During a train ride, an anxiety attack leads middle-aged illustrator John into an identity crisis. As his marital problems merge and blur into his fantasy life with prostitutes and call girls, a long-dormant secret friend of his childhood surfaces in his delusions. Potter viewed John as "a victim of what he himself has created, a sexual fantasy that gets out of control. Fantasy should be one of the registered sexually transmitted diseases which in John's case, it is."
Loosely based on British author and film director Dennis Potter's 1986 novel "Ticket to Ride", Secret Friends follows the life of John (Alan Bates), a middle-aged wildflower illustrator in the throes of an identity crisis. John, while on a train bound for London, tries to distinguish between illusion and reality, unsure of whether or not he actually murdered his wife Helen (Gina Bellman), or if that too was part of his many delusions. John (Bates), after a recent onslaught of marital strife, had delved into his own mind, creating an elaborate fantasy life filled with prostitutes and a menacing imaginary friend left over from childhood. Secret Friends also features performances from Frances Barber, Tony Doyle, and Joanna David.
