Concept and creative process
Andrea Newman's script traces the life and loves of Robbie Mackenzie, a bright ambitious builder from Glasgow newly moved to London. Dick Bailey took inspiration from the subject matter to create a title sequence built out of a fragile house of cards, on which the portraits of cast members are seen and which inevitably and dramatically collapses. A film live action model shoot of specially created playing cards depicted the principal actors in role in several close-up panning sequences, before revealing that they were all delicately balanced in their relationship to one another in the house of cards. A simple optical sequence with a slab serif logo burned in over the fallen cards completed the title.