Top of the Naughty List

Chrissie Manby

With just two weeks to go until Christmas, the menfolk of the Benson-Edwards household – stars of The Proper Family series – are both on Santa’s legendary ‘naughty list’. Eight-year-old Jack for the usual childish pranks. His thirty-nine-year-old father Mark for flirting with another woman at wife Ronnie’s office party.

To get back into Santa’s favours, Jack sets about a campaign of ‘good deeds’ ranging from taking his parents their breakfast in bed to doing his grandmother’s dusting. But Mark has a harder task ahead of him. How can he convince Ronnie that her New Year’s resolution shouldn’t be ‘get a divorce’? He decides he’s prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice and put his precious record collection on eBay to raise the money to buy her a very special Christmas gift.

But Jack’s good deeds increasingly end in disastrous results and Mark efforts at regaining Ronnie’s trust look set to come to nothing. The night before Christmas, the festive spirit still hasn’t arrived at the Benson-Edwards’ house. Will fiction’s favourite family make it to Boxing Day?