In the Cool of the Day

July 1944: at a fascist front school in occupied Greece, Captain Weirauch, a civilian professor of classical Greek studies, gives a lecture on guilt and atonement in Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus the King.

Five years after meeting her three fathers, Sophie Sheridan prepares to open her mother’s hotel. In 1979, young Donna Sheridan meets the men who each could be Sophie’s biological father.

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.

Eirini and Stella are two old maids and sisters who have grown up in the provinces and now live in Athens, in an apartment that looks out onto an open-air cinema. They are almost forty, still virgins and dependent on each other. Their only relative is their cousin Stefanos, with whom they were both in love, but who has been away in Paris for years. When he comes back and visits them, the balance between the two women is upset.

Michael Pappas and his girlfriend, Cathy, are enjoying the white sand beaches of a Greek island as well as the freewheeling nature of the locals. When Michael meets Lina, who is in Greece from Paris doing archaeological work, he is enamored with the beautiful foreigner. Cathy, unhappy about Lina getting close to Michael, confronts the woman -- only to be unexpectedly wooed by her charms as well.

An usherette in a theatre, where a distinguished and popular actor performs, gets her big break when the leading actress has an accident. The director decides to take advantage of the heretofore unexploited talent of the girl and asks her to replace the leading actress. This unexpected opportunity transforms her from a humble usherette into a shining star. Later on, she wins the heart of the leading actor with whom she was secretly in love. However, her sudden rise to theatrical-musical stardom creates complications in their love affair, as her companion sinks into disappointment and drowns himself in drink, abandoning his career. Nevertheless, the usherette/leading actress doesn't give up; She looks for him, finds him and supports him, psychologically and morally, until he makes a comeback to the stage and their love nest.

A traveling theatre troupe tours the Greek countryside from 1939 to the early 1950s, staging “Golfo the Shepherdess”. As the years pass, its members endure persecution, betrayal, executions, and exile. Their personal stories become entangled with the country’s major historical events, in a seemingly endless cycle of violence and loss.

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon continue their travelogue series with a visit to Greece.

In 1896 it is announced that the Olympic Games will be revived in Athens. A young shepherd, Spiridon Loues, decides to enter the 26-mile marathon. Once in Athens, he meets Christina Gratsos, a young woman from his hometown who is now the personal maid of Eleni Costa, Greece's most glamorous actress. Though he has arrived after the qualification date, Spiridon's athletic prowess so impresses Coach Graham of the American team that he is permitted to enter the contest. Eleni informs the press that she will marry the victor, confident it will be her lover, Lieutenant Vinardos.

Determined to hold on to the throne, Cleopatra seduces the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. When Caesar is murdered, she redirects her attentions to his general, Marc Antony, who vows to take power—but Caesar’s successor has other plans.

A young Greek woman falls in love with a non-Greek and struggles to get her family to accept him while she comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity.

A spirited young bride-to-be living with her single mother on a small Greek island secretly invites three of her mother's ex-boyfriends in hope of finding her biological father to walk her down the aisle.