Trottie True

Working class Camden girl Trottie True has long been enamoured with the arts; a fascination only stoked by her father, a "toucher upper" of paintings, much to her mother's frustration. Finally taking to the stage in an open audition at her local music hall aged just nine, she's an instant sensation with audiences, her boisterous no-nonsense working class persona shining through and winning over everyone who sees her perform.

As she enters adulthood, Trottie catches the eye of hot air balloon test pilot Sid Skinner when he crash lands into her family's garden. The dashing, polite young gent seems a dream, and as she is taken across the country by a stage impresario, and Sid even further afield by his career, the pair make a point to rendezvous - each week if possible - whenever they can. However, with her colleagues entertaining far less unpredictable suitors, Trottie soon realises she wants a relationship somewhat more regular and reliable than with Sid and his ballooning.

Back in London, Trottie is engaged to perform at the Gaiety, one of the capital's preeminent entertainment venues and a favourite hang-out of society's most eligible bachelors - young aristocrats, as yet unwed, looking for fun and thrills to while away their days. A few such regulars are more honourable than the others, one of whom (the ever-charming Digby Landon) is far from amused by his friends' gallivanting, but immediately won around to the delights of the Gaiety Girls when he claps eyes on Trottie for the first time!

Setting out to woo the beautiful, self-proclaimed "good girl", his reliable presence is an instant hit with Trottie and the pair quickly become the talk of the town. His parents, Lord and Lady Langdon, are initially shocked by the relationship but soon warm to Trottie's earthy honesty, and when the Lord unexpectedly dies the young couple, now married, are thrown into a whole new lifestyle.

However, with such different backgrounds and attitudes, an underlying strain is ever-present between Digby and Trottie, pushed to breaking point when each is seen in public with their respective former loves. Is the Langdons' relationship based on true love, and can it survive the expectations and beliefs of the age?