Masterpiece Theatre Two young men, friends since early boyhood, make their way from the back streets of Manchester to fame and fortune in London: William Essex as a writer and Dermot O'Riorden as a designer of fine furniture and interiors. Each has ... (more)a son, and each has a dream for his son to fulfill. The writer simply wants his son to have everything he lacked in his deprived boyhood; while the designer, an Irish patriot, gives his son to Ireland. Things quickly begin to go wrong for both fathers and the love that spawned the dreams is tested again and again.