Half Broken Things is a psychological thriller

Psychological thriller

Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...

 by English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 Morag Joss

Morag Joss

Morag Joss is an English-born Scottish writer.She is the author of six novels, including the Sara Selkirk series, and Half Broken Things, which won the Crime Writers Association Silver Dagger Award. She began writing in 1996 after a short story of hers was runner-up in a national competition...

. It won the CWA

Crime Writers' Association

The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....

 Silver Dagger in 2003.

Film adaptation

Half Broken Things was adapted for television in 2007, starring Penelope Wilton

Penelope Wilton

Penelope Alice Wilton, OBE is an English actress.-Life and career:Penelope Alice Wilton was born in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, to a former actress mother and a businessman father. She is a niece of actors Bill Travers and Linden Travers and a cousin of the actor Richard Morant...

, Daniel Mays

Daniel Mays

-Early life:One of four boys, Mays was raised in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, by his electrician father and bank cashier mother. He attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts before going on to win a place at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Career:...

 and Sinead Matthews

Sinead Matthews

Sinead Matthews is an English actress.She was born in Coventry. She attended Coventry's Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School and Language College, and studied A-level Drama at Stratford Upon Avon College between 1996 and 1998. She graduated from RADA in 2003, and made her television debut in the 2004...

. The two-hour drama, directed by Tim Fywell

Tim Fywell

Tim Fywell is an English television and film director. Fywell started his career in British television, directing episodes of Brookside. In 2003 his made his feature debut with I Capture the Castle, an adaption of the novel that goes by the same title by Dodie Smith...

, produced by Festival Film & TV

Festival Film & TV

Festival Film & TV is an independent UK based production company founded in 1992 by award-winning producer Ray Marshall.The company is best known for producing The Cookson Dramas for ITV...

 was aired on ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 on Sunday 28 October 2007.

Plot introduction

The lives of three very lonely people - pregnant Steph, on the run from her violent boyfriend, Michael, a petty thief who proves her knight in shining armour, and Jean, a sixty-year old spinster nearing the end of her career as a house

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

 sitter

Sitter

Sitter may refer to:Sitter*Sitter , beam robotics term*Sitter River, Switzerland*Babysitter*Trip sitter*In health care, a companion*a person who poses as a model for a painter or sculptor.The Sitter* The Sitter...

 - collide dramatically within the grounds of the illustrious Walden Manor

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

, where together they seal themselves away from the outside world and build a new life together. However, the fantasy cannot last forever, and events soon take a murderous turn when the first unexpected guest arrives.