Geri Essendine is a hugely successful actress who has been 39 for the best part of a decade. Her personality, wit and charm have earned her a legion of devoted fans, young and old, and a coterie of friends, acquaintances and hangers-on. Just as she is about to depart for a tour of Australia, Geri finds herself besieged by a bevvy of would-be lovers, not to mention her long-suffering secretary, estranged husband and an obsessed young playwright. Will she ever disentangle herself from their tightening clutches and incessant demands? And deep down, does she really want to…?

October 1943. In a small office on the Avenue Foch in Paris, a Gestapo interrogator is questioning a young woman who has been known by many different names: Babuli, Jeanne-Marie, Nora, Madeleine. As one of the secret agents of Britain's Special Operations Executive – and the first female radio operator to be sent undercover into France – she has evaded capture far longer than most. But now she has been betrayed. As she faces the fate she has dreaded so long, memories crowd in – a beloved father, a thwarted lover, a gruelling journey to war, and an endless longing for her childhood piano. What has led her here? a small and quiet light is based on the life of Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan (1914-1944), an extraordinarily courageous woman who paid the ultimate price for her heroic fight against fascism.

In the idyllic summer of 1939, four aristocratic young men swear a strict, three-year vow to avoid women and focus on academic study, a plan instantly upended by the arrival of a vibrant Princess and her witty friends. The fast-talking Berowne and Rosaline lead a high-energy battle of wits, but their summer of flirting is abruptly cut short by the devastating outbreak of World War II, forcing the lovers to separate. Fast-forwarding to 1945, the battle-weary soldiers return to the exact same country estate to heal, with the original lovers now evolved into a bruised, older Benedick and Beatrice. While a bitter comrade schemes to destroy the whirlwind wedding of a younger couple, the mature lovers use their legendary, protective banter to shield themselves from the vulnerabilities of a post-war world. Ultimately, through the chaotic intervention of a local home guard, the malicious plots are uncovered, allowing the community to find joyful reconciliation and closure after six long years of separation.