The Way We Were

Elfrida Phipps loves her new life in her pretty Hampshire village. She has a tiny cottage, her faithful dog, Horace, and the friendship of the neighbouring Blundells - particularly Oscar - to ensure that her days include companionship as well as independence. But an unforeseen tragedy upsets Elfrida's tranquillity: Oscar's wife and daughter are killed in a terrible car crash, and he finds himself homeless when his stepchildren claim their dead mother's inheritance.

Evie loved the house. The bright, sunny rooms looking across the river. The terraced gardens with fruit trees growing against the high stone walls. The scent of lavender at the end of a hot day. It was a family house. As summer beckons, Evie's family gathers once more at the beautiful old riverside house they all adore. But when Evie discovers a secret that threatens their future, a shadow falls over them all: this summer by the river could be their last together.

Nearly 25 years after a tragic accident forced Mim to give up her successful career as one of the world's leading ballerinas, history is repeating itself. Daisy, Mim's most talented former pupil, is suffering from injuries and she too will have to rethink her career. Mim arranges for Daisy to take a holiday in Cornwall, in the strange and beautiful house on the edge of Bodmin Moor where Mim's brother, Roly Carradine, is living.

Jess Penhaligon is on her way to Devon to receive an award for her botanical painting. Hosting her will be Kate, who gladly welcomes her into her home. Jess's own family fell apart several years ago, so she is grateful for Kate's friendliness - and her close unit of extended family and friends, who embrace Jess just as warmly. As this group begins reminiscing on their pasts and sharing their stories with Jess, it becomes apparent that her family history may be linked with theirs.

In the big old house overlooking the sea, five small children listened as their mother read them a story. Theirs was an idyllic childhood, as they played on the beach, in the gardens and the woods, before the war and other tragedies disrupted their lives. Now, many years later, Nest and Mina still live at their beautiful childhood home, surrounded by the glorious Devon country side. But, when their sister Georgie comes to stay at Ottercombe, memories of their past start to revisit them.

American documentary maker Daniel O'Connell is renting the beautiful Cable Lodge for the summer. He's hoping that three months researching an old cable station in a remote Irish village will help him and his traumatised son finally move on from the accident that killed his wife. Meanwhile local hotel owner's daughter Annie Sullivan has communication problems of her own to deal with. As summer draws to a close, both Dan and Annie are forced to confront the pasts they've been escaping.

As spring comes to Scotland and the hills burst into life, a dance is planned for September. The invitations summon home the group of people Violet Aird has cared for most in her long life. The oldest, strongest and wisest of them all, she sees Alexa, her vulnerable granddaughter, find love for the first time while the decision to send her little grandson away to school is driving parents Edmund and Virginia even further apart.

As Christmas approaches, everything seems to be falling into place for Dossie. Her son Clem and his adorable five-year-old son Jakey have moved to Cornwall to be closer to her. She runs her own successful catering business. All she needs now is for the run of bad luck in her romantic life to end.Forming a slightly unconventional family setup with Dossie are the jovial nuns of the local convent and the wonderfully eccentric Janna.

The Keep that beautiful, ancient family home where the Chadwick family had lived for generations is still a haven from the heartbreaks and storms of life. Jolyon Chadwick, a famous television presenter, takes his new girlfriend Henrietta home to meet his extended family and also to meet Marie, the mother who deserted him and his father many years ago, now reappeared and seeming to want forgiveness. Jolyon, however, is not in the mood for forgiveness.

The Orient Express. Luxury. Mystery. Romance. For one group of passengers settling in to their seats and taking their first sips of champagne, the journey from London to Venice is more than the trip of a lifetime. A mysterious errand; a promise made to a dying friend; an unexpected proposal; a secret reaching back a lifetime...As the train sweeps on, revelations, confessions and assignations unfold against the most romantic and infamous setting in the world.

Impetuous Ali Anderson has always been a loose cannon. While she’s still trying to come to terms with the death of her baby son and subsequent divorce from Elliot, she takes it upon herself to play God with her best friend’s incomprehensible marriage. Ali’s meddling has disastrous consequences. Finding herself cut off from those she loves, she comes to realise that a little forgiveness goes a long way...

Matt’s mother kept all his childhood memories in a small box, amongst the many photos of Matt as a child. But something about those photos has always puzzled Matt. Is that really him? Why does he not remember those clothes and toys? And where, in the photos, is his sister Imogen? Imogen, meanwhile, is living with her husband and their baby in a rented cottage.

Can you ever re-create that first great love? Victoria Bradshaw fell in love with London playwright Oliver Dobbs when she was just 18. But he left her and disappeared from her life. Now, years later, he is a widower standing on her doorstep with his two-year-old son in his arms. And Victoria is foolish enough to want to take him back. Their early spring journey to a castle in Scotland becomes an odyssey of emotional discovery....

It was Felix who named it The Birdcage, the tall house in Bristol where Miss Pidgeon lived with her tenant, the beautiful and talented actress Angel, and Angel's daughter, Lizzie. It was Felix whom they all adored and who was so in love with Angel, but while Lizzie longed for a father, Felix had other commitments: to his insecure, possessive wife Marina and to their son Piers, both living at beautiful, mellow Michaelgarth, the family home on the edge of Exmoor.

When Josh Strachan, newly returned to his home in north Cornwall from sunny California, first meets Sophie Wells, he's immediately smitten. Sophie's pretty, she's funny, she has lots of friends, and she clearly loves her job as a photographer, despite the sometimes tricky clients. There's just one problem: Sophie has very firmly turned her back on love. It's nothing personal, she tells Josh, but she just doesn't do dates. And no one - even Sophie's scatty best friend Tula - will tell him why.