Fresh Meat

Shipping up as freshers at their shared house are: JP, public school boy with good teeth and an inflated sense of entitlement; Kingsley, charming and crushingly insecure; Josie, determined to experience 'new things'; socially-awkward know-it-all Howard, hard-living Vod; and Oregon, desperate to be cool and terrified of being boring. One by one, the six new students destined to be housemates congregate before term begins - although second year Howard has of course already been in solitary residence for some unspecified time.

The housemates are in social Siberia so they decide to throw a party, spearheaded by Josie in the hope that she and Kingsley will get together - a plan scuppered when Josie's boyfriend Dave turns up unxpectedly. Josie is saved from further embarrassment when Kingsley steps in to prevent one of JP's 'nobhead' friends revealing that she slept with him. Meanwhile, Oregon continues to cultivate her 'alternative' image, dented slightly by the revelation that she has a car.

Kingsley is forced to confess to Josie that he's a virgin, and she offers to 'cure' him. But the deal is undercut when Kingsley unexpectedly winds up having sex with drama queen Ruth. Unable to fess up to Josie, Kingsley nevertheless goes ahead with the plan. Oregon is unimpressed with Shales' cheap efforts at romanticism at a Travelodge, while Vod is forced to actually do some work and has an epiphany - enjoying the book she was meant to read. JP takes Howard under his wing in an attempt to 'humanise' him, but becomes increasingly dependent on him when they go on an expedition to acquire illegal substances.

During a student protest march in London, Vod and Oregon's friendship is threatened when Vod finds out about Oregon's secret affair with Shales. Kingsley pursues Ruth at the demo, but when they both get kettled with Josie, Kingsley's two-timing of the girls is revealed, and Kingsley and Josie fall out explosively. JP's initial plans to use the demo as a free trip to meet up with his mates in a London bar is scuppered as he gets caught up in the demo and radicalised. Meanwhile, Howard and his new best friend Brian have a 'man-date'.

JP finds out his father has serious health issues, and decides the best response is to take his first acid trip. Oregon is distraught to learn that her childhood horse is dying, culminating in the revelation that she isn't called Oregon at all, but Melissa. Meanwhile Vod has a drug overdose and starts to question her own lifestyle and behaviour. Kingsley and Josie compete with one another to become student journalists, with Kingsley unscrupulously using Vod's overdose as subject matter. Josie hits a new low and accepts a marriage proposal from Dave. And Howard has his first date with Geology Girl, but Brian jealousy resolves to sabotage it.

Its the start of the Spring Term and Kingsley has come back with a new image: he's grown a soul patch and started yo-yoing. Josie too is turning over a new leaf by making friends with Heather, a girl from her course and a self-styled mental dental. JPs great friend from Stowe, Giles, has transferred from Exeter, but he has some big news which is about to shatter JPs world. Oregons relationship with Tony Shales is now over, but shes swapped horses, and is now gearing up to become Jean Shales new intern, hoping to make a big splash in the dog-eat-dog world of contemporary poetry. Vod is skint. She owes everybody money and is trying to pay them back in Nectar Points. Howard is moonlighting in the local abattoir and has started to bring home loose meat jazz meat - to the consternation of all the other housemates. Paul Lamb, the invisible housemate, has now moved out, so the group are charged with the task of finding a replacement. Despite their best efforts they are eventually saddled with Sabine a 29-year-old PhD student from Amsterdam, who is clean-living, straight-talking and sober. They refer to her as the Dutch Adult.