Potter (TV series)

Potter
Title card of episode one, featuring Arthur Lowe as Potter
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	20
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	BBC
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	1 March 1979 – 28 August 1983

Potter was a 1979 BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke. Running for three series, it originally starred Arthur Lowe as Redvers Potter, a busybody former sweet manufacturer ("Pottermints - the hotter mints") with time on his hands following retirement. Set in suburban South London, the series followed Potter in his various attempts to keep himself occupied by interfering in other people's business.

The series co-starred Noel Dyson as his wife Aileen, John Barron as the Vicar, Lally Bowers as Redvus' sister Harriet, Ken Wynne as Harriet's eccentric and camp husband Willie and John Warner as "Tolly" Tolliver, his next-door neighbour. Characters in later series included Harry H. Corbett as the comic ex-gangster Harry Tooms and Brenda Cowling as Jane.^[1]

The first series comprised 6 episodes, and aired in March–April, 1979. The second series comprised 7 episodes, and aired the following year, from February–April, 1980.

Plans for a third series were already underway when Lowe died (in April 1982), so Lowe was replaced by Robin Bailey in the 7-episode third series, which aired the following year between July–August 1983, after which the series was discontinued.^[2]

Mark Lewisohn notes that although many of the characters (long-suffering wife, vicar, neighbour) were sitcom clichés "they seemed less so in the skilled hands of writer Roy Clarke, who had already proved a master of naturally humorous dialogue".^[2]

References

1. Potter at the Internet Movie Database, URL accessed 3 September 2010
2. Potter at the former BBC Guide to Comedy (archive), URL accessed 3 September 2010

External links

• Potter at the Internet Movie Database
• Potter at the British Comedy Guide