Freddie Thornhill (Sir Ian McKellen) and Stuart Bixby (Sir Derek Jacobi) are an old gay couple who have been together for nearly fifty years. Their lives now revolve around entertaining their frequent guests and hurling insults at each other at every opportunity.

This show tells the story of partners Freddie Thornhill (Sir Ian McKellen) and Stuart Bixby (Sir Derek Jacobi), who have lived together in a small central London flat for nearly fifty years. Constantly picking each other apart and holding on to petty slights for decades, Freddie and Stuart are always at each other's throats, cracking snide remarks aimed at the other's age, appearance, and flaws. However, underneath their vicious, co-dependent fighting, they have a deep love for one another. Freddie and Stuart are often joined by feisty best friend Violet Crosby (Frances de la Tour) and Ash Weston (Iwan Rheon), their young, upstairs neighbor.

In London, Freddie Thornhill (Sir Ian McKellen) and Stuart Bixby (Sir Derek Jacobi) are an aged gay couple who have been partnered for half a century, with Freddie the breadwinner as a struggling actor whose fame is less than he wants to believe, and Stuart the slavish househusband. Their partnership is deep in the closet to Stuart's elderly mother, who still believes her son will someday marry a nice girl and to whom Stuart still speaks on the telephone every morning. Familiarity has bred outward contempt as Freddie and Stuart are constantly bickering with each other, throwing verbal barbs at each other. That familiarity and contempt also extend to their longtime and closest similarly aged friends: wannabe cougar Violet Crosby (Frances de la Tour), forgetful Penelope (Marcia Warren), and always ignored Mason (Philip Voss). But this outward behavior masks true love and affection. Their collective lives are given a burst of energy when Ash Weston (Iwan Rheon), a naive, poor, and good-looking young man, moves into the small studio apartment above Freddie and Stuart's. About Ash, Freddie and Stuart initially ponder "is he or isn't he (gay)", hoping that he bats for the same team as them, Violet hoping the opposite.—Huggo