Real - Stephanie Merritt

Sally McGinley is a struggling young playwright who has watched her friends achieve success in film and theatre while she is reduced to working for community arts centres and the odd commission for radio. Greg Burns, 44, is a fading actor - television success in a vet drama six years ago is a distant memory, and his twelve-year relationship with Caroline and his daughter has hit hard and frustrating times.

When Sally is commissioned to write a new play for a top West End director and Greg is cast as the male lead, both of them seize the opportunity to enhance their professional lives. They begin an affair which at first seems just the kind of reckless, sexual adventure they'd craved; until Sally announces she is pregnant and they are both forced to make decisions that catapult them into a realisation of just what life entails.