The script begins with a scene depicting love, that between Gran and her grandchildren and, even though it is only a hint in the background, of the love between Gran and Mary. This is a comfortable kind of love, the love of belonging, of companionship. This companionship is an important component of all the love depicted in the rest of the script. A second hint of the importance of love/companionship is also given before the titles start to run, when Dad seeks the bar attendant's advice about a dating agency.

There is obvious affection between Harry and Jeff as father and son. This is revealed through their teasing of each other and their knowledge of each other's habits as in the scene about the dripping shower. In one of Harry's direct addresses to the camera, we not only learn his acceptance of Jeff's sexuality but also his deep love for his dead wife. However, what is important here and what gives the film universality is that this is not just about the relationship between a gay son and his straight father but all parent-child relationships. Lives there a parent, no matter how much loved, who is not, at times, an embarrassment to his or her children?

Harry really tries a little too hard with Greg, showing him his tomato plants, encouraging him to 'think of this as your home too, eh Greg?' in a very kind fatherly manner, joking with him about his sexuality, and anxiously inquiring if Greg practises safe sex. The last straw is Harry's interrupting them in the bedroom, to reinforce his approval by asking how Greg likes his tea in the morning. All this turns out to be a bit too much for Greg and poor old Jeff is left lonely again.

This could be any loving parent; the ability to embarrass as a result of a loving concern remains the same. Perhaps Harry realises how much of the failure of the new relationship is his fault, by rushing in too friendly, too soon. The next day we find his love for Jeff being expressed in his promise to cook his favourite meal and do his washing. This love is not 'sentimental' in the modern sense of the word but is a love that exists in spite of the fact that, as each keeps telling us, they sometimes drive each other mad. As Jeff says: 'You give me the first class shits at times, and I suppose I do you, but I don't think there's many got a father like you ' (Scene 47). That it is a deep and sincere love on Jeff's part can be seen in his care of Harry after his stroke.

Jeff is looking for a lover and a companion. It is sexual love he seeks, but not only that. The scenes used to underline this fact follow Jeff's unsatisfactory evening with Greg. Jeff tells the brief story of a woman he saw on a train.

JEFF: 'Oh, the agonising pain of it all'. That's what she said. I often wondered what she meant but I suppose I knew straight away. She just wanted someone to talk to. Someone to laugh with, have a good time with, cuddle up to. Doesn't seem a lot to ask, does it? (Scenes 28-29)

This could be seen as the main concern of the film, seen in all the different varieties of love the script presents. We see it in Greg's statement upon meeting Jeff in the supermarket: Jeff suggests that Greg might have 'found some nice friend to move in with'.

GREG: I wish. I, you know, I do meet blokes but they're all after one thing. That's not everything in life, is it? (Scene 64)

Dad who rolls his eyes and frowns, obviously wants Jeff and Greg to find true love with each other and the film ends on a note of hope for at least one of the forms of love that the script deals with. Even though it is common enough for parents to want their children to be happy in love, children often find it hard to accept that older people such as parents and grandparents require love and companionship too. Another kind of love we find in the script is that between man and woman, but in this case, an older man and woman, both with grown-up children. In both cases, the children support their parents. The treatment isn't over-romantic. Harry might get down on his knees to propose to Joyce but he realises it will not be the same as it was with Jeff's mother:

DAD: Joyce. Mmmmm mmmm I can't say I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life, but I'm the happiest I can remember being for a very long time.

Joyce tells Jenny, her daughter, 'I haven't had so much fun in ages.' And the scenes between Harry and Joyce all emphasise a loving, sharing of enjoyment. After meeting Jeff poor Joyce realises only too late what a fool she had been to reject Harry because he hadn't told her about Jeff's sexuality.

Perhaps the most poignant love in the script and the one hardest for young people to accept, regardless of sexual orientation, is that between people in the grandparent generation. Gran and Mary's story is fondly remembered by Jeff and although Harry agrees it was a lesbian relationship that was formed after the death of his grandfather, he has difficulty with the words Jeff uses, just as he has difficulty with the word gay, preferring his own coinage, cheerful. All the same, Harry is able to joke with Jeff and Greg about their sexual activity, leading to some of the funniest lines in the script; funny because unexpected from Harry. Jeff, on the other hand, wants Harry to accept all these words as ordinary, acceptable and as part of ordinary, everyday life. Eventually, Harry does come to accept his mother's relationship with Mary as being a serious loving relationship: after his stroke, he tells the audience the sad story of their forced final parting (Scenes 68-69). It is this relationship that may be the most difficult one for young people to accept, not because it is a lesbian relationship so much as because of the age of the people involved.

To what extent does the film imbue this relationship with ordinariness and make it acceptable as a loving and companionable one?