First Broadcast: 9PM Thu 10 December 2009

With the longest working hours in Europe, Britain is fast becoming a nation of workaholic parents.

Eight-year-old Ross and 12-year-old Maddie Adams have had enough of never seeing their dad and decide to take action. Ross and Maddie take matters into their own hands: in an unusual sting they kidnap their unsuspecting father from work in front of his entire staff and force him to be a dad again.

Lester Adams is part of Britain's growing army of self-confessed workaholics, an entrepreneur whose dream business demands his full-time attention during every waking, and sleeping, hour. But Lester seems to have forgotten something. He's also a father and husband, and although home and family (long-suffering wife Sue and children Maddie and Ross) are a mere six miles from work, he's almost a stranger to them. Worse still, he's oblivious to how unhappy he's making them and when he starts sleeping at the office, thinks they should accept it as the norm.

But the kids are about to adopt hardcore tactics of their own. Desperate to get their dad back into their lives, they kidnap him at work, impound his laptop and drag him to the wilds of Wales where - phone and e-mail-free - Lester is forced to confront the reality of his children's needs and live by their rules.

And it doesn't stop there. Stripped of his work fix, Lester returns home to a family still sceptical about his ability to change, and realises he has to convince them that he can. After ten days' cold turkey will he finally put his family first, or revert to the lifestyle that will inexorably pull them apart?

    1. Kidnapped by the Kids Thu 10 Dec 2009

      With the longest working hours in Europe, Britain is fast becoming a nation of workaholic parents.

      • This programme has episodes with subtitles available.

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