Miss Fozzard is a lonely, middle-aged department store clerk in the Soft Furnishings Department whose free time is mostly spent caring for her brother after he suffers a stroke.

Celia is a covetous antiques dealer who brazenly aids elderly neighbours for the sole purpose of being in a good position to buy their treasures on the cheap when they die.

Wilfred is, we discover over time, a reformed paedophile living under a false identity and working as a much-praised maintenance man in a public park.

Rosemary is a lonely woman who takes it upon herself to tend to a female neighbour's garden after the latter is arrested for murdering her abusive husband.

Violet is a confused, elderly woman in a nursing home who has been told by the excited staff she will soon be receiving a congratulatory telegram from the Queen in honour of her one hundredth birthday.