A Fine Romance (1981 TV series)

A Fine Romance

Series titles
Genre Sitcom
Romance
Created by Bob Larbey
Starring Judi Dench
Michael Williams
Susan Penhaligon
Richard Warwick
Theme music composer Jerome Kern and
Dorothy Fields
Opening theme "A Fine Romance"
Performed by Judi Dench
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of series 4
No. of episodes 26
Production
Producer(s) James Cellan Jones
Graham Evans
Don Leaver
Running time 30 minutes
Release
Original network London Weekend Television
ITV
Original release 1 November 1981 (1981-11-01) – 17 February 1984 (1984-02-17)[1]

A Fine Romance is a British situation comedy starring husband-and-wife team Judi Dench and Michael Williams. Dench's sister and brother-in-law were played by Susan Penhaligon and Richard Warwick. It was produced by London Weekend Television and written by Bob Larbey. It was first broadcast on 8 November 1981. It lasted for 26 episodes over four series; the final episode being broadcast on 17 February 1984. The series takes its name from a song in the 1936 film Swing Time, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, which Dench recorded as the theme music.

The series was nominated for nine BAFTA British Academy Television Awards and a winner of two, both for Dench's performance in 1982 and 1985.

Plot

The series involves Laura Dalton, played by Dench, a single, middle-aged translator who is somewhat socially inept. Her glamorous younger sister Helen, played by Penhaligon, who is first seen in Janet Reger lingerie,[lower-alpha 1] and her husband Phil (Richard Warwick) pair her up with Mike Selway (Williams), a shy landscape gardener. The story follows their awkward romance and insecurities. Bad luck seems to follow them everywhere, from the ferry to Calais to an attempted romantic evening watching television.

Laura constantly dwells on her beautiful sister's fairy-tale marriage while still retaining an attitude of a child, locking herself in cupboards when things do not go her way. Though immature and tending to fly off the handle, she assists Mike in organizing his struggling business, volunteering her time to type his correspondence and do the bookkeeping. Phil and Helen often regret ever bringing the two together, because they are nearly always involved in the couple's squabbles. Overall, however, Mike and Laura find they cannot live without one another, though they are not able to put it into words.

Episodes

Series One (1981)

Series Two (1982)

Series Three (1983)

Series Four (1984)

DVD releases

All four series of A Fine Romance have been released on DVD by Network.

DVD Release date
The Complete Series 1 23 January 2006
The Complete Series 2 17 April 2006
The Complete Series 3 14 August 2006
The Complete Series 4 16 October 2006
The Complete Series 1 to 4 Box Set 6 October 2008

References

Notes

  1. ↑ As a subtle "in" joke, Dench is first seen reading a paperback copy of Andrea Newman's novel A Bouquet of Barbed Wire, which was dramatised for television a few years previously with Penhaligon as the female lead. Penhaligon is glimpsed on the front cover with Frank Finlay, who played her father in Bouquet.

Citations

  1. ↑ A Fine Romance, BFI Screenonline, retrieved 28 February 2013

External links

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