The Ploughman’s Lunch

James Penfield, an ambitious London-based BBC radio reporter, is commissioned to write a book on the Suez Crisis. He undertakes the assignment while the Falklands War dominates British media. The commission foreshadows the blend of ambition, deception and personal entanglements that follow.

James meets Susan Barrington, introduced by his Oxford friend Jeremy Hancock. He pursues her, but progresses stall after a late-night kiss. Jeremy suggests he instead tries to win Susan's mother.

During a visit to Norfolk, James befriends Ann Barrington, Susan's mother, a prominent left-wing historian. He learns that Ann wrote an article on the Suez Crisis on its tenth anniversary, and uses that to frame his interactions. They take long walks on the Norfolk Broads as trust grows.

To secure Ann's company, James begins claiming to be a socialist, and he ends up spending more time with her than with Susan. Their conversations drift into politics and history, creating a dangerous closeness. His aim remains to seduce Susan by befriending her mother.

James's mother is dying, a fact that unsettles him as he has previously said his parents were dead. When his father contacts him during a visit with Ann, he is forced to identify his mother as a relative. The personal crisis compounds the lies and loyalties he is juggling.

Returning to London, James suffers a puncture and seeks help from members of a women's peace camp. He is initially mistaken for another BBC man, and he offers feigned sympathy toward the protesters outside a Norfolk airbase. The encounter reveals his growing willingness to bend truth for his career.

A week later, James returns to Norfolk with an uninterested Susan, and walks alone with Ann, who kisses him and later has sex with him.

Back in London, over a ploughman's lunch with Matthew Fox, Fox consents to James making love to his wife, since the two have slept in separate beds for the last three years. James refuses to take calls from Ann, signaling a switch in his loyalties. The arrangement marks a new moral line in his relationship web.

An Oxford poet friend calls Ann to end the relationship, and James is left to face the fallout. He sits idly by reading advertisements in Exchange and Mart, watching his life drift away from him.

James, Jeremy, and Susan travel to Brighton in James's Jaguar to cover the 1982 Conservative Party Conference. At the start, James suspects their closeness; he tries to talk to Susan, but she brushes him off.

During the conference, Susan and Jeremy's affection becomes evident as they caress each other after returning from a hotel room. James confronts Jeremy in the Brighton Centre, accusing him of betrayal, and Jeremy reveals a long-standing bond with Susan as 'old allies'.

Back in London, James discusses with his publisher the anticipated success of his book, weighing career rewards against personal turmoil. The conversation highlights the friction between public achievement and private deceit.

James attends his mother's funeral, standing grim-faced and aloof at his father's side, checking his watch as the ceremony unfolds. The sombre moment underscores the costs of his complicated life.