Olivia Colman, Meera Syal, Aidan McArdle, Layton Williams, Samuel Burnett and Luke Ward-Wilkinson star in Beautiful People, a comic memoir based on the story of Simon Doonan, who was born in Reading but is now creative director of the swankiest store in New York, Barneys. Each week, the narrative moves between New York City, “now”, and Reading, “then”.

In the first episode, Simon is creating a window in the New York store when his assistant, Sacha, knocks over a vase. Memories come flooding back of how he got the vase; of how his mum, Debbie, drank too much of his dad’s homemade wine; of how his sister, Ashlene, was desperate to “hang with the crew in the hood”; of how his mum’s blind best friend, Hayley, betrayed a trust; and of how he came to be wearing a dress that belonged to his best friend, Kylie’s, mum.

When you are 13 and living in Reading in the Nineties, the world is a very strange place…

Thursday 2 October
9.30-10.00pm BBC TWO