paragraph in an evening newspaper reveals a decades-old tragedy, most readers barely give it a glance. But for three strangers, it's impossible to ignore. For one woman it's a reminder of the worst thing that ever happened to her. For another it's the dangerous possibility that her darkest secret is about to be discovered. And for a third, a journalist, it's the first clue in a hunt to uncover the truth. The Child's story will be told.

It's June 1897, and Kate is celebrating her 11th birthday on the day of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Kate's joy is short-lived, as tragedy strikes, threatening her family with the loss of all they hold dear. Before long, they are evicted from their home in Ancoats, Manchester, and with no wages coming in and a mother unable to cope, Kate has to grow up fast. Her deepest desire is to keep her brothers and sisters together.

It's 1945 and Billy Hopkins is off to London to train as a teacher. Billy survives two years in the Big City, and returns to take up a teaching job in Manchester on £300 a year! The catch is his first class, Senior Four, who bitterly resent the raising of the school-leaving age and are all set to take it out on their teacher. Luckily, Billy has some tricks of his own up his sleeve. And he's about to fall in love with the beautiful Laura. But is she, as his dad says, "too good for the likes of us"?

1917 and the First World War is casting a dark shadow over the Harvey family. With one brother dead and Tristan serving at the front, young Ben is desperate to serve, despite his engagement to Emilia. But a dreadful eye injury forces him to stay at the family farm with his brother Alec, a man with secrets of his own.

December 1940: All that Audrey Barton wants is her family together for Christmas. But the war changes everything.... The Barton family bakery in Bournemouth has been at the heart of the town for generations: Audrey and Charlie Barton have never been rich, but their bread and cakes – and their love and advice – have enriched the lives of others in the town for many years. When war breaks out, it doesn't take long for trouble to arrive on the bakery doorstep.

Liverpool, 1946: the blackout blinds may be coming down, but one family is about to face devastating misfortune. Dora Evans is finally marrying the love of her life, and her dreams of opening a dressmaking business look as if they might come true. With twin daughters on the way, Dora has everything she's ever wanted. But then tragedy strikes: one of Dora's babies dies in infancy, and a catastrophic fire changes their lives forever. Can Dora save herself, her marriage and her daughter?

Maureen Jackson is a prisoner of her father's blackmail. Three years ago, she'd been hoping to marry Rory, the man of her dreams. However, after her mother's death, Maureen was left to care for her overbearing father. Now Rory is back in London with his pregnant wife and reminds Maureen of the life that should have been hers. With the war looming, Janet Ashley hopes to marry her sweetheart Mike, but her father refuses to grant them his blessing. Janet finds herself pregnant and her mother Peggy is determined to hold her family together.

Rita Kennedy has finally seen through her good-for-nothing husband, Charlie. Now he's gone AWOL with his fancy woman and left Rita at the mercy of the local gossips. Her future is full of uncertainty, and the only thing that keeps her going is knowing that her children are safe from the Luftwaffe - and the letters that she receives from Jack Callaghan, her childhood sweetheart, but a life together is just a distant fantasy.

Eighteen-year-old Moll Chambers works her fingers to the bone doing all she can to support her family. With an ailing father and a wayward mother, Moll is the only one who can look after her siblings, Bo and Sissy. But Manchester is an increasingly dangerous place to live, overrun with a ferocious rivalry between gangs of so-called 'scuttlers': young men and women bent on a life of violence and crime. And they have her brother in their sights. Soon even Moll can't protect Bo from the lure of the criminal underworld.