The recession is biting hard and so Emily and Oliver have decided to downsize and shift their middle-class London lifestyle to a small town in the north of England. They want to live and to work and to raise their two young children in a friendly community, among what Emily terms 'real people', away from the cold anonymityof the city.

So these left-leaning, well-educated people have invited over two of their new neighbours in an attempt to break the ice. Tonight Alan and Dawn are to be offered olives, anchovies and are to be introduced to Karl Marx and abstract art.

As classes and outlooks collide, the scene is set for a meeting which will have consequences as hilarious as they are tragic.