Watching

Watching
Genre Sitcom
Created by Jim Hitchmough
Starring Paul Bown
Emma Wray
Liza Tarbuck
Patsy Byrne
Perry Fenwick
No. of series 7
No. of episodes 56
Production
Producer(s) Granada Television
Running time 30mins x 54
60mins x 2
Release
Original network ITV
Original release 5 July 1987 (1987-07-05) – 4 April 1993 (1993-04-04)
External links
Website

Watching is a British television sitcom, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast for seven series and four specials between 1987 and 1993.[1]

The series was written by Jim Hitchmough and starred Paul Bown and Emma Wray as mismatched couple Malcolm Stoneway and Brenda Wilson.

Plot

Watching was set in Merseyside, with Brenda from Liverpool and Malcolm from Meols on the Wirral, the "posh" part of Merseyside on the other side of the River Mersey. The title refers to Brenda and her sister Pamela's hobby of "people watching", and to Malcolm's hobby of birdwatching, which initially Brenda endures rather than enjoys, but later comes to appreciate.

Quiet biker Malcolm, who lived with his domineering mother (played by Patsy Byrne, was accompanied on his birdwatching trips by loud scouser Brenda, who was forced to ride in the sidecar of his Norton motorbike. The series followed their on/off relationship, during which Malcolm married Lucinda (played by Elizabeth Morton).

Brenda and Malcolm married each other in the final episode, "Knotting", broadcast on 4 April 1993.

Episode List

Series One

Episode Number Episode Title Original Airdate
1 "Meeting" 5 July 1987
2 "Wrestling" 12 July 1987
3 "Outing" 19 July 1987
4 "Confusing" 26 July 1987
5 "Leaving" 2 August 1987
6 "Repenting" 9 August 1987
7 "Hiding" 16 August 1987
8 Special Episode
"Seasoning" 		27 December 1987

Series Two

Episode Number Episode Title Original Airdate
9 "Falling" 19 February 1988
10 "Dancing" 26 February 1988
11 "Visiting" 4 March 1988
12 "Visiting II" 11 March 1988
13 "Missing" 18 March 1988
14 "Dining" 25 March 1988
15 "Moving" 1 April 1988
16 Special Episode
"Twitching"
60-minute episode 		24 December 1988

Series Three

Episode Number Episode Title Original Airdate
17 "Losing" 3 March 1989
18 "Deceiving" 10 March 1989
19 "Requiting" 17 March 1989
20 "Breeding" 24 March 1989
21 "Wrenching" 31 March 1989
22 "Wedding" 7 April 1989

Series Four

Episode Number Episode Title Original Airdate
23 "Joking" 1 December 1989
24 "Pairing" 8 December 1989
25 "Faultering" 15 December 1989
26 "Exploding" 22 December 1989
27 "Repairing" 5 January 1990
28 "Petting" 12 January 1990
29 "Floating" 19 January 1990
30 "Proposing" 26 January 1990
31 "Flitting" 2 February 1990

Series Five

Episode Number Episode Title Original Airdate
32 "Listing" 14 December 1990
33 "Nesting" 21 December 1990
34 "Feeding" 4 January 1991
35 "Winning" 11 January 1991
36 "Fixing" 18 January 1991
37 "Straying" 25 January 1991
38 "Homing" 1 February 1991
39 "Suiting" 8 February 1991
40 "Bonding" 15 February 1991
41 "Presenting" 22 February 1991
42 Special Episode
"Slipping"
60-minute episode 		25 December 1991

Series Six

Episode Number Episode Title Original Airdate
43 "Using" 3 January 1992
44 "Echoing" 10 January 1992
45 "Doctoring" 17 January 1992
46 "Christening" 24 January 1992
47 "Gulling" 31 January 1992
48 "Confessing" 7 February 1992
49 Special Episode
"Reverting" 		1 January 1993

Series Seven

Episode Number Episode Title Original Airdate
50 "Migrating" 21 February 1993
51 "Uncoupling" 28 February 1993
52 "Helping" 7 March 1993
53 "Engaging" 14 March 1993
54 "Wandering One" 21 March 1993
55 "Wandering Too" 28 March 1993
56 "Knotting" 4 April 1993

Cast

Note: "Cedric" and "Mary" are the names given to the characters by Brenda during her people-watching days, Cedric's "real" name is unknown, but in series one episode "Repenting" Brenda reveals that she has talked to her and that "Mary"'s real name is Freda.

Production notes

Watching was originally conceived as a comedy sketch about a shy birdwatcher and a lively girl, written by Hitchmough during a drama workshop at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. He submitted the sketch for the BBC satirical series Not the Nine O'Clock News but it was rejected. Undeterred by this, Hitchmough developed the sketch into a hit stage play and later won a commission from Granada Television to produce a seven-part series for broadcast on Sunday nights at 10:00 pm (a timeslot which was usually reserved for satirical comedy such as Yorkshire Television's The New Statesman and Central's Spitting Image). After a successful first series and subsequent Christmas special, Watching was recommissioned and moved to an earlier timeslot of 8:00 pm on Friday nights. Up until the end of the final run (broadcast at 7 pm on Sunday), the series would win audiences of over 17 million viewers.

Originally, the series was produced by David Liddiment (later to become Director of Programming at ITV) and directed by Les Chatfield, a senior director at Granada. Chatfield directed all 56 episodes and took over producing duties from series 3 onwards. Liddiment became the series' executive producer.

Emma Wray sang the theme song, "What Does He See in Me?", which was written by Charles Hart. Incidental music was written and composed by Richie Close.

Book and video releases

A novel based on the first series of Watching and written by Jim Hitchmough was published in 1990 by Bantam Books.

A video featuring the first two episodes, "Meeting" and "Wrestling", was released by CastleVision in August 1993.

DVD releases

All seven series and four specials have been released on DVD. The complete first series, including the 1987 Christmas special ("Seasoning"), was released on DVD in February 2006; also released was Watching: Series 1 -Selected Episodes, which comprised three first season episodes: "Meeting", "Outing" and "Hiding". The complete second series was released in March 2008. The complete third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh series including the 1988, 1991 and 1993 Christmas and New Year specials ("Twitching", "Slipping" and "Reverting"), especially a nine-disc set of the complete series, were released in April, May, July, October and November 2009. All releases are distributed by Network.

DVD Year(s) Release date
The Complete Series 1 1987 27 February 2006
The Complete Series 2 1988 17 March 2008
The Complete Series 3 1989 6 April 2009
The Complete Series 4 1989-
1990 		25 May 2009
The Complete Series 5 1990-
1991 		13 July 2009
The Complete Series 6 1992 5 October 2009
The Complete Series 7 1993 9 November 2009
The Complete Series 1 to 7 Box Set 1987-
1993 		9 November 2009

References

  1. ↑ Evans, Jeff (1995). The Guinness Television Encyclopedia. Guinness. p. 562. ISBN 0-85112-744-4.

External links

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