No - Honestly; it's charming
Published: Sunday 13th October 2024
"No - honestly. I know you were made for me. And nothing's gonna change the way I feel about you."
Sitcoms often have iconic theme tunes but they don't usually become chart hits. In this case it's hard to say whether the TV show helped make the song a top-ten hit; or whether the catchy theme tune helped make the TV show a success; or whether they were genuinely two distinct pieces of pop culture. Either way, from late 1974 into the early days of 1975 everyone was humming along to Lynsey De Paul's song and watching LWT's No - Honestly on a Friday evening.
It's now a little over 50 years since the first episode of this charming sitcom was broadcast, on 4th October 1974 at 8:30 pm on ITV, and produced by a man who was already well respected in the television comedy world but who was to become a powerhouse in the genre, Humphrey Barclay. He had already worked on Hark At Barker, Doctor In The House, 6 Dates With Barker, Doctor In Charge, Doctor At Large and Doctor At Sea (all for LWT) when No - Honestly came his way. Alongside him was the director David Askey, with whom he had collaborated on the various Doctor series. They would continue to do so later in their careers, raking up further credits such as Surgical Spirit and Desmond's.
No - Honestly tells the story of Charles (C.D.) Danby and Clara Burrell, depicting their meeting, courtship and wedding, up to their first wedding anniversary. Each week sees the couple breaking the fourth wall from the present day, looking back through stories of their 10-year relationship, and the various trials and tribulations of their romance and early days of marriage.
It was in fact inspired by the real-life romance of its writers, Charlotte Bingham and Terence Brady. To be more specific, The Honourable Charlotte Bingham, daughter of the playwright and biographer Madeline Bingham and the writer and secret member of MI5, the 7th Baron Clanmorris, John Bingham. Brady, who died in 2016 was not from such aristocratic stock, but a London-born Irish actor and writer. Just like their characters in No - Honestly, the pair may have seemed mismatched but were actually perfect for each other and fell very much in love.
Based on Bingham's two comic autobiographies, the second, published in 1972, was called Coronet Among The Grass and was about the first ten years of their marriage. The couple adapted that book - with elements from her first, Coronet Among The Weeds (1963) - for the series. Humphrey Barclay had known Charlotte for a while: they moved in the same circles, attending the same society parties, and he was a guest at her own coming out ball. Her books had been minor best sellers and Barclay found her chaotic style and personality very amusing, so it was little surprise that he approved when approached with the idea for the series.
However, it was not the couple's first scripting endeavour together. They had previously penned episodes of the popular period drama Upstairs Downstairs, which starred married actors John Alderton and Pauline Collins. When it came to casting No - Honestly that other real-life couple were an obvious choice, and thankfully Alderton and Collins were both keen on the project. Having these already popular names attached, along with Barclay as producer, helped the show get the green light.
John Alderton and Pauline Collins had been married since 1969 and were already household names, due in no small part to Upstairs Downstairs's phenomenal success; he played chauffeur Thomas Watkins and she was maid Sarah Moffatt. They had both also starred in the early ITV soap opera Emergency Ward 10, whilst in comedy, Collins starred in the pilot and first series of the hit BBC comedy The Liver Birds. Alderton, meanwhile, had more than proved his comedy chops as teacher Bernard Hedges in LWT's sitcom smash Please Sir! (1968-1971) and another marriage-based comedy, the BBC 1 series My Wife Next Door (1972), alongside Hannah Gordon. No - Honestly was a perfect vehicle for the husband and wife to work together again and display their natural chemistry.
The characters of Charles Danby (referred to by Clara as C.D.) and Clara Burrell are thus essentially Charlotte and Terence. C.D., like Terence, is an actor with varying periods both in and out of work, although he does talk about a long-running play he's in, referring to it as a 'life sentence', and in the episode Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?, we see him filming an episode of a TV drama. He's a proud, working-class, Yorkshire man with a dry wit and an arched eyebrow at some of Clara's confused sayings. Interestingly, given his profession, whether he can support Clara in married life never comes up. Clara's parents, Lord and Lady Burrell, take to C.D. more or less immediately, with Lady Burrell - played by actress Fanny Rowe - describing him as a 'dear, kind boy'. As the story develops Charles gains more steady professional engagements.
One of the reasons money is never discussed when it comes to how the pair will manage in married life is because she comes from such noble stock. Just like The Rt Honourable Charlotte Bingham, Clara is the daughter of a Lord. Plummy and posh, she would be at home having a coming out ball just as Charlotte did, but instead, she's a much more independent girl about town as denotes the swinging 60s. She is delightfully ditzy and freely admits she gets 'frightfully muddled all the time', with a way of confusing words, idioms and other phrases that is not wholly unlike the malapropisms for which Northern entertainer Hylda Baker was famed. In the first episode, The Facts Of Life, Clara muddles up the Cockney rhyming slang for stairs, 'apples and pears', and suit, 'whistle and flute', referring to 'whistle and pears'. She does so with such adorable charm and innocence you can see why Charles instantly falls for her. As time goes on Clara becomes a published author of children's books about Ollie the Otter.
One of the things that set this sitcom apart from others at the time was how it broke with conventions. When Humphrey Barclay was first approached, he wanted to translate Charlotte's writing style onto the screen. He explained: "I was going to throw captions on the screen, like a comic book, do abrupt changes, play stuff upside down. I had an image of making the visual presentation jokey and imaginative in a way that had never been done."
Barclay was talked out of this by the LWT Controller of Programmes, Cyril Bennett, and in hindsight, he was glad for it. Instead, the premise was disarmingly simple: the characters would open each episode in the present day, married for 10 years, seated on stools in front of a live, but unseen, studio audience and chat with them and each other. A story or anecdote would spark a memory and then the bulk of the episode was a flashback to some aspect of their early years together. At the end of the episode, the action would briefly return to the present day studio setting where they would wrap up events, with Clara usually exclaiming 'no - honestly!' as the last remark.
This simple yet incredibly effective idea caused a great deal of discussion at the start of the project as to how to get the idea across without it being too jarring. The writers wanted the audience at home to be able to see the studio audience, so we'd see C.D. and Clara sharing the jokes and stories with them, but director David Askey wasn't sure. He suggested they sit with a plain black backcloth and acknowledge the audience but we don't see them. They tried it for the first run-through and it worked so well they never changed it.
However, the breaking of the fourth wall at the start and end of each episode did cause John Alderton some confusion as he struggled to get his head around the concept at all. Was he in character in the studio or not? And if so why was he talking to the viewers? Eventually, Humphrey Barclay helped by suggesting he view the camera as another member of the audience and he began to get the idea.
Although a comic premise not really seen in British television before, a clear precedent had already been set in America by another real-life couple, George Burns and Gracie Allen. They too addressed the audience directly and enjoyed a regular sign-off with Allen encouraged by Burns to 'say goodnight, Gracie'. No - Honestly did itself make it over to the US later in 1975 (courtesy of PBS), as Upstairs Downstairs had been a hit there, gaining Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, and making Alderton and Collins familiar faces to the network's viewers.
The dialogue throughout No - Honestly is witty, whimsical and intelligent, and although Clara's character can be somewhat silly she isn't stupid. In the first episode, The Facts Of Life, at the awful party in Hampstead where the couple first meet, she makes a joke that refers to the Brecht play Mother Courage and at one point takes out of her handbag the Tolstoy book War and Peace to read.
As a real husband and wife, the stars' natural rapport helps the dialogue sparkle, and from the moment they lay eyes on each other we the audience are left in no doubt it is love at first sight. There is a splendid gag when Clara is so captivated by C.D. that as he opens the door, she forgets to take her finger off the doorbell and quite clearly doesn't even realise it's still ringing. Within minutes of meeting C.D. asks her to marry him and later on in the episode, on their first official date, he tells her that he loves her.
When Humphrey Barclay was developing the series, Cyril Bennett told him that it was not the social class satire he thought it was, but actually a love story. There is certainly a difference in C.D. and Clara's class backgrounds, but that only serves to provide many of the misunderstandings that make the comedy; it never presents any barriers to their love, so is never itself a focus. Clara has had a privileged upbringing and at times it would be easy to mistake her as a bit stupid but in reality, she's just been cosseted.
In the episode Just Cause Or Impediment Clara wants to practice some of the upcoming routines of living together. She begins by preparing dinner at C.D.'s flat. Unfortunately it quickly transpires that she has forgotten to light the stove, so the pie, jacket potatoes and peas are all raw. This marital practice, however, it is made quite clear does not involve the 'being married' bits: there's no suggestion anywhere in the series of them embarking upon a sexual relationship before marriage (or indeed of either lusting to do so), nor actually living together until after their wedding.
These social conventions are of course very of their time, and in the episode Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? C.D. is embarrassed to tell her noble family that he is an orphan so tries to hide the fact by asking two fellow actors to pretend to be his parents when Clara's mother and father want to meet them. There are more misunderstandings in the episode More Royle Than Noble Really when C.D. mistakes Clara's father for the butler and vice versa; not a situation the average ITV audience member could identify with, but handled like a traditional farce with people coming in and out of doors at precisely the right - or wrong - time.
Not everything is completely conventional with the sexes though. Clara hates shopping for clothes, and in the episode Finding The Form C.D. takes her to a fashionable boutique to find a dress. She is much happier in baggy jumpers and a checked cap, which makes her look like a boy.
Thirteen episodes were made in the first series and LWT was keen to produce more, but Alderton and Collins didn't want to commit to another run of the same length, offering to do half a series instead. The show had been a great rating success with the viewers but Cyril Bennett was not happy with the offer of just 6 episodes and issued an ultimatum: either they do them all or not at all. The couple took the latter option and so No - Honestly came to a premature end.
Bingham and Brady, however, had more stories and Bennett asked if they and Barclay could make the format work with another couple. They all thought they could, so Yes - Honestly hit screens the following year.
Here, Donal Donnelly played Matthew Browne, a struggling composer of musical theatre, and Liza Goddard was Lily Pond, a typist sent to cover when Browne's regular assistant is ill. The premise was otherwise more or less the same: each episode began with the couple chatting to the audience and looking back at how they met and fell in love, the series charting their courtship and eventual marriage. The stars knew the writers both professionally and socially. Liza described their parties as legendary and had previously worked with the couple on the 1969 BBC drama Take Three Girls, about three young women flat sharing in London.
Yes - Honestly ran for two series, totalling 26 episodes, from 1976 - 1977 and was another ratings success but never quite captured the same feeling or on-screen rapport as its predecessor, and is not quite so well remembered.
With or without its successor, No - Honestly remains an eminently enjoyable, watchable, funny comedy series. It brought a light touch to an everyday subject, yet broke some new ground for the time in how comedy was presented, and was heavily reliant on its stars' on-screen chemistry. It's absolutely charming. No - honestly, it is.
Where to start?
Episode 1 - The Facts Of Life
With only one series of 13 episodes of consistently high quality, you may as well start at the beginning. C.D. and Clara meet at a rather dull party in Hampstead and fall instantly in love with one another. On their first date, he discovers that the aristocratic Clara orders pints in the pub, she muddles up her Cockney rhyming slang and needs a biology lesson so he takes her to visit some famous statues.
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Love comedy? Find out moreNo - Honestly - The Complete Series
This gentle, romantic sitcom stars the real-life partnership of Pauline Collins and John Alderton as a couple recounting the eventful earlier years of their married life together.
Clara and Charles Danby revisit several key moments from their courtship and marriage of ten years. Clara is now a successful children's author, while Charles, affectionately known as 'CD' ('Clever Drawers'), is an established actor. But life wasn't always this comfortable for the Danbys; early days saw the couple struggling to make ends meet as their fledgling careers seemed to founder, and Clara's choice of husband caused a little unease for her aristocratic family. However, the combination of Clara's oddly compelling logic and CD's eternal optimism saw them through those unsteadier times - and would they really have wished it otherwise?
First released: Monday 25th January 2010
DVD- Distributor: Network
- Region: 2
- Discs: 2
- Minutes: 324
- Catalogue: 7953191
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Yes - Honestly - The Complete First Series
Liza Goddard and Donal Donnelly star in this sparkling sitcom which follows the blossoming romance between Matthew Browne, a struggling composer, and his secretary Lily Pond Browne. Spinning off from LWT's popular No - Honestly (starring Pauline Collins and John Alderton), Yes - Honestly was again written by husband and wife Terence Brady and best-selling author Charlotte Bingham, and aired in 1976 and 1977; this complete first series - boasting a theme song co-written and sung by rock legend Georgie Fame - is now available for the first time on DVD.
Matthew and Lily make a charming young couple, despite their differences and their occasional inability to see eye-to-eye. And although they're very much in love, they seem to encounter more than their fair share of obstacles and inconveniences, including visits from Lily's eccentric Russian family and Matt's dreaded mother, and a persistent scarcity of funds - not helped when Matthew's disapproving family decide to cut him off without a shilling...
It is released to shops on 1st July 2013 after having been a Network web-exclusive.
First released: Sunday 17th April 2011
DVD- Distributor: Network
- Region: 2
- Discs: 2
- Catalogue: 7953345
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Yes - Honestly - The Complete Second Series
Liza Goddard and Donal Donnelly star in this sparkling sitcom which follows the romance and marriage of Matthew Browne, a struggling composer, and wife Lily.
Spinning off from LWT's popular No - Honestly (starring Pauline Collins and John Alderton) and written by the same husband-and-wife team of Terence Brady and best-selling author Charlotte Bingham, Yes - Honestly first aired in 1976 and 1977; this complete second series - boasting a theme song co-written and sung by rock legend Georgie Fame - is now available for the first time on DVD.
Matthew and Lily make a charming young couple, despite their differences and their occasional inability to see eye-to-eye. But, although they're very much in love, they seem to encounter more than their fair share of obstacles and inconveniences. This series sees the couple celebrating their first anniversary, and Lily becoming a mum. And suddenly, everybody around them is an expert in the matter of bringing up babies...
First released: Sunday 6th October 2013
DVD- Distributor: Network
- Region: 2
- Discs: 2
- Catalogue: 7953724
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Charlotte Bingham - Coronet Among The Weeds
Fresh from convent school, Charlotte Bingham finds herself propelled from the private tortures of dancing class to the very public horrors of The Season. Though desperately on the hunt for a Superman to call her own, the freezing country house ballroom circuit seems to yield nothing but an inexhaustible crop of charmless, chinless young types known as Weeds.
But Charlotte's adventures are more than sufficiently diverting: whether she's bouffing up her hair to try and pass herself off as a beatnik, fighting off unwelcome advances in the back of a cab, hurtling down the Champs Elysées on the back of a Vespa, or accidentally sticking her eyelids together with eyelash glue while at modelling school, her experiments in coming-of-age are never short of intrigue - and disaster.
Published in 1963 when she was just nineteen, Bingham's sparkling memoir of her trials and travails became an international bestseller. From its pages emerges a deeply lovable and relentlessly optimistic young woman, looking for love in all the wrong places.
First published: Tuesday 1st January 1963
- Published: Thursday 7th March 2019
- Publisher: Bloomsbury
- Pages: 192
- Catalogue: 9781526608697
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- Published: Thursday 7th March 2019
- Publisher: Bloomsbury
- Download: 1.12mb
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- Publisher: William Heinemann
- Pages: 156
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Charlotte Bingham - Coronet Among The Grass
The second volume of Charlotte Bingham's precocious biography, a sequel to her best selling Coronet Among The Weeds.
This volume charts the life of the young author as she meets, falls in love with and marries the man who was to become not just her husband but also her writing partner. Together they formed one of the most enduring and famous and loved married writing partnerships in the country, creating a succession of hit television programmes and stage plays, while Charlotte Bingham went on to become one of the nation's best-loved novelists, the author of over forty books.
Coronet Among The Grass is one of the funniest and most warm-hearted books you could read about young married and professional life in the 1960s and 70s, and besides being a hit serialisation and best-selling book it was the foundation for the hit comedy series No - Honestly.
First published: Tuesday 1st February 1972
- Published: Thursday 8th May 2014
- Pages: 100
- Catalogue: 9781499328943
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- Published: Sunday 29th September 2013
- Download: 0.45mb
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- Publisher: William Heinemann
- Pages: 160
- Catalogue: 9780434071029
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