The dining table at Number 22 Masefield Avenue is adorned with festive decorations. A large turkey sits at the center, surrounded by roast potatoes, vegetables, and all the traditional trimmings. Six people are seated around the table: WILLIAM SUGDEN at the head, KERRY LEWIS and ERIC DEMPSEY sitting close together, STUART LEWIS across from them, and ELIZABETH JARRETT with her niece TRINITY at the far end. The atmosphere is warm but tinged with an underlying awareness of recent tragedies.
KERRY: Come and pull a cracker.
ERIC: (grinning at her) By the look of you darling, I think I already have.
STUART: (groaning loudly) Oh Christ, Eric. We haven't even started eating yet and you're already at it with the terrible lines.
KERRY: (blushing but smiling) Shut up, I thought it was sweet.
WILLIAM: (chuckling from the head of the table) Leave the lad alone, Stuart. He's just smitten. Nothing wrong with that. Reminds me of how I used to be with Helen when we first... well, the first time around anyway.
ELIZABETH: (speaking softly) This is a beautiful spread, William. You really didn't have to go to all this trouble.
WILLIAM: Nonsense, Elizabeth. It's Christmas Day. And after the year we've all had, I reckon we deserve a proper meal and some good company. Besides, Helen would have wanted it this way. She always loved Christmas, always made sure there was enough food to feed an army.
TRINITY: (quietly, still looking pale) Thank you for having us, Mr. Sugden. I wasn't sure where we'd be today.
WILLIAM: Now, now, it's William. Just William. And you're both very welcome here. You're part of this little family now, whether you knew it or not.
STUART: (reaching for the wine) Right then, shall we say grace or just dive in? Because I'm absolutely starving.
KERRY: Stuart! We should say something. It's Christmas.
STUART: Fine, fine. William, you want to do the honors?
WILLIAM: (clearing his throat) Well, I'm not much for formal prayers, never have been. But I suppose... I'm grateful. Grateful to be sitting here with all of you. Grateful that despite everything we've lost, we've found each other. To absent friends and family. To Helen. And to new beginnings.
ALL: (murmuring) To absent friends. To Helen.
They begin passing dishes around the table, filling their plates.
ERIC: This turkey looks incredible, William. You do all this yourself?
WILLIAM: Most of it. Kerry helped with the potatoes, didn't you love? And Stuart actually made himself useful for once and did the sprouts.
STUART: Hey! I'll have you know I'm an excellent cook when I want to be. Just because I made my money doesn't mean I forgot how to fend for myself.
KERRY: (nudging him) Made your money. Listen to yourself. You sound like some sort of property tycoon.
STUART: (winking) Well, maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I've got a few surprises up my sleeve.
WILLIAM: You're a dark horse, Stuart Lewis. I've known that since you first turned up here. There's more to you than meets the eye.
STUART: (more seriously) Yeah, well. Had to be, didn't I? After what happened to Mum and Dad in '99. Someone had to make sure Kerry and I survived. Someone had to make something of themselves.
KERRY: (reaching over to squeeze his hand) You did more than survive, Stuart. You thrived. I'm proud of you, even if you are an annoying git most of the time.
ERIC: I still can't believe you two went through all that. And then your aunt...
ELIZABETH: (interjecting gently) Perhaps we shouldn't dwell on the difficult things. Not today.
WILLIAM: No, Elizabeth, it's alright. Sometimes talking about these things helps. That evil woman, their aunt, she died in October and left these two with nothing. Homeless. Can you imagine? After everything they'd already been through.
TRINITY: (speaking up) I can actually. Imagine it, I mean. The feeling of having nowhere to go. No one to turn to.
KERRY: (looking at Trinity with understanding) When did you know? About your dad, I mean. About what he did.
TRINITY: (her voice shaking slightly) The sixth of December. The police came to the house. They told me what happened to Mum. That Dad had... that he'd killed her. And then they said he'd fled to America. My own father. A murderer.
WILLIAM: (his voice gentle but firm) You are not responsible for your father's actions, Trinity. You hear me? Owen made his choices. Terrible, unforgivable choices. But that's on him, not you.
ELIZABETH: (tears in her eyes) I still can't believe my brother did such a thing. Ava was a good woman. A kind woman. And Owen just... I don't understand what happened to him. What made him go so wrong.
STUART: People snap sometimes. Doesn't make it right, but it happens. The human mind is a fragile thing.
ERIC: (looking uncomfortable) I know a bit about that. About the mind being fragile. When I came up to Carlisle from Slough back in... well, it was only a couple of months ago, wasn't it? Feels like longer.
KERRY: (touching his arm) Eric...
ERIC: No, it's okay. William knows. You all should know. I came here to kill myself. That was my plan. End it all because I couldn't see any other way forward. And then I met Kerry, and then Stuart, and then William here took me in like I was his own grandson. You saved my life, all of you.
WILLIAM: (gruffly, clearly moved) Well, what else was I supposed to do? Let you wander the streets? I've got more rooms in this house than I know what to do with, and after Helen died... after Martin Nash poisoned her on the thirtieth of July...
He pauses, composing himself.
WILLIAM: (continuing) After that, this place felt like a mausoleum. Too quiet. Too empty. Too full of ghosts. When Kerry turned up on Remembrance Day, the eleventh of November, looking lost and desperate, I saw a chance to fill this house with life again. To do something good with the time I have left.
KERRY: (her eyes glistening) You did more than that, William. You gave me hope. You gave me a home. You're not just some kind old man who took pity on me. You're... you're the grandfather I never had. You're my savior.
WILLIAM: (waving his hand dismissively but clearly pleased) Oh, stop it now. You're going to make an old farmer cry into his Christmas dinner.
STUART: (grinning) Speaking of farming, William. You worked at Bullfrog Farm, didn't you? That's what Kerry told me.
WILLIAM: That's right. My own plot. Worked it from 1959 right up until 2000. Forty-one years of my life spent on that land. Raising livestock, growing crops, breaking my back every single day. But it was honest work. Good work.
ERIC: Bullfrog Farm. That's a peculiar name. How'd it get called that?
WILLIAM: (chuckling) You know, I never did find out. The name was already there when I bought the place. But there was a pond on the property, and every spring you'd hear the bullfrogs croaking all night long. Used to drive Helen mad, especially when she was pregnant with our first.
ELIZABETH: Helen was pregnant when you started your relationship?
WILLIAM: (nodding) She was. Not ideal circumstances, but we made it work. Or we tried to, anyway. We divorced by 1969. Things just... fell apart between us. I was working all hours on the farm, she felt neglected, we were young and stupid and didn't know how to talk to each other properly.
STUART: But you remarried her in the end, didn't you? In 2018?
WILLIAM: I did. But there was a long road between those two marriages. I married Deirdre Kirkbride in 1975. That lasted until 2003. Twenty-eight years. She was a good woman, Deirdre. We had our ups and downs, but we were solid for a long time.
KERRY: What happened?
WILLIAM: Life happened. People change. We grew apart. Then in 2008, I married Lorraine Smith. She was the widow of my old friend Archie Matthews. That raised some eyebrows, I can tell you. But Archie had been gone a few years, and Lorraine and I had always gotten along. We thought we could make each other happy.
TRINITY: (quietly) But you couldn't?
WILLIAM: Not in the end, no. We divorced in 2015. And then, three years later, Helen came back into my life. We were both older, wiser, scarred by life but still standing. We decided to give it another go. And you know what? Those years from 2018 until she died... they were some of the happiest of my life. We got it right the second time around.
ERIC: Makes me think about Kerry and me. We've only been engaged for nineteen days. God, nineteen days. That's nothing, really. But it feels right, you know?
KERRY: (smiling at him) It does feel right. Scary, but right.
STUART: (raising his glass) To Kerry and Eric. May they have better luck than most of us seem to have had with love.
WILLIAM: Hear, hear.
They all drink.
ELIZABETH: William, you mentioned earlier that Helen had a brother?
WILLIAM: (his expression darkening slightly) Stuart. Stuart Tate. He was my brother-in-law during my first marriage to Helen. Good man, Stuart was. Funny thing, actually, sitting here with your brother.
He nods at Stuart Lewis.
WILLIAM: (continuing) Both named Stuart. When Kerry first introduced you and told me your name, it brought back memories. Helen's brother Stuart, he died in 1967. Drowned by a man named Trevor Lawson. Everyone called him "Shifty." Mean bastard, he was.
STUART: (leaning forward) He drowned him? Like, murdered him?
WILLIAM: That's exactly what happened. Never proved it in court, mind you. Shifty was clever. But everyone knew. Helen knew. I knew. Stuart was a young man with his whole life ahead of him, and Shifty took that away from him over some petty dispute about money. I can still remember Stuart's face, even now. Clear as day. The way he used to laugh at his own jokes. The way he'd help me out on the farm when things got busy.
KERRY: That's awful, William. I'm so sorry.
WILLIAM: It was a long time ago. But you never really forget people like that. The ones who were taken too soon. Just like I'll never forget Helen. Just like Elizabeth will never forget Ava.
ELIZABETH: (wiping her eyes) No. No, I won't. And I have to find a way to make peace with what Owen did. For Trinity's sake, if nothing else.
TRINITY: Aunt Elizabeth, you don't have to—
ELIZABETH: But I do. You're my niece. You're all I have left of the family. And William's right. You're not responsible for what your father did. I won't let you carry that burden alone.
WILLIAM: That's the spirit. And you're both welcome here anytime. This misfit family of ours has room for everyone who needs it.
STUART: (grinning) Misfit family. I like that. It's accurate. We're all damaged goods in one way or another, aren't we?
ERIC: Speak for yourself. I'm perfectly normal.
KERRY: (laughing) Oh really? The man who came to Carlisle to kill himself is perfectly normal?
ERIC: Point taken. Alright, I'm a misfit too.
STUART: But seriously though, William. I want you to know something. I know we don't know each other that well. Kerry's told me bits and pieces, and I've only been here a handful of times since November. But you've done something incredible. Not just for Kerry, but for Eric too. And now for Elizabeth and Trinity. You've created something here. A place where people who've lost everything can find something again.
WILLIAM: (clearly touched) Well, I... I don't know about incredible. I'm just doing what seems right. What Helen would have wanted me to do. She was always the compassionate one, always looking out for people who were struggling.
KERRY: You're more like her than you think.
WILLIAM: Maybe. Or maybe I'm just an old man who doesn't want to spend his remaining years alone, rattling around in this big house with nothing but memories.
TRINITY: (speaking up) Can I ask you something, William? How do you do it? How do you keep going after losing so many people? After everything you've been through?
WILLIAM: (taking a long breath) You know, Trinity, that's a question I've asked myself many times. Especially after Helen died. After Martin Nash poisoned her. The anger I felt... the rage... I wanted revenge. I wanted to hurt him the way he hurt me. But revenge doesn't bring people back. It doesn't heal wounds.
ELIZABETH: What does?
WILLIAM: Time, partly. But mostly... it's people. It's moments like this. It's finding new reasons to get up in the morning. When Kerry showed up here on the eleventh of November, she was lost and homeless and desperate. But helping her gave me purpose again. And then Eric came along, and Stuart, and now you two. Each of you has given me something to care about beyond my own grief.
ERIC: That's beautiful, William. Really.
STUART: (more seriously now) You know what gets me? The fact that you're still willing to open your heart to people. After three marriages, a divorce, multiple losses, betrayals, murders... you could have easily become bitter. Shut yourself off. But you didn't.
WILLIAM: Oh, I've had my bitter moments, believe me. Especially after Trevor Lawson killed Stuart Tate and got away with it. And after Deirdre and I split up. And definitely after Helen died this July. But bitterness is a poison, isn't it? It doesn't hurt anyone but yourself. And I figured I've got limited time left on this earth. I might as well spend it doing something worthwhile.
KERRY: (reaching across the table to take his hand) We're lucky to have you.
WILLIAM: And I'm lucky to have all of you. Even you, Stuart, with your secrets and your mysterious fortune from Chesterfield.
STUART: (laughing) What can I say? A man's entitled to his secrets.
ERIC: Come on, mate. You've got to give us something. How did you actually make your money? Kerry's never told me the full story.
STUART: (exchanging a glance with Kerry) Let's just say I made some smart investments. Property, mostly. Saw opportunities where others didn't. Started small, built it up over time. And yeah, I've done well for myself. Well enough that I've been able to secure a future for Kerry and me. That's all that matters.
KERRY: He's being modest. He's bought a house, Eric. A whole house. In Chesterfield. Didn't tell me until last week.
ERIC: Bloody hell! A house? Stuart, that's incredible!
STUART: (shrugging) Like I said, smart investments. And I wanted to make sure that if anything happened to me, Kerry would be taken care of. After losing Mum and Dad in '99, after everything with our aunt... I swore I'd never let my sister be vulnerable again.
WILLIAM: That's admirable, Stuart. Really. Your parents would be proud of you. Both of you.
KERRY: (her voice catching) Do you really think so?
WILLIAM: I know so. You've both survived things that would have destroyed lesser people. You've built lives for yourselves. Found love. Found family. That takes strength.
ELIZABETH: I hope Trinity and I can do the same. Build something new from all this wreckage.
TRINITY: (still looking fragile) I don't know if I can, Aunt Elizabeth. Everything feels so broken right now. Mum's gone. Dad's a fugitive. And I... what I did... the abortion...
WILLIAM: (his voice firm but kind) Trinity, look at me. What you did was your choice. Your body, your life, your decision. Don't let anyone tell you different. And you're not broken. You're hurt, yes. You're grieving, absolutely. But broken? No. You're here, aren't you? You're still standing. That means you're stronger than you think.
ELIZABETH: He's right, darling. You're stronger than you know.
KERRY: We're all here for you, Trinity. All of us.
ERIC: Absolutely. This misfit family takes care of its own.
STUART: (raising his glass again) To the misfits. To survivors. To the family we choose.
ALL: To the misfits!
They drink together, and for a moment, the weight of their collective traumas seems a little lighter.
WILLIAM: You know what? I think we need some music. Some proper Christmas music. None of this modern rubbish. I'm talking about the classics.
KERRY: (jumping up) I'll sort it!
She goes to an old stereo in the corner and puts on a record. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" begins to play softly.
WILLIAM: (smiling) Perfect. Helen loved this song. She'd play it every Christmas without fail.
ERIC: Tell us about her. About Helen. What was she like?
WILLIAM: (his eyes getting distant) She was... stubborn. God, was she stubborn. Wouldn't back down from an argument even when she knew she was wrong. But she was also kind. So kind it almost hurt sometimes. She'd give her last pound to someone who needed it more than she did. And she was funny. Had this wicked sense of humor that could catch you off guard.
ELIZABETH: She sounds wonderful.
WILLIAM: She was. Both times we were married, she was the best part of my life. Even with Deirdre, even with Lorraine—and they were both good women in their own ways—there was always something about Helen. Some spark that never quite died.
STUART: How did you know? When you remarried her in 2018? How did you know it was the right thing to do?
WILLIAM: (thinking) I suppose... I just knew. We'd both lived full lives by then. We'd both made mistakes, had regrets, learned lessons. And when we found each other again, it felt like coming home. Like finding a piece of yourself you didn't even know was missing.
KERRY: (sitting back down next to Eric) That's how I feel about Eric. Even though it's only been a few weeks. Even though we've only been engaged for nineteen days. It feels right.
ERIC: (taking her hand) It does feel right. And I know I came here in a dark place. I know I was planning to end everything. But meeting you, Kerry... and then being welcomed into this house by William... it gave me a reason to stay. A reason to fight.
WILLIAM: That's all any of us need sometimes. Just one reason. One person. One moment that reminds us why life is worth living.
TRINITY: (speaking softly) I'm trying to find that. My reason.
WILLIAM: You will, lass. You will. Give it time. And in the meantime, you've got all of us.
ELIZABETH: We're not going anywhere, Trinity. I promise you that.
STUART: Right then, before we all start properly crying into our Christmas pudding, I think we should talk about something more cheerful. Like what everyone's plans are for the new year.
KERRY: Eric and I are going to start planning the wedding properly. Aren't we, love?
ERIC: We are indeed. Nothing too fancy. Just something small and intimate. With the people who matter.
STUART: And I'm thinking about expanding my business interests. Maybe moving back to Carlisle permanently. I miss being close to Kerry.
KERRY: (lighting up) Really? Stuart, you'd do that?
STUART: Of course. You're my sister. And besides, I like it here. I like this strange little family we've cobbled together.
WILLIAM: You'd be welcome anytime, Stuart. This house is big enough for all of us.
ELIZABETH: Trinity and I are going to get through the trial. When they catch Owen and bring him back. We're going to face it together and then... then we'll figure out what comes next.
TRINITY: (nodding slowly) Together. That sounds good.
WILLIAM: As for me... well, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. Keeping this house warm and full of life. Making sure none of you ever feel alone or lost again. That's my purpose now. My reason for getting up in the morning.
ERIC: You're a good man, William. The best.
WILLIAM: (embarrassed) Oh, stop it. I'm just an old farmer who's lived too long and seen too much.
KERRY: No. You're more than that. You're our family. Our chosen family. And we love you.
There's a moment of silence as the weight of Kerry's words settles over the table. William's eyes are bright with unshed tears.
WILLIAM: Well then. I suppose I love all of you too. My strange, wonderful, misfit family.
STUART: (standing up) Right, I think this calls for a proper toast. Everyone, glasses up.
They all stand, raising their glasses.
STUART: (continuing) To William, for giving us a home. To Kerry and Eric, for finding love against all odds. To Elizabeth and Trinity, for surviving the unsurvivable. To all of us, for being here together on Christmas Day despite everything we've lost and everything we've been through. And to the future, whatever it may bring. May it be kinder than the past.
ALL: To the future!
They drink, and as they sit back down, the conversation shifts to lighter topics—funny stories, shared memories, plans for Boxing Day. Outside, snow begins to fall softly, dusting Masefield Avenue in white. Inside Number 22, warmth and laughter fill the rooms, pushing back against the cold and the darkness. For this one day, this small group of survivors has found peace, found family, found home.
WILLIAM: (as they begin to serve dessert) You know, when I worked at Bullfrog Farm, I used to dream about moments like this. Days when I could just sit and enjoy good food with good people. Took me most of my life to get here, but by God, it was worth the wait.
KERRY: Every journey's worth it if it brings you home.
WILLIAM: (smiling) That it is, lass. That it is.