Hope Springs (UK)

Local fount of all knowledge (and gossip), Sadie's life gets entangled with the women's soon after their arrival in the village when they turn up at her hotel looking for a bed for the night. At 70 years of age, running The Hope Springs Hotel is no mean feat, even if Sadie could be bothered to make the effort to do it properly. It's infested with mice and the cobwebbed bar hasn't seen a duster in living memory, so when Ellie and the girls pitch up and offer to buy Sadie out, she sees them as guardian angels (or stupider than they look) - paving the way to a very happy retirement. They can take on all the responsibility and do all the hard work whilst she'll carry on living in the pub, enjoying their company – and drinking their booze. For Sadie, it's a win/win situation. Little does she know…!


But Sadie's no fool and can play the con as readily as these crims from down South. Like them, Sadie's a survivor. She's also wily, opinionated, idle and - contrary to what she’d have everyone believe - fit as a fiddle. Sadie soon positions herself as part of the gang and, together with Ellie, Hannah, Shoo and Josie, she finds a true family.

This is in stark contrast to her antagonistic relationship with her own daughter Ann Marie. Ann Marie sees her mother as difficult and troublesome; Sadie sees Ann Marie as manipulative and a user - not realising she’s been taught by a master! Hurt by Ann Marie’s apparent rejection, it's through the women that Sadie's lonely life is transformed.