Season 1 2001

Shades is the story of two strangers who meet after their deaths in contemporary London. Mark (Stephen Tompkinson) is an uninsured blue-collar family man who dies during routine surgery; though he's managed to hide it from his pregnant wife Jo (Sally Hurst), his failing small business has put him on the verge of bankruptcy. Maeve (Dervla Kirwan), meanwhile, is a young single career woman who has a married boyfriend (Peter O'Brien) and who is killed in a hit-and-run incident. The two meet up hours after their deaths, and find they can interact with other humans to a limited extent. The catch? The living immediately forget any conversations they've had with Maeve and Mark the minute they leave...and anyone Mark or Maeve knew during their lifetimes can't see or hear them at all. How these two 'shades', with their differing views on almost every subject, interact with humans -- and more importantly, with each other -- forms the basis of this alternately funny and bittersweet series. Throughout the six episodes Mark and Maeve involve themselves in other people's lives, although their primary focus is on helping to solve each other's problems. And what problems could the dead possibly have? Well, most prominently, Mark desperately wants to make amends to his wife and get his family back on their financial feet again, and Maeve becomes obsessed with catching the mysterious person who killed her