Written by Jennifer Saunders and Abigail Wilson, it starred Sue Johnston, with an ensemble cast including Sally Phillips, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Rosie Cavaliero, Patrick Barlow, Joanna Lumley, Maggie Steed, Pauline McLynn, David Mitchell, Salima Saxton, and Doreen Mantle.

The show centred on a Women's Guild in a fictional small West Country town called Clatterford St. Mary.

[4] Jam & Jerusalem is set in the small West Country town of Clatterford St. Mary[4] and is based around Sal, a local practice nurse.

Other members include lollipop lady Queenie, elderly church organist Delilah Stagg, and Rosie, a cleaner who has an angry and rude alter ego called Margaret.

[6] Tash's friend Samuel "Spike" Pike, a postman, is a fellow hippie who becomes her husband in the final episode of Series Two.

[10] Saunders, who had moved to Devon in 1999, created the show out of frustration at stereotypical portrayals of Devonians on television, as well as a desire to work with Johnston.

Saunders wrote the pilot alone, but co-wrote the rest of the show with her longtime personal assistant, Abigail "Abi" Wilson.

[citation needed] The theme tune is a cover of The Kinks' "The Village Green Preservation Society" performed by Kate Rusby, whose songs are also used as incidental music, and who wrote the show's score with her longtime collaborator John McCusker.

The title phrase has traditionally been associated with the Women's Institute in England and Wales, which is popularly supposed to devote much time to the making of jam, and for whom the hymn "Jerusalem" is an unofficial anthem.

[11] Dr Michael Vine (Hywel Bennett) dies of a heart attack, and at the funeral his son Dr. James announces that his wife will be the new practice nurse, putting his mother Sal out of a job.

At the surgery, Tip devises a successful plan to get Sal her old job back, by having James' ex-headmistress Joyce Midge (Miriam Margolyes) come in for a smear.

She then decides to let Sal and the Guild organise the wedding, which then takes place by a river with a fairy theme, and Tash and Spike write their own vows to say in front of the registrar.

Sal discovers an old planning application to convert the barn in the field behind her house and, despite the fact that it is officially too late to object, she enlists the help of the Guild in an effort to stop the development.