Carla Lane and Myra Taylor's 'The Liver Birds' concerned the exploits of flat-sharing Liverpudllian girls - prim and proper Sandra Hutchinson ( Nerys Hughes ) and shrill extrovert Beryl Hennessey ( Polly James ). It grew out of a 'Comedy Playhouse' episode broadcast on 14/4/69, alongside James initially was Pauline Collins as 'Dawn'. Rare in those days for a sitcom to focus so strongly on young people, and rarer still for them to be girls. B.B.C.-1 Head of Comedy Michael Mills suggested the title, probably picturing the show as a female 'Likely Lads'. With Lane and Taylor's lack of television experience a concern, he appointed Eric Idle as script editor, but the future 'Monty Python' star soon left, sensing he was not really needed.
The first season had to be abandoned after only four shows, due to James' theatre commitments. It returned - in colour - in 1971, and without Collins ( who had moved onto I.T.V.'s hit costume drama 'Upstairs, Downstairs' ). Replacing her was Welsh actress Hughes, one of the hottest women on television at that time. She gelled with James, and - with its catchy theme by 'The Scaffold' - the 'Liver Birds' took flight. Each week, as well as problems with men and money, they would try their hands at something new, such as working in stables, beauty contests or protest marches, only for things to go horribly wrong. Mollie Sugden was hilarious as Sandra's snobbish mother, while Sheila Fay ( wife of Ken Jones from 'Porridge' ) was funny as Beryl's more down-to-earth parent. Due to the conventions of the time, the girls were not allowed to discuss intimate female subjects; instead of saying "I had great sex last night!", one would say "He didn't go home until half-past ten!", making the show suitable family viewing. When Taylor left to return to her family, other writers, such as Lew Schwarz and David Pursall and Jack Seddon, were brought in, but did not have the feel for the characters. Lane eventually took over the writing duties.
After Season 4, James departed, and was replaced by Elisabeth Estensen as kooky, curly-headed 'Carol Boswell'. This was, for me, the show's best period. Carol's brother, Lucien ( Michael Angelis ), was a hippie-type always blathering on about rabbits, and acquired a following of his own ( there was later an attempt to give him his own show ). It carried on much as before, but in 1977 critics ( such as Brian Lawrence of 'The News Of The World' ) began grumbling that the girls were looking a little long in the tooth to be playing young women. Two years later, Sandra married vet Derek Paynton ( Tom Chadbon ) and, after discovering she was pregnant, it finally came to an end, notching up a total of nine seasons ( almost spanning the whole of the '70's ). Surprisingly, it did not make the jump to the big screen like so many other shows of that era.
With a number of sitcom revivals taking place in the '90's - 'Agony Again', 'Doctor At The Top', and 'The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin' - the B.B.C. commissioned Lane to write a tenth series of 'Birds' in '96. It was an unqualified disaster - Sandra and Beryl had changed from a pair of chirpy young girls into two frumpy, middle-aged women ( the first episode ended with Beryl crying uncontrollably, mourning her lost youth ). Worse, Sugden looked unrecognisable due to medication she was taking. Lucien, Carol's brother, was now Beryl's brother, thereby contradicting the earlier series. Lane's heart simply was not in it. The melancholic humour of 'The Last Song' and 'The Mistress' was all wrong for this show.
'The Liver Birds' was not, in my view, a great sitcom but it was hugely successful, and its influence on later shows ( particularly 'Birds Of A Feather' ) cannot be ignored. Carol's surname 'Boswell' was later given to the family in Lane's next smash-hit 'Bread'.
The first season had to be abandoned after only four shows, due to James' theatre commitments. It returned - in colour - in 1971, and without Collins ( who had moved onto I.T.V.'s hit costume drama 'Upstairs, Downstairs' ). Replacing her was Welsh actress Hughes, one of the hottest women on television at that time. She gelled with James, and - with its catchy theme by 'The Scaffold' - the 'Liver Birds' took flight. Each week, as well as problems with men and money, they would try their hands at something new, such as working in stables, beauty contests or protest marches, only for things to go horribly wrong. Mollie Sugden was hilarious as Sandra's snobbish mother, while Sheila Fay ( wife of Ken Jones from 'Porridge' ) was funny as Beryl's more down-to-earth parent. Due to the conventions of the time, the girls were not allowed to discuss intimate female subjects; instead of saying "I had great sex last night!", one would say "He didn't go home until half-past ten!", making the show suitable family viewing. When Taylor left to return to her family, other writers, such as Lew Schwarz and David Pursall and Jack Seddon, were brought in, but did not have the feel for the characters. Lane eventually took over the writing duties.
After Season 4, James departed, and was replaced by Elisabeth Estensen as kooky, curly-headed 'Carol Boswell'. This was, for me, the show's best period. Carol's brother, Lucien ( Michael Angelis ), was a hippie-type always blathering on about rabbits, and acquired a following of his own ( there was later an attempt to give him his own show ). It carried on much as before, but in 1977 critics ( such as Brian Lawrence of 'The News Of The World' ) began grumbling that the girls were looking a little long in the tooth to be playing young women. Two years later, Sandra married vet Derek Paynton ( Tom Chadbon ) and, after discovering she was pregnant, it finally came to an end, notching up a total of nine seasons ( almost spanning the whole of the '70's ). Surprisingly, it did not make the jump to the big screen like so many other shows of that era.
With a number of sitcom revivals taking place in the '90's - 'Agony Again', 'Doctor At The Top', and 'The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin' - the B.B.C. commissioned Lane to write a tenth series of 'Birds' in '96. It was an unqualified disaster - Sandra and Beryl had changed from a pair of chirpy young girls into two frumpy, middle-aged women ( the first episode ended with Beryl crying uncontrollably, mourning her lost youth ). Worse, Sugden looked unrecognisable due to medication she was taking. Lucien, Carol's brother, was now Beryl's brother, thereby contradicting the earlier series. Lane's heart simply was not in it. The melancholic humour of 'The Last Song' and 'The Mistress' was all wrong for this show.
'The Liver Birds' was not, in my view, a great sitcom but it was hugely successful, and its influence on later shows ( particularly 'Birds Of A Feather' ) cannot be ignored. Carol's surname 'Boswell' was later given to the family in Lane's next smash-hit 'Bread'.