Parenthood is not what Jamie (Robert Lindsay) and Julie Diadoni (Julie Walters) expected and son Jake is born at a time of domestic tension. Jamie - a handsome failed musician - loses his job and Julie becomes the full time breadwinner, while Jamie takes on the role of house husband. Jake grows up loving his father but resenting his often absent mother. A new pregnancy is the final straw. Bewildered and lost Jake is threatened by the new arrival, he fantasises about the life he should be having without his baby brother. Soon the fantasies turn into reality.

Meanwhile events take a tragic twist as Jamie has his fortune told and is warned that he will have an affair, but only shortly before he dies! Drawn inexorably towards his fate, he falls in love with mysterious stranger Kate (Amanda Mealing) and embarks on an affair. But as events draw to their dramatic conclusions, both Julie and Jamie realise just how dangerous it is to play games with fate.

Jake's Progress began life as part of Alan Bleasdale's aborted 700-page novel that also spawned GBH and was written specifically for the series' two leads, Robert Lindsay and Julie Walters.