The Book Group 

American Clare Pettengill, newly arrived in Glasgow, starts up a book group in order to make some new friends. The group consists of three unhappy European football wives, a pretentious ... See full summary »

Stars:

Anne Dudek, Bonnie Engstrom, Michelle Gomez

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Anne Dudek	...	Clare Pettengill 12 episodes, 2002-2003
Bonnie Engstrom	...	Dirka 12 episodes, 2002-2003
Michelle Gomez	...	Janice McCann 12 episodes, 2002-2003
James Lance	...	Lachlan Glendenning / ... 12 episodes, 2002-2003
Rory McCann	...	Kenny McLeod 12 episodes, 2002-2003
Saskia Mulder	...	Fist de Grooke 12 episodes, 2002-2003
Derek Riddell	...	Rab 12 episodes, 2002-2003
Des Hamilton	...	Jackie McCann 8 episodes, 2002-2003
Gotti Sigurdarson	...	Lars 7 episodes, 2002-2003
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Miles Longmuir 6 episodes, 2003
Jack McElhone	...	Wee Jackie 6 episodes, 2002-2003
Karen Kilgariff	...	Jean Pettengill 5 episodes, 2003
Lars Oostveen	...	Bart van Dongen 5 episodes, 2002-2003

Storyline

American Clare Pettengill, newly arrived in Glasgow, starts up a book group in order to make some new friends. The group consists of three unhappy European football wives, a pretentious drug-addict student, a closet-homosexual football enthusiast, and a kind and gentle struggling author in a wheelchair. Each week they meet to read and discuss a new book, which always affects or influences each of the group's lives in some way.

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Plot Keywords:

book | tea | scotland | love | loneliness | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Channel 4 [UK]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 October 2005 (Portugal)

Filming Locations:

Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pirate Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

24 min (12 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Each episode takes place over the course of a month.

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Goofs

Clare propositions Barney on their first meeting, then seems surprised when he turns up at her door on another occasion stoned and propositioning her.

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Quotes

Rab: [Sports bar] It's amazing. What they do, right, is read a book. And then they get together and talk about it.

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Crazy Credits

The first season's opening credits show the characters' houses in the order they appear during the book group sessions: Clare, Dirka, Barney, Rab, and Janice; though he had picked the book, Kenny decided to have the group meet at Clare's instead and Fist hadn't picked one during the first season.

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Connections

Referenced in Team America: Polícia Mundial (2004)

User Reviews

2 great TV series by Annie Griffin!

Hey! I have been sitting watching the TV series "The Book Group" (2002) & thinking how much I love their sarcasm & wit.

And now I have found that Annie Griffin directed an earlier series "Coming Soon" (1999) and 'The Book Group' (2002-3). Both series have that same brew of almost reality, where life is acted out through the comedic antics of the winners & losers within the screenplay.

The tone of truly delightful, witty sarcasm and creamy cutting wit is the thing that I unwittingly connected with in both series, and it is the characters in 'Coming Soon' (1999) & The Book Group's characters' continuous unveiling of how they try to remain true to themselves, & FAIL GLORIOUSLY that brings out what I love about the two series.

Gradually, we begin to get an idea of what is behind the characters' closed doors and understand that there could be a tenuous connection to what most people consider 'normal' but within these people there are many shades and depth of how we all try to connect with reality, maybe miss the mark, then struggle, but move onwards & upwards.

You know I did not know till I checked IMDb! that "The Book Group' was connected to my old favourite series "Coming Soon". AND here it is! Sorry about all the exclamation marks !!! but I am SO elated to find Annie Griffin's gooey, blueberry coated finger in both wonderfully told tales of Scottish (Glasgow) extremist, eccentric behaviours.

"The Book Group" brings us the great work of Derek Riddell as Rab: taciturn tracksuit wearer, who reveals little about himself, has stubble, and literally loves footballers. The wonderful James Lance (from TV's 'Absolute Power') as Barney Glendenning- pretentious, opinionated post-graduate student with blonde highlights & drug problem. Karen Kilgariff as Jean Pettengill Claire's awful, overbearing older sister, who arrives in Glasgow wanting to share Claire's exciting lifestyle and Rory McCann as the wheelchair bound Kenny.

James Lance also plays Lachlan Glendenning- pretentious, bearded, bespectacled brother of Barney, who claims to be an installation artist. Their lives are wonderfully wacky and I recommend you all try to find them on DVD & see how great both series really are.