The Wrong Mans - 1 ª Season

Recently dumped by girlfriend Lizzie, who is now his boss, office worker Sam Pinkett is the sole witness to a car crash on a lonely country road. He picks up an abandoned phone and hears an Asian voice say "If you are not here by 5:00, we will kill your wife." Phil Bourne, the office mailroom boy, who still lives with his mum and craves excitement, encourages Phil to save the woman, keeping their involvement secret from the police, Lizzie, and Sam's office rival Noel. The caller addresses Sam as Mr Stevens, so the two men decide to visit Stevens at the local hospital, where Sam is almost operated on by accident and the man Sam believes to be Stevens is somebody else entirely. The pair thus decide to face the kidnappers alone.

Secret Service agent Jack Walker shoots a man with a stun gun and takes him prisoner. Phil and Sam are also taken prisoner by the real Stevens, who claims that he sent money to his wife's abductor, Mr Lau, a casino owner to whom he owed gambling debts, but it somehow never arrived. He sends the lads to meet Lau with an empty case and they try to bluff him into thinking they have the money to release Scarlett, Stevens' wife. However the deceit is rumbled and they flee, taking with them Lau's nephew Jason, whom they tie up behind the council boardroom. Unfortunately Mr Lau tracks them down and turns up at the office.

Seeing Lau's van pull up outside the office, Phil sneaks in and frees Scarlett, and he and Sam take her to Phil's house, where Phil's mum Linda mistakes her for his girlfriend. They then return her to Stevens, but she is so angry with him that she hits him, accidentally killing him, then ungratefully tells the police that Phil and Sam were the culprits. They flee again and are saved by Agent Walker, who seeks Russian spy Marat Malankovic and seems to think the lads are involved. Stevens is killed by double-crossing fellow agent Smoke; opening his car boot, they find huge sums of money, plus the man he stunned and abducted, who also mentions Malankovic before running away.

After confiding in her father Mr Reid, the council supremo, that a music box has gone missing from her safe, Scarlett contacts Phil and Sam and demands they return it or else she will tell the police they killed Stevens. They discover it was sold to Marat Malankovic and set out to buy it with the money found in the car boot, but Lau pursues them and takes all the cash. They arrive at Marat's house intending to steal the box and find a party in progress, during which Phil saves Marat from an assassination attempt. The grateful Russian gives the lads the music box by way of thanks, but MI5 have discovered that they are driving the deceased Walker's car.

Sam gives Scarlett the music box, but Phil has discovered why she was so desperate for its return: In it is hidden a memory stick which shows her having sex with transport minister Ian Culverson in order to blackmail him into approving an unpopular land deal which will make her father wealthy but leave Lizzie to take the blame. Following their involvement with two murders and deal with Lau, the boys attract the attention of MI5 boss Ms. Cox, who sends agents after them. Smoke kills Malenkovic, then pursues Phil and Sam, accompanied by several of his colleagues and a helicopter.