--- title: "At Home with the Braithwaites" year: 2000 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/at-home-with-the-braithwaites" fi1m_id: "at-home-with-the-braithwaites" imdb_id: "tt0231012" tmdb_id: 10466 wikidata_id: "Q4812342" fi1m_score: 71 critics_reviews: 1 published: "2026-10-07T13:16:38.792975+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T13:16:47.472099+00:00" region: "SG" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # At Home with the Braithwaites (2000) Created by Sally Wainwright · 48m · Comedy, Drama ## Identity At Home with the Braithwaites - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/at-home-with-the-braithwaites - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** at-home-with-the-braithwaites - **IMDb ID:** tt0231012 - **TMDB ID:** 10466 - **Wikidata ID:** Q4812342 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0231012/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/10466, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4812342 **Fi1m score: 71** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* A woman wins thirty-eight million pounds and the hardest thing she does with it is keep her mouth shut > Sally Wainwright’s family comedy has a first-rate idea, a cast that plays it straight, and in Amanda Redman a liar we are glad to be in on. The later series run out of secret and reach for incident instead, but the first two are a pleasure. ## Synopsis Alison Braithwaite (Amanda Redman), a housewife in a comfortable Yorkshire suburb, wins thirty-eight million pounds on the lottery and tells nobody. Not her husband David (Peter Davison), who is having an affair with Elaine Fishwick (Judy Holt) and believes himself discreet. Not her three daughters: Virginia (Sarah Smart), quietly in love with Megan Hartnoll (Julie Graham), the married woman next door; Sarah (Sarah Churm), a teenager furious about most things; or Charlotte (Keeley Fawcett), the youngest, who notices more than anyone credits. Alison sets up a charitable trust, rents an office and starts giving the money away, while the family assume she has found a job. Each week the lie needs another lie to hold it up. ## Review The idea is a good one and Sally Wainwright knows exactly how good. A wife and mother wins a fortune and, looking round the breakfast table at the people she would be sharing it with, decides not to mention it. *At Home with the Braithwaites* ran on ITV for four series between 2000 and 2003, twenty-six episodes of forty-eight minutes, and the question underneath every one of them is the same: will Alison tell them, and what will the money do to them if she does. It is a comedy about a family, and a drama about whether that family deserves her. Amanda Redman plays Alison with a face that is doing two things at once, and she lets us see both. In the kitchen she is harried and pleasant and slightly dim, because that is what the Braithwaites expect of her; alone in the car she is sharp, frightened and rather enjoying herself. The laughs come from the gap between what the family think they know and what we know, and Redman never winks at us across it. Peter Davison’s David is a man of small vanities who thinks his affair with Elaine Fishwick (Judy Holt) is a secret, which is funnier because he is married to the one person in the house who actually can keep one. The daughters are where the show finds its heart and, later, loses its footing. Sarah Smart’s Virginia is in love with Megan Hartnoll (Julie Graham) next door and Wainwright writes it as a crush rather than an issue, which in 2000 on ITV was rarer than it should have been. Smart plays the longing in looks and in the way she finds reasons to be in Megan’s garden, and Graham gives Megan a woman’s uncertainty rather than a plot’s convenience. It moved us more than we expected a comedy about a lottery win to manage, and it did so because nobody on screen made a speech about it. Kevin Doyle’s Mike, Megan’s husband and a teacher at the local school, is the quiet best thing in the cast: decent, baffled, and slowly working out that he is the only one not in on something. It is plain television to look at, and that is not a complaint. Eight directors share the run, from Dan Zeff onwards, and none of them tries to make the kitchen into anything but a kitchen. Paul Laugier’s house is the point: pine, beige, a hall table covered in post, a home that looks exactly as much as David earns, so that every new thing Alison buys has to be explained. Sue Hallas dresses Alison a shade too carefully for a woman who is supposed to be at work in an office, and watching for the moment somebody notices is one of the series’ small running pleasures. The trouble is arithmetic. A secret can carry six episodes, perhaps fourteen; it cannot carry twenty-six, and once the writers, Wainwright with Katie Baxendale and Jonathan Harvey, have spent it, they go looking for replacements. Sarah Churm’s Sarah inherits most of the soap plotting, and Churm does her best with storylines that arrive by the week and leave the same way. By the fourth series the show is staging a wedding that runs long and tips into farce, with everyone shouting in a marquee, and we found ourselves wishing for the earlier version in which the loudest thing was Alison deciding not to say something. Wainwright went on to write *Last Tango in Halifax* and [*Happy Valley*](https://film.one/tv/happy-valley-2014), and the Braithwaites are the prototype: Yorkshire women who are right about everything and too tired to say so. This is lighter than either and less controlled, and it has a kindness about ordinary selfishness the later work sometimes trades for steel. Start with the first series, which is the one worth your evening, and stop when the wedding invitations go out. *Fi1m score 71, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is At Home with the Braithwaites worth watching?** *At Home with the Braithwaites* is worth watching for its first two series, and we scored it 71. Sally Wainwright's idea of a wife who wins thirty-eight million pounds and tells nobody is a good one, and Amanda Redman plays the liar straight. The later series run out of secret and reach for soap plotting instead, so we would stop before the wedding. **How long is At Home with the Braithwaites, and what is it rated?** *At Home with the Braithwaites* has episodes of about 48m. It is a comedy and drama series. **Where can I watch At Home with the Braithwaites in Singapore?** *At Home with the Braithwaites* is not on any streaming or rental service in Singapore at the moment. It is available in 4 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is At Home with the Braithwaites, and is it suitable for children?** *At Home with the Braithwaites* is a family comedy-drama with a UK 15 certificate, and it is not violent or frightening. The adult content is a husband's affair, a daughter's crush on the married woman next door and a good deal of lying, all played without speeches. The certificate suggests it is for older teenagers and adults rather than children. **How does At Home with the Braithwaites compare to Clocking Off?** *At Home with the Braithwaites* is the lighter and looser of the two, and [*Clocking Off*](https://film.one/tv/clocking-off) is the better made. Paul Abbott's series gives each Manchester factory worker an hour and a crisis without a wasted scene, where Wainwright's family comedy stretches one secret across twenty-six episodes and runs out. Choose the Braithwaites for warmth and Redman; choose Clocking Off for drama at its tightest. **What should I watch after At Home with the Braithwaites?** After *At Home with the Braithwaites*, try [*Clocking Off*](https://film.one/tv/clocking-off) (2000, Fi1m 82): Manchester factory workers, one secret per episode, told without a wasted scene. Then [*Life Is Sweet*](https://film.one/film/life-is-sweet) (1990, Fi1m 84): Mike Leigh’s family of small ambitions, dreadful cooking and surprising tenderness. ### Reviews we read (1) - **The Guardian**, Nancy Banks-Smith (62/100, inferred): Banks-Smith finds the Braithwaites’ wedding finale overlong and extravagantly chaotic, but entertaining. She singles out Kevin Doyle’s performance as the lovelorn teacher for particular praise. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/apr/10/television.artsfeatures) ## Details - **Created by:** Sally Wainwright - **Creator:** Sally Wainwright - **Director:** Morag Fullarton, Roger Goldby, Matthew Evans, Jamie Payne, Andy De Emmony, Robin Shepperd, David Innes Edwards, Dan Zeff - **Writer:** Sally Wainwright, Jonathan Harvey, Katie Baxendale - **Production design:** Paul Laugier - **Costume design:** Sue Hallas - **Producer:** Jacky Stoller, Hugh Warren, Sue Pritchard - **Cast:** Amanda Redman as Alison Braithwaite; Peter Davison as David Braithwaite; Sarah Smart as Virginia Braithwaite; Sarah Churm as Sarah Braithwaite; Keeley Fawcett as Charlotte Braithwaite; Ishia Bennison as Denise Skidmore; Lucy Whelan as Tamsin; Julie Graham as Megan Hartnoll - **Runtime:** 48m - **Release (Singapore):** 20 January 2000 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama ## Where to watch in Singapore Not streaming, renting or buying in Singapore at the last check. Also available in: CA, GB, IE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Happy Valley* (2014): Wainwright with the comedy drained out; the same women, now carrying police radios. - *Clocking Off* (2000), Fi1m 82: Manchester factory workers, one secret per episode, told without a wasted scene. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/clocking-off.md) - *Butterflies* (1978): Wendy Craig’s housewife wants out of the kitchen and never quite leaves it. - *Life Is Sweet* (1990), Fi1m 84: Mike Leigh’s family of small ambitions, dreadful cooking and surprising tenderness. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/life-is-sweet.md) - *Mum* (2016): Lesley Manville tolerates her relatives in a hallway; a comedy of saying nothing. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/at-home-with-the-braithwaites