In rural New Zealand an alcoholic ex-soldier is desperate to obtain more liquor. His family try to keep liquor away from him.

A shy, introverted young girl takes a summer job at a seaside resort in Wales, where she finds the staff, the owners and patrons unlike anyone she has ever met before.

Following the lives of ten characters through their letters and diaries in the ten days before D-Day. The mini-series contains documentary interviews with the people on which the book, and this mini-series were based.

Six teens who were traumatized by child abuse early in their lives come together to form a gang that ultimately plots revenge against the ones who committed the crimes against them. The gang leader is the only one who has something of a normal life, living at a hotel where he is an apprentice and friends with the managers who are like surrogate parents to him. However, when the others start to attack their tormentors, Smith is drawn into the conflagaration also.

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.