The opening shots show teenage boys reading aloud from Sue Townsend's book 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole', scenes of Sue writing at her desk and a voice over read by Nicholas Barnes in the style of Adrian Mole. The voice over is in this style throughout switching from the character talking about Mole in the first person to talking about Townsend (blurring the author and character relationship).
Shots of children leaving a school in Leicester cut to an interview with Sue Townsend who discusses her writing career and the way she writes parts of herself into her characters.
Interview with Townsend's publisher, Geoffrey Strachan of Methuen London Limited, on the success of The Secret Diary book.
We next see Sue walking in her home city of Leicester. As the voice over continues about her characters we see ordinary people on the street and in the Haymarket shopping centre in Leicester. We also see the film crew - a fact emphasised in the Adrian Mole voice over.
Townsend is next seen at home washing up and further interview scenes follow covering her love of reading.
Townsend then is seen revisiting her former school - South Wigston High School in Leicester - she walks along a corridor and then chats to a group of children.
We cut back to the interview that now covers her early published work - we see theatre programs for her plays 'Womberang', 'Captain Christmas' and 'The Great Celestial Cow'. The latter was about Asian women in Leicester. A few shots of Asian women in Leicester follow.
Next we visit the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester where the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole is being prepared for the stage. Townsend is seen arriving at the theatre and chatting to director Graham Walking about casting. Walking is interviewed and describes the book as a social document of the 1980s.
A bedroom laid out with props styled after Mole is shown before we cut to scenes of children on a school playing field and play fighting. Townsend's voice over describes her characters.
The final scenes depict the auditions for the lead role in the play. A number of teenage boys read extracts from the Secret Diary and are seen improvising in a theatre workshop.
Adrian Mole read by Nicholas Barnes
Central wishes to thank:
The Phoenix Theatre
Thames Television
S. Wigston High School
Leicestershire Education Authority
and Mr. and Mrs. Mole
Camera: Gerry Pinches
Sound: Steve Phillips; Barry Pritchard; Andy Nelson
Programme Associate: Vicky Allen
Production Assistant: Sylvia Ellis
Editor: Sue Brook
Executive Producer: David Gerrard
Producer: Jim Berrow
Director: Judy Jackson
Central Television production number 3658/84.