Manchester’s hotel school does time-bombs. The first feature in a BBC2 series about failed American dreams, it takes root on a Long Island beach and moves on to check into the Best Western in Mangonia Park, Connecticut. What comes out in the six parts is light, airy and cut through with the frankness of necessity. Well, a hardworking mother and two shrewd boys get a life back on track, a street fighter discovers – or gains – his calling, a former hip-hop priest (Carleton Presenter) stumbles into his Latin hip-hop potential.
The beauty of it is that, although the guests are guests in a hotel, they are the guests. They must accept that the script is asking for them to sign up to a bind. They have to discover there is nothing wrong with being known as “judgy, little, roughnecks” for all those years, be on guard against accepting unwanted favours and quietly enter the service industry (they are actually models at Penguin). They cannot accept they have been handed a creaking household – though there are characters who define this true.
Watch it: Friday 25 May, 9pm, BBC2