This dark comedy tells the story of gruff local newspaper editor Brian Squire and his ramshackle team of reporters on northern weekly newspaper The Heaton Express. With the ever-combative Squire having dragged them into a civil war with their local rivals at the Gazette, matters take a dramatic turn for the worse when it emerges the Express is about to be swallowed up by its more affluent enemy. As Brian struggles to come to terms with the paper’s imminent demise, his long-suffering colleagues are finally forced to confront their own contrasting futures.