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Hywel Bennett stars as James Shelley: an erudite, highly articulate graduate and bone-idle skiver who spends his days pondering life's philosophical implications whilst dodging the bureaucratic machinery that has the gall to insist that he actually work for a living. At the series' outset he shares a little North London bedsit with girlfriend Fran, but his life of reflective slothfulness comes increasingly under threat from the attentions of the labour exchange and the pressing realities of fatherhood, home-ownership, marriage and divorce...

A huge success for ITV, running for a total of ten series over thirteen years, Shelley features a masterful performance by Bennett with regular appearances by Warren Clarke and Garfield Morgan, and guest turns from Kenneth Cope, Alan Rickman, Leslie Ash, Fulton MacKay and James Grout, among many others. This set contains every episode of the initial run of six series, including the 1980 Christmas Special.