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A death in the (dysfunctional) family – can they hold it together long enough to organise the funeral?

Mary’s death is bad news – for her daughter Patch, ex-partner Robin, and niece Jude.

It will mean a funeral. But Patch can barely keep track of her mother’s journey from the hospital to the mortuary, let alone host a wake in her childhood home.

Robin wants to support her, but instead of assuming the role of responsible father, he heads to his former haunt: the lay-by where he used to meet farmers for sex.

Jude’s on her way from Naples, worrying less about Patch, her estranged cousin, and more about whether there’s a medicinal bag of cocaine in the boot. She hasn’t told the family she’s en route. This way, any lingering acrimony will be forgotten, and Jude’s past behaviour will be forgiven.

Thrown together in Mary’s tiny house, each of them is trying to feel something: to grieve, atone, join in, be better. But they rarely have one another’s best interests at heart, and as the connection between them twists and contorts, they lose sight of the rules and grasp towards anything that might make it all less painful.

Darkly funny, deeply entertaining, and intensely moving, A Sense of Occasion subverts and perverts your expectations to reveal the fractious desires that simmer beneath the surface of our lives.

© Brodie Crellin 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026