Five ageing mates play football together every Tuesday evening. They lose every game but don't care because as soon as the match is over they hit the pubs and the clubs and gradually their lives spiral downhill.
Men Only is the antithesis of the current trend for cool laddy drama. It doesn't glorify the action of the men nor does it place them in some cartoon world. What is most striking about thesemen is their apparent normality.
Writer Richard Cottan, believes this is one of the most challenging aspects of the drama, especially for women: The premise that the man women viewers are sitting next to is potentially the same as the men on the screen is a difficult one:
"Take that guy on the sofa and try to imagine him out of the room, away from his partner. Imagine him feeling frustrated and undervalued. How can that escalate with other men who feel the same way?"
Producer Jake Lushington says of the drama: "It is a world where men seem to be much more schizophrenic, sneakier, guilty, demanding lots of emotional support but also wanting the respect and power which their fathers had but has been lost to them
for a generation."