AllMovie

The centerpiece of the four-part British miniseries A Mug's Game was an outmoded fish-processing plant in a Scottish coastal town. The local townsfolk, set in their ways, were naturally resentful when outsider McCaffrey (Ken Stott) arrived to modernize the plant and streamline its operation, the first step toward the parent company's efforts to globalize the industry. The only person willing to meet McCaffrey halfway was the widowed Kathy (Michelle Fairley), who lived in town with her extremely dysfunctional family. Things became complicated when Kathy switched her affections from McCaffrey to his ne'er-do-well nephew Con (Sean Harris). Originally broadcast by BBC1 in 1996, A Mug's Game was later shown in a three-part version on American cable TV.