A beautiful, large shell of a house has been bought by a young couple Paul and Laura. They, in turn, have hired two Geordie builders (and brothers) Joe and Trevor Purvis to renovate the house for them. Although Joe has worked nearby and is an experienced carpenter, Trevor has little experience and the size of the job is beyond their normal endeavours.Joe drives down from Newcastle in his massive camper van, bringing with him Janice, with whom he is having an affair. She thinks that they are about to spend a romantic weekend for two in London and is less than impressed when he stops to pick up Trevor who, in turn, has also decided to bring along his wife, Karen and their nine month old baby Daniel. By the time they've reached London, the women are fighting and both walk out on the brothers.Meeting Paul and Laura is painless enough, although Paul does seem uptight and particularly wary of the builders' abilities. This fear is realised when Trevor tries to light the gas on the old kitchen
Janice's husband Ray is still gunning for Joe, except this time it's not a truncheon that he's wielding - but a crowbar - and the injured parties don't include Joe.To compound the situation, Janice intends to leave Ray which is certainly not part of Joe's plans. Then the house they're renovating meets with a crisis which Trevor and Joe, with baby in tow, assure the owners it's nothing they can't handle!
Joe is hiding something from Trevor - and how long will it be until he discovers what it is?
The publicity continues for this high profile venture, which is a success for Robson's Coastal Productions - but I can't help thinking how on earth they'll manage to make another series out of it.....
Promised to be the most eventful and best episode yet - and don't we know that it has certainly been slow in parts. Joe is briefly reunited with his wife while in Newcastle to see his sick granddad, along with Trevor.
There was a lot more serious stuff in last week's episode, which made the show a lot more entertaining than usual.
The story moves back to London for this weeks show, with battling brothers Trevor and Joe continuing with the renovation of Paul and Laura's house. But his visit to Newcastle has left Joe in a black mood that leads to him erupting in violence - keeping things moving along nicely due to the on screen tension between Joe and Trevor.
Last week was even better than the brilliant episode before - the series storyline does seem to be getting stronger as it progresses. Following the collapse of the ceiling everyone is trying to tip-toe around Joe whose black mood is inescapable and what he really needs is a heart to heart with his dad Lennie - who himself is in a pickle over the young thing from next door!
Trevor is beginning to feel a new lease of life - he's free of Karen, enjoying his work and won't have a moping brother spoiling his fun. Having agreed to help Laura at the housing association, Trevor encounters Debbie a homeless girl and develops a close friendship with her.
It is then that Trevor finds himself the object of both women's attention. He can hardly keep a smile off his face much to the irritation of Joe who's slumping further into depression. And as for Laura and Paul - what hopes for a marriage where the wife strides into his office and holds a full scale row for all to witness?
Unscheduled council intervention brings work to a halt, and Joe finds himself on the receiving end of Laura's fury when she learns that he warned Trevor to keep her at arms length - Laura however can't bring herself to sack him!
The concluding episode of this very slow to start first series. This week the house is nearly finished but the brothers' business is in tatters. Laura realises that she must choose between Paul and Joe....
What a great ending to Grafters and quite unpredictable - we were kept guessing right until the end - would she or wouldn't she? I think everyone was in love with Laura in the end, a great performance from Emily Joyce.
If you stuck it out past the first three episodes then you won't have been disappointed - with all characters having some great scripts. Congratulations to Coastal/ Granada and the whole of the production team for a great series.