Showing results by narrator "Colleen Prendergast" in All Categories

Alice thought her future was set in stone until her past came knocking... Alice Butler starred in a successful US sitcom until tensions in the cast and crew caused the show to be cancelled. Now, five years later and working towards her dream job in art history, she’s called back for a revival of the show. It can only end in disaster, surely? Flown to a villa in Chianti to meet with the rest of the cast, Alice must decide where her future lies - with her boyfriend, David, who laps up the Hollywood company, or with the mysterious Matt, who shies away from public attention?

Halifax, 1876. On the death of her mother and sister, Isabelle Gibson is left to fend for herself and her brother in a privately run workhouse. After the matron's son attacks her, Isabelle decides to escape by agreeing to marry a farmer she has never met. But Farrell is a drunkard and in constant feud with his landlord, Ethan Harrington. When he deserts her, Isabelle and Ethan are thrown together. But both are married and must hide their growing love.

It’s December 1902, and Rose O’Leary is looking forward to her baby girl’s first Christmas. But then tragedy strikes: her husband dies at the shipyard where he works, and within days his friend Nathaniel makes it plain he’s determined to have her. Rose flees with her child but soon finds the world is a cruel place for a beautiful woman with no protection. More tragedy ensues, and yet, although she’s bruised and broken, Rose is a fighter.

When 18-year-old Eve runs away from her small village to start a new life in the city, she quickly discovers that Leeds is not everything she expected it to be. Wandering the cold streets in search of shelter, timid Eve can only find work as a barmaid at the Bluebell Inn - a place her strict parents would never approve of. Serving ale and cheap gin to the rowdy crowd, Eve eventually catches the eye of dashing Sergeant Joseph Oates - but his intentions are not honourable, and he will leave her with more than just a broken heart.

When an anonymous call sends police to a house in Sheffield, a dead couple are discovered in the kitchen. When Detective Inspector Lucy Miller is handed the investigation, she is thrilled. But when her boss is involved in a traffic collision the investigation is stripped from her and given to DCI Bennet. But Miller refuses to quit. Soon Bennet realises that Miller is interfering with his investigation and warns her off the case. However, when a link is made to a cold case, she is drawn in deeper.

When 16-year-old Erin Ellis is attacked, she dies in the arms of her best friend, Molly, just metres from her home. Molly is the surviving girl but says she easily could have been the victim. It was a random mugging gone wrong. With inconclusive evidence, DS Grace Allendale must dig deep within the tight-knit Stoke community for leads. And she soon finds that someone had a motive to kill Erin. As the investigation unfolds, Grace is reminded of a horrifying case she worked on earlier in her career.

Ottila McGregor is 30 years old and has decided it's time to sort her life out. She's going to quit drinking, stop cheating, and finally find true happiness. Easy, right? Of course not. For a start, there's Grace, her best friend, who believes self-improvement is for people in their 40s. Next there's Mina, her sister, who is mentally ill, and it might even be Ottila's fault. And then there's Thales, the Greek guy who works in the hospital cafeteria. He's probably the best, most dangerous person Ottila's ever met.

Welcome to The Estate - where even the darkest times have their lighter moments.... Cath Mason has learned to be tough. The things she's seen growing up on the Mitchell Estate, she's had to be. Yet, even broken and beaten by life at times, she's still the first person a woman in need of help seeks out. At Cath's house, there is safety in numbers as well as a place to hide. No matter what trouble comes to her door, she won't turn anyone away - because she knows what it's like to live with secrets and lies.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? When Caren Williams finds herself back on the estate she fought so hard to get away from, little does she realise she'll be living opposite her archenemy, Gina Bradley. Gina thinks she and her family rule Stanley Avenue, so when Caren starts to become popular, she decides to hit her where it will hurt the most: she wants her husband.

A rising death toll. A city in panic. A young mother is found dead in her home with no obvious cause of death. As DI Hannah Robbins and her team investigate, it soon becomes clear that the woman is the first in a long line of murders by poison. With the body count climbing and the city of Nottingham in social meltdown, the team find themselves in a deadly race against a serial killer determined to prove a point.

Working on the notorious Mitchell Estate, housing officer Josie Mellor faces challenges every day, but not nearly as many as those of her tenants. Kelly Winterton is scared and alone after her partner has been jailed. A victim of domestic abuse, Charlotte Hatfield has fled from her violent partner four times already. He'll probably kill her if he finds her this time. Disowned by her family, someone is taking advantage of Amy Cartwright's vulnerability. Who can she turn to for support?

She was only nine when her world fell apart. The struggle to understand took a lifetime.In 1960s Bristol, Susan's family was like any other with its joys and frustrations, and fierce loyalties. Then tragedy struck and left a legacy that was to last a lifetime.Susan was only nine when her mother died. A year later she was sent away to school. She didn't want to go, and didn't understand why she had to. In her struggle to cope with an uncertain world - a world where nothing seemed to make sense any more....

When Rose sees Joe in an Oxford bar, it is instant infatuation. He is everything that turns her on: a gifted musician with wit and high achiever. In her mind, at least, they are ideally matched. But Joe has no intention of settling down.

Kim and Harry are total opposites who happen to have the same favorite people in the world: Kim's older sister, Eva; and her young son, Otis. Kim has never seen what her free-spirited big sister sees in a stuck-up banker like Harry and has spent her childhood trying to keep him out while Harry's favorite occupation is provoking Kim. Both Harry and Kim are too stuck in their prejudices to care about what's really going on beneath the surface of each other's lives.

When the naked, battered body of an unidentified teenager is found dumped in an alleyway, postmortem finds evidence of a harrowing series of events. Another teenage death with the same MO pushes DI Hannah Robbins and her team on the Nottingham City division Major Crimes Unit to their limits - and across county borders.

Sheffield, 1892. Patrick Halliday rules his family with a rod of iron. He’s hard on both his wife and his elder daughter, Flora, but he spoils his youngest, Mary Ellen, because she reminds him of his beloved mother. When Mary Ellen, aged seventeen, finds that she is pregnant, Patrick throws her out of the family home and Flora goes with her. After wandering the Derbyshire countryside for miles, they find shelter on a farm, working for their keep. When Flora must return to her job as a buffer girl in Sheffield’s cutlery trade, she is reunited with her friend, Evelyn Bonsor.

Victory Shackleford has been married to Hollywood heartthrob Noah Westbrook for nearly two years, and despite all media predictions of doom, she has never been so happy. Of course, her best friend Kit's relocation to Scotland did come as a bit of a blow, but being married to an A list actor has its perks, and ease of travel is definitely one of them.

In 1959 Milly starts her new life as a housemaid at Rutherford House, working for the aristocratic Rutherford-Percy clan. Entranced by her new mistress, Vivienne, she becomes deeply embroiled in the household and the keeper of dark secrets the family conceals beneath the mansion’s grand exterior. In the present day, Christie is working as a psychiatric nurse when she meets troubled patient Lillian Percy, Vivienne’s granddaughter and heiress to Rutherford House. They soon bond over the loss of their mothers.

Meg just wants her family to be together at Christmas. But her mother’s illness gets worse every day and her sister is off doing god knows what. So when Meg loses her job in the bakery, she doesn’t know how they’ll cope. Luckily, she knows Frank, the owner of a local patisserie, who offers her a job. But Meg isn’t suited for fancy cake and frills. All she wants is to feed her family and make them proud, but, as winter takes hold, it feels like everything is stacked against her. Can she make a success of herself before Christmas?

After two years, Meg Fairfax has finally started to make a success of herself. Her skills as a baker have made her enough to buy the bakery she loves and she’s planning a wedding to her fiancé. But Frankie hasn’t been entirely honest and both the bakery and Meg’s happiness are threatened when she discovers the truth. Meanwhile, Meg’s younger sister, Sarah, is attempting to build a life for herself in London but soon realises it’s far from what she expected. Finding herself alone on the city streets, she seeks comfort in the arms of a young cockney named Sam Waites.