"The Grimleys" follows the ups and downs of the dysfunctional Grimley family in their struggles with everyday life. Gordon Grimley (James Bradshaw) is an intellectual but feeble schoolboy who has a crush on his teacher, Miss Geraldine Titley (Amanda Holden; Samantha Janus in the pilot). His younger brother Darren (Ryan Cartwright), who also narrates the storyline and sets the scene, is fond of Gordon and sympathetic to his unrequited love for Miss Titley, but is frustrated by his brother's fey personality and his nickname, "The School Spanner". Their father Baz (Nigel Planer) is a bone-idle British Leyland car worker, who injured his back on his first day at the Longbridge plant and went on strike on the second. He has not moved from his armchair since then and spends his days watching television. He is particularly infuriated by Gordon's artistic leanings and is determined that he should do "a man's job" rather than go to university, unlike their hard-working mother Janet (Jan Ravens).