Peter Kingdom lives and works in Market Shipborough, a beautiful and charming Norfolk market town. He is one half of the local solicitor’s firm Kingdom and Kingdom. Without warning, six months ago, his brother Simon left his clothes on the beach and disappeared into the sea. His body has not been found and it will be seven years until he can be officially declared dead.

As the series begins, Peter is collecting Simon’s last effects from the police station. He puts on a brave face and returns to work. Peter is a figure of strength and goodwill in the local community; intelligent, generous and hard working. The only chink in his armour is his visit, night after night, to the beach where Simon died.

Market Shipborough is a tightly-knit and lively town, full of quirky and loveable characters . At Kingdom and Kingdom, a Georgian building overlooking the central market square which is also Peter’s home, we meet Gloria (Celia Imrie), his loyal and sensible receptionist, Lyle (Karl Davies), his young and confident clerk, Milly, his dog and a flow of colourful and often eccentric people who walk through the doors in search of legal advice. There’s also a mysterious woman by the name of Mrs ‘Thing’ who Peter tries his best to hide from.

Two cases land on Peter’s desk. First it’s Mr Sidney Snell (Tony Slattery), who arrives in person, smells like mouldy cabbage, and wants to take action against the Local Planning Authority (for the eighteenth time) over their attempt to build a car park.

Next, it’s the untimely death of Sheila Larsen (Lynsey De Paul), from a heart attack in her jacuzzi whilst drinking champagne with her regular male escort, Rupert. Sheila’s sons, Damien (Neil Stuke) and Mark, estranged and barely on speaking terms, return to gather the money from their mother’s estate. They discover that in spite of her glamorous lifestyle, she has left them a briefcase full of children’s paintings (not their own), a mountain of debts, and a mysteriously empty bank account.

In the midst of this perplexing case, Peter’s younger half-sister Beatrice (Hermione Norris) arrives out of the blue. She is gorgeous but totally unstable and has just discharged herself from rehab. Reluctantly Peter gives her his attic room (home to his treasured Hornby train set). From the moment she arrives she’s causing mayhem – winding Gloria up at every possible opportunity, flirting with Lyle, redecorating without permission, painting the walls black and bedding the decorator.

Peter drives out in his beloved Alvis to visit his aunt Auriel (Phyllida Law), who is in a nursing home. She is a mischievous woman, politically incorrect with glorious abandon and a dear friend to Peter.

Lyle has a breakthrough on the Snell case. Snell has been buying up numerous little plots of land all over town and can now contend a number of council developments – the leisure centre, bypass and sewage works amongst others.

Peter follows leads on the Sheila Larsen mystery. Her sons, Damien and Mark, are left with nothing after all her debts have been paid off, including six months worth of payments to her male escort.

Peter discovers that Sheila’s first child, Karen, was born with Down’s Syndrome, and was secretly sent to live in a residential care home. Karen is now 40 and Sheila had been making donations over the years. Damien takes the news badly. Peter offers to cancel his executor’s fees, but older brother Mark asks that the money be given to the home in line with his mother’s wishes.

Later that evening Peter sits down to enjoy a glass of wine. Peter hears Simon’s Blackberry ringing. Peter answers but the line goes dead.

ITV1 Sunday 22nd April 9PM