Days of the Bagnold Summer sweetly draws you into the wobbly relationship between well-intentioned single librarian Sue Bagnold and her black-clad teenage son Daniel, who'd rather listen to Metallica than his mother. Daniel was meant to spend the summer in Florida visiting his dad, but is now stuck with Mum following the trip's cancellation. The film boasts supporting turns by Rob Brydon and Alice Lowe, but belongs to its two leads. Long-suffering Sue is sympathetically portrayed by Monica Dolan, with Earl Cave's Daniel a suitably lank-haired, pale-skinned picture of adolescent metal-head angst.
Colm is in his mid-forties, married, with two teenage children. Still grieving the death of his father, a destructive gure in his life, Colm struggles with his relationship to his own son, whilst at work a recent takeover threatens his job. Unable to share his vulnerability with his wife, Colm's world is falling apart around him. In the midst of this crisis, Colm solicits sex from a young man called Jay. This encounter and his growing infatuation has a deep effect on Colm. He finds a comfort in Jay that no one else can provide.