Great Night Out

Background

The series follows the misadventures of four former school friends and cheeky chappies Matthew 'Beggsy' Begg (William Ash), Paddy 'Hodge' Hodgkinson (Lee Boardman), Glyn Thwaite (Craig Parkinson), and Darren 'Daz' Taylor (Stephen Walters) who all live in Stockport. All four love football and are lifelong fans of Stockport County. Hodge has been married for five years prior to the first episode, whilst Daz is in a long-term relationship. Glyn and Beggsy both get girlfriends as the series progresses. They frequent their local pub, the Admiral Nelson, where they often tease and banter with the landlord Warren Peterson (Ricky Tomlinson).

Actor Stephen Walters, who plays Daz in the series, described the show to the British comedy guide website saying: "Great Night Out is a positive and upbeat comedy drama series and audiences love that sort of escapism. People don't always want to sit though something dark and hard-hitting and depressing. There's a place for those sort of shows, but at a time when people are tightening their belts this series is all about warmth, friendship and pure escapism."

Hodge

Paddy Hodgkinson, a.k.a. "Hodge", sees himself as the leader of the group, although his friends don't see him that way. He talks with the voice of authority on most subjects, even when his knowledge is lacking. He is very humorous and banters with Beggsy and landlord Warren a lot. Whilst he thinks of himself as the man of the house, his wife Kath usually overrules him.

Beggsy

Matthew Begg, a.k.a. Beggsy, often rubs Hodge up the wrong way and winds him up. Overall though he's a friendly man, happy being single with the odd one night stand. Divorced for a year, he still pines after his ex-wife Mandy who left him a year ago, running off to Australia to live with her new husband Wayne and taking their eleven-year-old daughter Kelly with her. At the beginning of the series he's the only one without a partner and he's in a bit of a relationship funk.

Glyn

Glyn Thwaite is a lovable underdog. He's a sensitive man and a nice hard-working guy who's unfortunately always one sentence behind and forever playing catch-up. Glynn works for "Mad Tony" who is known for his hot-temper; in episode 6 he has to look after Tony's house, but the lads decide to have a party there when Stockport County F.C. play Manchester United. He meets his high-school crush Julie played by Christine Bottomley, and yearns after her, but seems to embarrass himself every-time he attempts to talk to her, despite taking the advice of the others in the group. He eventually does win her heart and she becomes his girlfriend.

Daz

Darren Taylor, a.k.a. Daz, is the fourth member of the gang who is described as the eternal pessimist of the group. He's the first to pull Hodge up on his sometimes questionable fashion sense, and the first to put a negative on a situation. He often performs strange actions, such as climbing on the roof of a house in episode 2 and claiming it was 'tranquil'.

Kath

Hodge's wife Kath is played by Rebekah Staton. She often has the final say with Hodge, who is intimidated of her, but they really do love each other, despite many of Hodge's poor choices and mistakes.

Colleen

Naomi Bentley plays Colleen, Daz's long-suffering girlfriend. The fact Daz is set in his ways ('I like what I like' is a repeated line of Daz's) frustrates her.They share a very On-again, off-again relationship, and no-one can understand why they are still together.

Julie

The female trio is completed by Christine Bottomley who plays Julie, a nurse and Glyn's love interest. She went to high school with Glyn and is now a gorgeous young blonde-haired single lady who seems to be way out of Glyn's league. But, then they bump into each other at a nightclub and the will-they-won't they relationship takes off. Julie visibly finds Glyn attractive and quite interesting; she's also shy, much like he is.

Warren

Played by Ricky Tomlinson from The Royle Family, Warren is a fun landlord who does anything he can to get the boys coming in. He wants their custom but he also has a secret admiration for them all and really cares about them. He is a father figure to them, he enjoys playing pranks on them and participating in banter. He has quiz nights and bingo, to make as much as he can, however he doesn't really want anyone to win. But he has to put them on because all the other pubs in the area do, his idea of prizes are rather questionable, such as when he had a meat raffle, the sausages were already a fortnight out of date so he advises the winner (Glyn) of this.

Pam

Played by Susie Blake, Beggsy's mum Pam's sole objective is that her son should be happy, so she is a perfect mum from that point of view, until she realises she could make herself happy if she had a man. Her son's wife has left him and taken their eleven-year-old daughter with her to Australia where she has remarried. She now really wants Beggsy to find someone else rather than chasing after his ex-wife, who he obviously still loves. She doesn't interfere exactly, but he is always round at her house even though he doesn't live there.

Bev

Bev (played by Isy Suttie) is Colleen's eccentric housemate who is madly in love with Beggsy. She and Daz have an intense feud, but they put up with each other for Colleen's sake. She loves cats and baking cakes, and the secret ingredient to her cake recipes is 'anger'. She says that lederhosen and animal cruelty are some of the things that make her angry. She has also sniffed marker pen at some point, as stated by Colleen in episode 6.

Beryl

Beryl (Esther Coles) is a friend of Pam, Beggsy's mum. She comes across as a bit weird (in one episode, she rattles off bad things about people based on which football team they support (e.g. "Crewe Alex supporters, very poor drivers")), but is obviously very compassionate and would do anything to support Beggsy and his mum.

Zoe

Zoe (Daisy Beaumont) is Mad Tony's girlfriend who many problems for Hodge in episode 2, involving a curry restaurant and her being extremely drunk. She reappears in episode 6, where it is revealed she supports Stockport like the boys.

Tony

Played by Connor McIntyre, Tony (nicknamed 'Mad Tony' by Warren) is a local gangster who lives in a huge mansion in the surrounding countryside. He is Glyn's boss, and owns a dog called Napoleon, which the lads find out about rather unpleasantly the first time they visit Tony's house. In the final episode it is revealed he supports Manchester United.

International broadcast