Lytton's Diary (1985)

The editor of The Daily News gossip column has retired, leaving Neville Lytton and his arch-rival Henry Field to compete for the vacancy. When Australian tycoon Wayne Monroe tries to buy the paper, Lytton sets about investigating his past.

Lytton, the new gossip diary editor of The Daily News, spends the day with his estranged wife, Catherine, and Laura Grey, his girlfriend, is less than pleased. Meanwhile, on the work front, Lytton investigates a merchant banker who disapproves of his daughter's relationship with a record producer, has something in his past that he's trying to hide.

Lytton investigates the identity of a masked woman who strips at stage parties. Gambler Lucky Jim Diamond threatens to sue for defamation over an article Lytton has written.

Lytton meets his old friend Hamil, who seems to be involved in a shady deal with an MP called Westaway. Soon, Lytton gets involved and falls victim to blackmail.

Margot Shelley, a fading film star, has just published her autobiography. However, Lytton is more interested in the memoirs of starlet Solveig Lindstrom.

Whilst visiting Catherine, Lytton is informed about strange goings-on at the home of Lord Rimmer. He uncovers a plot to create a right-wing political movement and exposes the story in his paper.

Lytton returns to his desk at The Daily News after a brutal mugging. He is soon involved in investigating a suicide and a Whitehall scandal helps to get him back into the routine.

A new journalist at The Daily News is instantly unpopular when it's discovered that her job is owed to the editor's patronage. Lytton sends her in pursuit of a runaway tennis star.

A famous sex symbol has a change of heart about on-screen nudity and receives a rich and mysterious visitor. Lytton is on the story, but is waylaid by his paper's owner and a mysterious lunchtime appointment.

Lytton investigates why the same well-known faces are always appearing at an American evangelist's healing ceremonies, and is also involved in a confused plan to publish his first novel. The behaviour of the young new editor of The Daily News horrifies him.

Duncan Anderson, a revered public figure and a friend of Lytton's, is regarded as just another old fogey by pop columnist Trevor Bates. Meanwhile, Henry is deeply concerned about midnight meetings in a gazebo.

Lytton is a judge at an international beauty competition gone awry, and finds himself investigating an old friend's financial background. Meanwhile, the paper's owner is planning a technological revolution in Fleet Street.