Drop Dead Gorgeous

15-year-old twins Ashley and Jade are sitting in their local café when they are approached by a model spotter from a local agency. But it’s not the beautiful Jade who gets the nod, it’s self-confessed lanky geek Ashley. Parents Pauline and Terry want to support their daughter and give her the best opportunity – so Pauline goes ahead and makes the call. Within days Ashley is introduced to her agent Murray Priestman, contracts are signed, promises are made, and life in the Webb household starts to change. Pauline’s routine of making dinners at the local school, selling cosmetics, and drinking down the local takes a bit of a battering as she encourages Ashley on her big adventure. Twin sister Jade finds it increasingly difficult to deal with her jealousy, now that life seems to revolve around Ashley. Ashley, meanwhile, once she gets over the initial nerves, seems to be fitting into her new life perfectly. It's not long before she gets the call that could change the fortunes of the entire family forever...

Bookings are flooding in for Ashley, so the next stop is catwalk training in Paris. This includes a swish hotel for her chaperone (and mum) Pauline, who is drinking in every moment of her daughter’s success. Pauline finds herself dealing with press opportunities and PR strategies. Egged on by Murray, she is soon talking a different language to everyone else, especially her canteen colleague Val, who she lets down, badly. Terry goes ballistic when he sees a risqué poster shot of Ashley in the middle of Runcorn. He finds himself asking: In this industry, who can you trust?

The first big cheque arrives for Ashley and everyone gets a chunk of it. There’s enough left over for the girls to send the grown-ups off to a swanky hotel in Manchester while they throw a house party. The party turns into a complete disaster: the house gets trashed, Jade’s boyfriend Darren leaves with arch enemy Cathy Mac, and Jade gets cosy with Ashley’s boyfriend Hardeep. When she wakes the following morning she knows this was a seriously bad move. A knock on the door the next morning brings shocking news for Terry as a tabloid reporter uncovers a secret from his past, bringing public humiliation aplenty for Murray and Pauline. Ashley realises that all this attention and subsequent unhappiness stems from her modelling, so threatens to give the whole thing up.

Ashley’s been invited to model at her first runway show and the entire family, plus selected hangers-on, arrive in glamorous London for the event. A nervous Ashley storms the show, but Pauline’s behaviour is becoming increasingly odd. The next gathering for the Webbs is at Jade and Ashley’s 16th birthday party. Pauline uses the event to declare the birth of "Pauline Webb Management", and her first client is Ashley, which creates World War III between Murray and Pauline. Behind all the smiles and birthday wishes, Jade reveals to Orla her worries about being pregnant with Hardeep’s baby. As secrets start to unravel, a crushed and lonely Ashley accuses her entire family of hating her and moves into Nana’s house and back to Murray’s management. This decision seals a £1m cosmetics contract, making Ashley a very rich, yet very unhappy girl...