The A Word
The future of the family business puts Maurice and Eddie at loggerheads
TUE 19 May, 9pm BBC1 Drama Alison accepts Ben’s offer of a date but assures Paul that she’ll be very careful about introducing a new man into Joe’s life, and Rebecca wants to know how Alison really feels about her pregnancy… Meanwhile, Eddie’s on cloud nine after receiving an offer of over £1 million for the brewery.
There are many complicated relationships at the heart of The A Word, but the one between Maurice and Eddie might be the most volatile.
Different in almost every way, the father and son rarely see eye to eye on anything – so when Eddie tells his dad this week that he’s had a lucrative offer to sell the family brewery, he doesn’t get the congratulations he was hoping for…
Struggling to communicate
‘Maurice is quite controlling of his kids,’ says Christopher Eccleston, who plays him. ‘He thinks he knows what’s best for Eddie. He’s desperately trying to keep Eddie close to him via the brewery.’
As Eddie reveals the package being offered includes a new job for him in London, Maurice risks losing his son altogether unless he can persuade him not to sell up. But the two struggle to communicate – even after Maurice’s former son-in-law Paul arranges for the pair to share a tent on a camping trip!
The overnighter gives Maurice and Eddie time to think about their quarrel. The two later have a heart-to-heart at the brewery. Can Maurice, who’s never been good at talking about his feelings, fix things with his son?
‘Me and Peter [Bowker, the writer] are around the same age, so we know a lot of men like Maurice,’ says Christopher. ‘There’s some of my dad in there, but there’s my dad in everything I do. The second director said to me, “Maurice is a self-portrait, isn’t he? Peter’s just writing you, isn’t he?” So I’m not sure where
Maurice ends and I start!’