Anyone remember this? Late seventies sitcom with George Cole as a writer, Francis Matthews his annoyingly successful playwright neighbour and Gwen Watford his wife. I thought it was great at the time, but as far as I know it's never been repeated.
Don't Forget To Write!
I certainly do remember this series. In fact I remember it from both sides of the screen as I am Gwen Watford's son (13 yrs old at the time it aired). As far as I know no repeats of this series have ever been aired.
Sounds rather interesting. Don't suppose you would have recordings of the show by any chance?
According to the IMDb database, the recordings do still exist in the BBC archive and also possibly at York University. It was unusual for its time, in that it ran for 50 minutes, had no audience or laughter track, and was made by the Drama Department, not Comedy.
The Financial Times TV critic apparently listed it as one of the top 10 sitcoms ever made. So of course it's never been repeated.
I'd love to see it again, just to find out whether it's as good as I remember. Both George Cole and Gwen Watford I recall as being brilliant.
I'm sure it would speak to many of the comedy writers here, about the misery of facing rejection in the neighbourhood of a far more successful colleague.
Quote: John Kelly @ August 6 2008, 6:33 PM BSTAnyone remember this? Late seventies sitcom with George Cole as a writer, Francis Matthews his annoyingly successful playwright neighbour and Gwen Watford his wife. I thought it was great at the time, but as far as I know it's never been repeated.
I have a very vague memory of this (possibly my grandad recorded some of them).
Wasn't it constantly in a crappy front room set?
Your grandad had a video recorder in the 70s?! Give that man a medal and tell him to watch out for Aaron and Alan C.
Well yes we did have one of the original Philips N1500 VCRs back in the 70s (see http://www.rewindmuseum.com/philips.htm for details) and we have the tapes on that format.
As I remember, the VCR developed a fault where it would play tapes but not rewind them. For that reason, so far we've not played the tapes back because it would be a one-time-only experience and we would want to transfer all my parents TV performances onto a digital format somehow.
I must admit I was hoping the BBC would have the recordings in a high-quality professional VT format, but it sounds from the post above that they only have N1500 tapes too. So I'll move this project up on my to-do list.
Ace! I, for one, would be extremely interested to see the show, if/when you do manage it. Good luck! 
I can't remember much about the programme, but I remember that I liked it... good call!! I'd love to see it again.
Glad to find that someone else remembers this show! I wondered for a long time whether I'd dreamt it.
It's been a while since the last post here. Does anyone know of any progress in getting it re-broadcast or even released on DVD?
Owen -- did you ever get your old tapes digitised? I'd be very interested in seeing the results, no matter how crappy.
Did this get done by anyone? I'd give my eye teeth to have copies (DVD, VHS, MPEG)of episodes.
Now out on DVD in Australia:
Golly, that seems expensive.
I raved about this series but could find noone else who watched it. It was one of the first not to have a laughter track which I think puzzled some people as they weren't used to be allowing to decide for themselves when to laugh/smile.
I live in hope that it will come out on DVD one day - after all, look how long we had to wait for Chelmsford 123! I can be patient.