Fairy Tales
Billy Goat
Connor Gruff (Paul Nicholls) is the lead singer in boy band Billy Goat. Every week, Connor and his bandmates, his brother Dean (Mathew Horne) and friend Rafiq (Nick Mohammed), play to packed out audiences in clubs around their home town.
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Life off-stage is just as good, Connor's happily married to his childhood sweetheart Carol (Sarah Smart) with three great kids; the womanising Dean is never short of a local groupie to sleep with and Rafiq just loves making music. But Connor dreams of more – he wants to be famous.
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Mathew Horne says: "If I wasn't an actor I'd love to have been a rock star and live the rock star life." He goes on to say: "Having an audience and girls screaming at you is great ... it felt like we were doing it for real."
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When Connor spots an advert wanting brother-based boy bands for a new TV show he's convinced this is Billy Goat's big chance to finally make it. But he hasn't taken into account the response of their manager, Grettongrat.
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Grettongrat makes clear his thoughts on the band's limitations when he states: "You're a top local turn, but that doesn't make you the next Take That."
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After years in showbiz, Grettongrat (Bernard Hill) knows his Ronan Keating from his Robbie Williams and he's not about to let his biggest earning act leave town to make money for somebody else. One by one, the three members of Billy Goat must descend to Grettongrat's office under The Bridge pub to try and break free of his contract.
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Mathew comments: "A lot of the comedy comes when they have to engineer ways of getting out of their contract because the troll is such a shrewd business man and doesn't want to lose the band."
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The path to fame, however, isn't an easy one and when things get desperate, Connor is forced to enter the dark recesses of his soul to make sacrifices he had never imagined...
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Sarah Smart says of Connor's hunger for fame: "He's going through a bit of a mid-life crisis and becomes obsessed with fame. His relationship with his daughter makes him feel old because she is the same age now as he was when he had her and he feels that he should be more successful than he is. Carol has ambition too but is keen to keep the family together."
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The comedy drama also features Holliday Grainger as Connor and Carol's eldest daughter Leeza; Roy Barraclough and June Watson as the unfortunate magician and his wife who make the mistake of messing with Grettongrat; Moya Brady as Grettongrat's spookily capable assistant; and Ted Robbins as Barry the market stallholder who is taught a lesson he won't forget.
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