Play For Today: Village Idiot | Preview (5)

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Village Idiot is a sharp, heartfelt comedy led by Phyllis Logan (Murder Most Puzzling, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, A Taste for Murder) and Max Harwood (Black Mirror, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Stranger Things: The First Shadow).

Plus Angus Imrie (The Road Trip, The Crown, Fleabag), Kacey Ainsworth (Grantchester, Lynn + Lucy, Sliced, The Madame Blanc Mysteries) and Kathryn Drysdale (Small Prophets, Bridgerton, The Windsors) also starring.

Logan plays Barbara, a ferociously stubborn English grandmother who literally chains herself to her beloved cottage when it’s threatened with demolition by High Speed train developers.

Harwood stars as Peter, the company’s smooth, painfully polite liaison dispatched to remove her - only to discover she’s also his estranged grandmother. What follows is a gloriously awkward battle of wills: Barbara’s weaponised stubbornness and talent for public protest versus Peter’s frantic attempts to keep his corporate career (and dignity) intact.

As their standoff snowballs into a small town circus of press, protestors, and well meaning locals, both are forced to reckon with what “home” really means — and whether blood ties can survive locked gates, padlocks, and a very watchful village.

Witty, warm, and sharply observed, Village Idiot captures rural England on the brink of change, balancing laugh out loud comedy with genuine emotional punch.

Play For Today continues Fridays at 9pm on 5.