The Midnight Beast

- Season 2

(2014)

The boys still are chasing that elusive record contract and Stef is miserable as Zoe has dumped him for chart-topping rapper Sexual P. He goes to a church to pray for guidance and meets a gospel choir but they only convince him he would be better off as a black man. The others meanwhile are engaged by Sylvia, owner of an ex-bingo hall, to play at her grand-daughter Hope's sixteenth birthday party. They opt for a 'Twilight' theme, with garlic-flavoured cakes and punch. Hope is not impressed until Stef appears to sing her a sexy song. Unfortunately it becomes obvious ...

Desperate for money the boys decide to enter the Birdman contest but have to put the idea on hold when their neighbour Sloman tells them that his wife wants a divorce and he 'must get her back '. Worn out by his incessant crying they decide to help him by encouraging him to cultivate a suave image but he really means that he wants to get back at her by proving to be her equal in a martial arts bout. Come the bout Sloman's wife beats him but they agree to divorce as friends and the exercise has given him the courage to tell the boys that he is actually their landlord ...

The boys are all set for a holiday abroad but their passports are deemed invalid when Ash provides selfies for the photos. They decide to simulate their own foreign holiday in a car park, putting down sand and deckchairs with car park attendant Ed posing as their holiday rep. The local homeless community bring them to the attention of sympathetic social worker Jess, who provides Ash with a holiday romance but assumes the boys are genuinely homeless. At least she persuades Ash to make up with the other band members as they return home.

The band is booked to play at a lesbian wedding but Ash's decision to play 'Lez Be Friends' not only causes offence but leads to a row with the other band members as a result of which he decides to go solo. Despite having no visible talent, song or instrument he is a hit at an open mike event, as a result of which talent manager Terror Moses signs him up to his company. Meanwhile Dru and Stef have trouble finding a suitable replacement for Ash so they also decide to go solo. At the end of the day however they learn that they are best off as a band back together again.

The boys return to their old school for a careers fair, to publicize the band but go into flashback to when they were pupils and when Stef set out to involve conceited beauty Alaska in his nativity play - the event that brought the trio together. Ash - and school geek Jason - want to bring' Star Wars 'into the plot whilst Dru's solution to Stef's writing crisis is to get drunk. On the eve of the show Stef comes up with his perfect script, mixing 'Star Wars', Alaska's feminist agenda and the headmaster's insistence on a traditional plot to satisfy everybody.

Sylvia is behind with the rent and owes three thousand pounds, standing to lose the venue, so the boys get Sloman to organize a quiz night to raise funds. It looks as if there are several professional entrants who are bribing Sloman so it is a good thing that the band just happen to know some of the more obscure answers. Dru and Stef fall out over a crucial answer though fortunately Dru has paid a ringer to help them and the building is saved.