Pat and Margaret - Plot

Plot

Margaret Mottershead (Victoria Wood) works as a cook at a motorway service station. She joins her colleagues on a works outing to London to see a recording of Magic Moments, a Surprise, Surprise-style television series. Pat Bedford (Julie Walters), star of an American soap, returns to England to promote her book. During the recording, Pat is backstage and Margaret is in the audience. To her surprise, Margaret is invited onto the stage by the host (Anne Reid), who talks about her sister Patricia; she didn't get on with their mother and left 27 years ago. To their surprise, Pat and Margaret are reunited on stage and embrace. After the programme ends, Pat doesn't want to speak to Margaret or find out more about her, and tells her to leave. She takes an instant dislike to her and "can't afford to have her here", fearing the damage to her reputation. However Pat's assistant Claire (Celia Imrie) sympathises with her and Margaret returns with Pat to her luxury hotel.

In the morning, Pat tries to pay Margaret off for the second time, but fails. A Magic Moments film crew arrives to follow them getting to know each other for the next week, and Pat resigns herself to staged bonding for the cameras. Margaret phones her boyfriend Jim (Duncan Preston), but his disapproving mother (Thora Hird) withholds the message. Journalist Stella (Deborah Grant) has heard there is a Vera in a nursing home in Pat's home town and heads north to investigate with photographer Billy (Don Henderson). After reading about a Vera in the newspapers, Pat persuades Margaret to accompany her to stop Vera talking to the press. One step behind Stella, they eventually find her (Joane Hall), but it's not their mother. Meanwhile Jim goes to London to find Margaret, where he meets Claire, who tells him Margaret has headed north. Claire keeps him company on his return visit, but she has forgotten Pat's luggage and they wait with Jim's mother for them to arrive. Stella finds out Pat was pregnant at 15 and gains a photograph of Vera; she later identifies her in photographs related to another story and goes to visit her.

After vising their childhood home and Claire failing to meet them at Pat's hotel, Margaret takes Pat to her bedsit, where they continue to get to know each other. Margaret reveals Vera was imprisoned after Pat left, and Pat reveals she was thrown out because she became pregnant; she returned after giving birth but the house was empty. In between, Jim arrives with Pat's bag, and an irritated Margaret ends their relationship because of his interfering mother. To get Pat to turn up at Vera's, Stella spots Jim and Claire, and passes him a note, saying it's from a fan. Pat takes Margaret to the Swiss Cottage Café where Pat once worked; Claire joins them for dinner. The owner is selling up, and Claire passes Pat the note. It directs them to their mother (Shirley Stelfox), where Pat and Vera argue about their past. Stella and Billy appear; she has found out about Pat's tragic life, describing it as a "marvellous story". She proposes a sympathetic story of Pat's life, if Pat, Margaret and Vera exclusively tell her everything.

The story concludes with Margaret and Jim making up; he decides to leave his mother and move in with Margaret. At the airport, Pat fails in persuading Margaret to fly back to the United States with her, handing her a set of keys and a letter. In the VIP lounge, Pat waits with Vera: "they're very big at the moment, celebrities' mums". The final scene shows Margaret and Jim happy, clearing up at the Swiss Cottage Café.